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All posts for the month May, 2021

I was recently asked which Star Trek series was my favorite. My response? “Yes.” I mean, how can you choose just one Star Trek series? Each one has its own unique flavor, its positives and negatives, and not all series will appeal to every person. If I were to pick just one Star Trek series (which is really, really hard to do), I suppose that I’d have to go with the original.

TOS holds a special place in my heart. Not only was it the beginning of one of the most prolific sci-fi series in existence, but it reminds me of my childhood. You see, when I was little, I used to watch Star Trek reruns with my dad. It was a special time we spent together, just the two of us. (Later I found out my mom is a sci-fi nerd, too.)

Looking back at Star Trek (no bloody A, B, C or D), you might think it’s really cheesy or outdated, with outdated attitudes. To that I say you need to look at when it was created. When Star Trek first premiered in 1966, the most popular television shows were westerns. Star Trek was presented to the networks as “Wagon Train among the stars”, where the wagon train (the starship Enterprise) would travel and have adventures during the journey.

While today we may cringe at the obviously misogynistic attitudes depicted in the show, we also need to realize that this is the way television was in the 1960’s. Heck, this is the way most attitudes were in the 1960’s. Star Trek did a lot to help change those attitudes, as well as inspire people.

If you look at it, the original USS Enterprise had a diverse bridge crew. Not counting Spock, the completely alien first officer, there was Sulu, the Asian pilot and Checkov, the Russian navigator (which at the height of the Cold War was definitely unheard of). There was also Uhura, a black woman with responsibility (also completely unheard of at this time of civil rights activism).

Speaking of Uhura, there is a wonderful story about Nichelle Nichols’s experience on Star Trek. She had submitted a resignation letter to creator Gene Roddenberry, wanting more for her acting career. That weekend, Nichelle had gone to an event where she met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He let her know that her character of Lt. Uhura was a role model, and that he was a fan of hers. When Ms. Nichols went to work again that Monday, she approached Gene and took back her resignation. Roddenberry was relieved. (You can see an article about the experience here.) Heck, the character of Uhura even inspired one Whoopi Goldberg to become an actress! (See an article on Whoopi being a Star Trek fan here.)

Star Trek was hopeful at a time when there was a lot of uncertainty about the future. It showed us an Earth that was united regardless of race, position, or creed. It showed humans getting along with other races (Vulcans, Andorians, etc.) and trying to get along with other races. It showed that we could find humor in even some of the most dire of circumstances, and that sometimes we just need to laugh (“The Trouble with Tribbles” comes to mind here).

It may have lasted only three seasons, but Star Trek has become ingrained in pop culture. It has inspired all sorts of people to do amazing things, and has spawned several movies and television series. For these reasons, plus the personal memories I have of enjoying a lazy Sunday watching Star Trek with my family, the original Star Trek series will always have a special place in my heart.

Live Long and Prosper,
Captain Jill Bogler

GAME NIGHT REPORT

Yesterday was our monthly Kelly Activity. We try to alternate between free/cheap activities and those that are more expensive. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to do a more casual event this month, the Game Night. We also made sure that our Zoom meeting was available for those who wanted to attend virtually, though we did start later than we wanted. Kudos to those who chose to attend this way if they weren’t comfortable attending in person yet. We will discuss whether or not to continue our virtual meetings.

This was the first time we did Show & Tell at a meeting. It was interesting to see some of the things that our crewmembers were excited about. We saw Star Trek branded merchandise and games, a pet gecko, a truncheon that has been passed down in the family, and more. I look forward to seeing more “show & tell” items in the future.

Once announcements were completed, we started playing various games. Some worked out, some didn’t. I was introduced to one called “Blink” that I totally loved. (I’m told it can be found almost anywhere.) We also played Set and tried to play Red Dragon Inn (I forgot the coins for the game! grrr).

I personally want to thank our Executive Officer Dawn Woods for hosting the event. The location was perfect, and I had so much fun learning a new game!
Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos. If anyone remembered to take any, please let your Senior Officer or a member of the Command Staff know!

UPCOMING EVENTS

June:
Our next activity is a simulator mission at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center in Pleasant Grove. This will be a joint activity with the USS Pulsar, located in Utah County. The available dates are June 15-30th, and we are shooting for a Saturday. There cost for this is usually somewhere between $10 and $20 per person. If you are interested, please let us know IMMEDIATELY so we can get it booked properly and confirm our date and mission.
If you have not yet commanded a simulator mission, and need to do so for your Command rank requirement, this is the perfect opportunity to do so. If you are interested, let us know so we can plan accordingly.

July:
The Kelly Kampout will be July 9-10 at the Mustang Flats campground. The campground has trees that “are the perfect distance for hanging hammocks”, and there are also hotels nearby if you prefer to do a day camp sort of thing.

August:
Fleet Day, the annual Seventh Fleet summertime gathering, will be held on August 7, 2021. This year the USS Ticonderoga is hosting. They are planning a lot of events, so let’s show them our ship spirit! In addition to the normal “Fleet Day” stuff, there are some other things you will need to know…

  • To show a unified ship, our “uniform of the day” will be club t-shirts. We will be making new shirts before the event (details later).
  • The event will be held at a park in Clearfield. The fountains will most likely be turned off, so it is a good idea to plan on bringing water.
  • Our hosts plan on having a Fleet-wide kickball tournament, among other activities. We will want to practice some of those.
  • We are going to challenge Fleet Members to see who can give the most hugs that day, in accordance to our theme of “Elephants Give Great Hugs”. We plan to give a prize to the winner.

September:
Our September activity will be the USS Kelly’s 35th Anniversary party. I am currently taking suggestions on where to host this.

NEW SHIP T-SHIRTS/CONTEST

As mentioned above, we want to have brand new ship t-shirts we can wear at the Fleet Day. I want ideas from YOU. Submit your ideas through your Senior Officer or reach out to a member of the Command Staff to submit your design. Things to remember are…

  • Our animal spirit guide is the elephant.
  • Our ship’s colors are purple and silver
  • The theme should be “Elephants give great hugs”
  • All design submissions have to be sent in no later than July 1, 2021.
  • We will vote for our favorite design. The winning design will be made into the shirt.
  • You are responsible for purchasing your own shirt. (Prices will depend on cost runs, quantity ordered, etc. Costs will be presented when we know what they are.)

NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS NEEDED

We are bringing back the Kelly Communique, the ship’s newsletter. The newsletter will be a combination of articles submitted by ship members and upcoming announcements. The plan is to have the PDF version available for free via the Website.
Since it’s been a long time since we’ve had an actual newsletter, we’re going to call this “Volume 2” and start with issue #1. Like the t-shirt designs, articles need to be submitted to your Senior Officer or to a member of the Command Staff.

Anything can be submitted to the Communique – articles, art, original stories (or someone else’s stories if you have the author’s permission). Heck, for the digital version we can even create links to videos or music! Just keep it family friendly.

Note: We already have a submission from Admiral Stark, and our own Admiral Hollinger has already promised an article about a ship.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I remember when the USS Kelly was known for always kicking butt at trivia, showing up in force to conventions, and simply being out there and having fun. I want us to be that way again. A lot of things have changed a in the past thirty-five years, especially the way we communicate… but some things are still the same.

You see, the USS Kelly isn’t just a Star Trek club. It’s a group of friends supporting each other and doing things together. I firmly believe that we are put on this Earth to help each other, to get to know each other and to help each other in both good times and bad. To celebrate each other’s successes and to hold each other up when things aren’t going well.

I want to learn more about you, to share in the things that you find fun (even though they may scare me), and I want you to learn more about me and what is important to me. I want to support you in your tough times, just like I’ve received support from you in the past. I want to make new friends and share my love of Star Trek (and Doctor Who, and Wandavision, and writing, and…). Star Trek may be the excuse we use to get together, but in reality the purpose of the USS Kelly is to get together, to make friends, to share interests, and to connect with the world.

We have a lot to do to build this club up once more, but I have faith in you, my fellow crewmembers. Together we can do this!

We all know there is a lot of Star Trek merchandise out there – some of it better than others (by a long shot), so every now and then I want to showcase a new Star Trek themed item or two.

Real TNG Combadge:

The Star Trek: The Next Generation bluetooth Communicator Badge by FameTek is basically a functioning communicator badge as seen in TNG. It’s pretty much a bluetooth speaker that connects to your phone. Click on the link to see more. I received one for my last birthday, so I’ll be bringing that to our next Kelly activity for my Show and Tell.

Star Trek Cosplay

There are many places you can get cosplay. One of the most surprising that I’ve come across recently is actually JCPenny’s online store. Check out this link to their Star Trek selection.

Do you need a new uniform and don’t have the time to make one? Then check out Fanrek’s Star Trek collection here. Our sister ship in Idaho, the USS Valkyrie, purchased their Picard-style uniforms here, which they used in photos they submitted for our last Seventh Fleet‘s official 2021 calendar. They look spiffy.
Note: if you don’t have a uniform, please work on getting one, as we will want to show off our Star Trek geekiness to the world. Your Department Chief is there to help with this (among other things). If you don’t have a Department Chief (or know who it is), contact the XO.

Official Star Trek store

And, of course, there is the official Star Trek store, which will have all your Star Trek merchandise needs. It’s amazing what you can find there.

Today we held our monthly Senior Officer’s Meeting, or SOM. Because of our current small crew roster, we’re including all members in the planning stages for our upcoming activities. Those attending today’s Kelly Planning Meeting were:

Captain Jill Bogler
Lt. Cmdr. Dawn Woods (XO)
Lt. Scott Hollinger (Chief Tactical Officer)
Lt. Melissa Andrew (First Contact officer)
Crewman John Saffell
Adm. Dennis Hollinger
Lt. Cmdr. Kacie Stevens (USS White Buffalo)

For now, our Tactical department is the only functioning department we have. If you are in Tactical or Security, you will report to Lt. Hollinger and work on your rank advancements with him. If you are in another department, you will generally work with Lt. Cmdr. Woods. Eventually we will build back up to having fully functional departments with their own departmental meetings. Until then, we have a lot of work ahead of us. So… how do we do this?

Step One: Build Excitement
How do we build excitement? By making sure we have fun activities and keeping people informed. If we are having fun and show it, then excitement will build naturally. As part of this effort, I have made it my goal to keep the USS Kelly Website current and actively post on it.
We talked about our Facebook page, and the possibility of using other social media as well. I am going to postpone using other social media until we are in the habit of keeping our Facebook page and Website updated.
Additionally, please check out the Activities Calendar of this Website. It is a Google Calendar, which is easily able to transfer activities to your personal Google Calendar.

We planned our upcoming activities for the next few months. We are excited to be able to meet in person again now that a lot of the restrictions have been lifted…

  • Game Night, May 15, 2021, 4-7 pm – Bring a board and/or card game to play, a snack to share, and your own dinner to eat (a grill will be available). This will be held at Commander Wood’s home (see calendar and/or Facebook event for details). Note: There will be a Zoom Meeting in tandem with this event for those who are not comfortable meeting in person yet.
  • Simulator Mission, June 2021 – the Alpine School District in Utah County has opened up their space simulator again. These events are useful for those going for Command ranks and are a ton of fun. This will be in June – details TBD.
  • Kelly Kampout, July 9-10, 2021 – We are reviving the famous Kelly Kampout! Details TBD, but will most likely be held in the Ogden area. We are inviting other ships to join us.
  • Fleet Day, Aug 7, 2021 – Hosted by the USS Ticonderoga, this will be the annual Fleet Games in a park. Details TBD. Watch for updates on the Fleet Facebook page or the Ticonderoga’s Website.
  • USS Kelly 35th Anniversary, Sept 25, 2021 – Details TBA. Be on the lookout for updates.

Other dates of note:

  • June 3, Woman in Motion – this Nichelle Nichols documentary will stream on Paramount Plus June 3, 2021.
  • June 4-7, KAG Virtual Convention – the Klingon Assault Group virtual convention.
  • Aug 12, Lower Decks – Lower Decks season two will stream on Paramount Plus starting Aug 12, 2021.
  • Sept 16-19, FanX Convention – the annual FanX convention in Salt Lake City. No Star Trek people have been announced… yet.

We are also introducing something new to the Kelly: Show and Tell. This is pretty much what it sounds like.
Do you remember being in elementary school and showing something off to your classmates that you were really excited about? Well, we’re doing the same thing for the first few minutes of every activity. This could be something as simple as the new toy you found at the thrift store, proof of winning a game at a convention that you were excited about, or even your new camera drone. It doesn’t matter if it is Star Trek or even sci-fi at all, just as long as you are excited to share it with your fellow crewmembers. Just remember to keep it family friendly.

Step Two: Promotion/Advertisement
The Seventh Fleet wants all of the ships in the Fleet to have a promotional banner. Unlike the flag of the past, this is going to be printed. Some of the design elements are static – so as to be uniform with the other ships – but the rest is completely up to us.
Admiral Hollinger has been working with former Captain Nada and the senior officers to come up with a design. This is still in the works. We already have the base for the banner – we just need to finish the design so we can get it printed out.

Other things that were discussed for promotion is getting new club t-shirts, and uniforms. I, like a lot of us, have outgrown the uniforms I currently have. Getting a new one will take money and, honestly, that’s one thing I’ve placed on the back burner for me now. (This pesky thing called “real life” keeps wanting to interfere.)

Well, that’s about it for now.

Live Long and Prosper,
Captain Jill Bogler-Patterson

I’ve heard it said that if you are a fan of Star Trek then you cannot be a fan of Star Wars. My question to that is … why? I personally am a fan of both genres. Besides, if you think about it the Vulcan concept of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) allows for all sorts of fandoms.

So today, May 4, 2021, the U.S.S. Kelly wants to wish one of the greatest fandoms in existence a happy birthday. Celebrate however you will.

Personally, I’m going to watch the original Star Wars movie.

P.S. If you want to try something fun, try asking your Amazon Alexa which of the two is better.