I’ve talked to a few people about the essays on this site and I realized that more than anything else, it’s about choices. Some people agree with what I have to say, and that’s cool. Some people disagree, and that’s cool, too. Both options are completely valid. But whether you agree or disagree, here’s what matters:

It’s about the choices we make.

My point-of-view is that Star Trek is awesome. I’ve been a fan ever since I was a little kid, and I’ve remained a fan. Getting to work on Star Trek is a dream come true; While it’s nowhere near as profitable as other creative work I’ve done, it’s very important to me.

I think that STARFLEET has a responsibility to be awesome. I think it has to be great, because Star Trek is great. Television and movies are unidirectional media — It gets made and you get to watch it. It’s a passive thing. STARFLEET should be the next step, where individuals engage with each other and continue the conversation. It should where they learn from each other and build new things together. It should be where people from different backgrounds get together and explore. STARFLEET should be the interactive component that comes after Star Trek.

I don’t think STARFLEET has ever met the responsibility to be awesome. It’s helped to create a lot of long-standing friendships and inspire some really great parties and get-togethers and charity fundraising, but the same can be said of a lot of non-profits. STARFLEET should be different.

I want a STARFLEET that’s bold. I want a STARFLEET that inspires and rewards exploration. I want a STARFLEET that challenges people to think about the big stuff this planet has to offer and take action. I’m tired of seeing charity events used as a fig leaf to hide why people wear uniforms and enjoy time with their friends.

I want those uniforms to mean something.

And more than anything else, I want STARFLEET to never be good enough. I’m tired of the same stupid arguments over and over again about how to serve the members through newsletters and membership cards. Newsletters and membership cards? That’s what we argue about when we’re Star Trek fans? Ugh. Enough. Think big. Build big. Go deep.

We are Star Trek fans. We’re not weak. We’re the smart kids, and we deserve a hell of a lot better.

As mentioned in an earlier post, it seems to me that a lot of long-time members of STARFLEET look back to the days when the organization was a lot bigger, and a lot more relevant to Star Trek fans. The glory days, you know? Screw all of that. All of it. Forever. This is now, and we’re having a really hard time getting people to think about right now, and we’re supposed to be focused on the future. That show we love is about the future. We’re supposed to be all about what comes next.

Anyone can argue about regions and chapters and the membership and newsletters and finances and whatever other ordinary everyday noise that comes up. It’s easy. Everyone can create an opinion on that stuff. It’s so easy.

I’m tired of a STARFLEET that thinks that way. I’m tired of a STARFLEET that yells at the top of its lungs about how old it is or how many people are in it as opposed to the cool stuff we’re doing every day. We’re not yelling about the cool stuff we’re doing every day because we’re not doing it. We’re not enabling it. We’re not supporting it. We’re not helping to make it happen. Sometimes it happens independently and we’re lucky enough to write about it in the newsletter, but that’s simply not good enough.

STARFLEET isn’t good enough for Star Trek fans, and there’s a lot of evidence for that. The fans are expressing their fandom elsewhere and in different ways, and there’s no easy way to solve that problem. Changing the membership cost isn’t going to solve that problem. Rearranging the organization isn’t going to solve that problem. Finding new ways to present a static document isn’t going to solve that problem.

All of this stuff is an attempt to attract more people to the table by reshuffling the same deck of cards in a world where people aren’t interested in playing Cribbage anymore. It’s time to stop shuffling and learn some new games. We should have stopped shuffling fifteen years ago.

STARFLEET should be better than it is. It should be even better than it was. The difference is in the choices we make.