Dear Chapter Presidents and UFP Membership,

2008 brings us to the 20^th anniversary of the UFP. ADM. Pete Lutz came up with the conception of a Star Trek fan club where all of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek visions could be explored in December of 1988. Up to that time, all Star Trek fan clubs utilized the Star Fleet vision only. The UFP included the alien fleets, the civilian aspects (Harry Mud) and the United Federation of Planets government. For its time, it was a radical idea and one well over due. We will be honoring Pete Lutz and many of the early members who shared his vision.

We are again working with the staff of SoonerCon for the 2008 convention, a local literary convention, so that we can provide another great UFP Conference for all UFP members interested in attending on various UFP chapter related panels and local non-UFP members so that we can present the UFP to them in a public setting.  Please visit the official SoonerCon web page at http://www.soonercon.com/ for more information on the convention. Both events held together will provide everyone a very full and fun weekend.  We are asking you to please pre-register for the UFP Conference at mikeferg1@yahoo.com and with SoonerCon's web page to pre-register for the convention. The UFP Activities room will be in the convention area. UFP Registration will be in this room along with UFP Medical operations to provide basic first aid for minor injuries. VADM. Laura Ferguson, a real LPN (aka nurse), will be providing this service. There will be a $3.00 charge for UFP members to obtain their 2007 UFP Conference badges which are in color and laminated.

There are a lot of changes going on in the UFP since you chartered your chapter and joined the UFP. These changes are being put in place due to recent evaluations on the UFP operating procedures as a result of a chapter president's observations.

The first change is in the area of communications. I realize that there have been none from the UFP to you for some time now and that is going to change.

Every month chapter presidents with no internet capabilities will receive a UFP Monthly Memo (it will be posted on the webpage for chapter presidents and other UFP members with internet capabilities) to keep you up to date on what is going on in the UFP, new correspondence schools opening both on and off the internet and UFP activities available for your chapter and all UFP members to participate in with other chapters and UFP members.

The next change is in-line with open communications. Monthly Chapter Status Reports will be mandatory by the 15th of each month for the prior month's chapter activities; however, we will be turning to you for suggestions and ideas on how to improve the UFP. How we can make your fan club more tailored to your needs and desires. By establishing a good two-way communications cycle we can help each other in making the UFP a better fan club for everyone.

The next issue we are addressing is the UFP Correspondence Schools System. We will be setting up schools in all areas already established and creating new schools to take on and off of the internet. This includes a newly designed UFP Correspondence Schools Application form.

In the interest of improving the communications cycle in the UFP we are working on a chat room. This will allow all UFP members a place to share ideas, thoughts, suggestions and general conversation.

We are also looking into an on-line gaming room where all UFP members can join in regardless of fan interests and combine all interests into one single game. The Game Master can be selected by the gamers. This will also appear in our chat room area.

We have considered the UFP members with no home internet access and we suggest that they go to their local libraries where internet access is free. There are, of course, other options where a small fee is charged at Internet Stores that are popping up around the world.

One goal we are really working on is a way to make the UFP fan sectors more active so that every UFP member and chapter can have the opportunity to become active in the UFP. This will require more active participation on everyone's part in a role-playing scenario between the Sector Heads and the Chapter Presidents and individual members. The imagination is a wonderful thing, it can allow us to go places and achieve goals we can never do in "real life". Our goal is to activate the imagination of all UFP members.

One area of the UFP I would like to address here is the UFP Awards Program. While this program is one of the UFP's oldest programs it is the least used of all the programs. It was established to reward UFP members and chapters for outstanding accomplishments. Yet, it is hardly ever used. While we have covered a lot of the awards we feel most UFP members are able to earn, we are creating one more for UFP chapters and individual members for their work in various community service projects. We feel that anyone who performs a community service should be rewarded for their work, dedication and time. Rules governing this award will be posted in the awards section of the webpage as soon as it is in place. Look for other changes in the Awards Section, as well.

Any ideas or suggestions are not only very welcome but needed and desired as we begin to rebuild a much more improved UFP for you and us. Please feel free to send them to mikeferg1@yahoo.com

Thank you for your time and I look forward to working with each of you as we move the UFP into the future together.