Many of us first took the plunge back in 2002 in Maryland when we braved the cold waters of the Chesapeake. After a few years some of us decided to stay a bit more local and risk pneumonia in the Garden State. For the last five years Patrick Barnes has added to the fun of  entering ice cold water by making costumes which have led to various themes including Trek Rock, League of Silly Super heroes, Escapees from a Nut House and The Three Muscatrekkers. This year we are going Borg as in Ice Borgs.

We need $100 to register ourselves as a team and for that we need a bit of seed money. I know its asking a lot just following the holiday spending season and with many of us hit with less then stellar financial situations but the Starfleet Polar Bear Plunge team of R7 needs your support with some donations.

If you can spare $25, $15, or even $10 or $5 to support our effort it would be greatly appreciated. This year USS Challenger Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Singleton, Grand Costumer Patrick Barnes and USS Storm XO Larry Neigut and I are set to take the plunge but we need to assimilate some help.  While each of us are seeking our own venues for donations including, family, friends and co-workers we need to get some quick cash to help us get registered.

Donation checks can be made out to New Jersey Polar Bear Plunge- Special Olympics and sent to 202 8th Avenue Ortley Beach NJ 08751 -1401

If you want to join the Plunge Team be it as a spectator, holding our towels or taking pictures or even to join us in the plunge…contact me at 732-830-3262 or send me an e-mail at co@usschallenger.org

This year’s Polar Bear Plunge in NJ is coming up on Feb. 26 in Seaside Heights. More polar posts to come.

 Thank you,

Adm. Bob Vosseller
CO, USS Challenger

Hey all! now that you’re (mostly) dug out of your driveways, we’ve got our annual re-org meeting this Saturday, Jan. 15th! it’s at Bob’s Bungalow in Ortley Beach (now with brand-new bathroom facilities!), at 11:30 am, and run pretty much into early evening (we’ll be breaking for lunch, so please bring your own lunch & beverages!) and we’ll head out for dinner post-meeting.

See you there!

On the matter of whether the newly revised Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws should be adopted by STARFEET, the final tally was:

Yes 891 votes (73.4%)

No 291 votes (24.0%)

Abstain 31 votes (2.5%)

Unreadable 1 vote (.08%)

In total, 1,214 ballots were received and certified by our CPA firm, Turk & Giles in Joplin, Missouri. Of those received, 9 had votes for the Bylaws but no vote for either candidate; 31 had a candidate vote but no vote on the Bylaws. The remaining one ballot listed as “unreadable” was an unfortunate mishap during delivery. Each ballot was stamped with a control code to verify that each member voted only once (you might have noticed it on your own ballot). One ballot arrived at the CPA office with the postcard partially torn. The missing area included the control code.

With no readable control code, this card was reluctantly declared invalid by the Inspector General.

And now, by the authority given to me as Election Coordinator by the current STARFLEET Constitution, I declare this election to be officially completed and instruct the current Commander, STARFLEET and his EC team to begin making arrangements to transfer all materials connected with their offices to the new Commander, Dave Blaser, and his team.

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank MY team in coordinating this election. Wade Hoover put in countless hours and kept things on-time and professional during this entire process. Dennis Rayburn as Election List Lead Moderator was far from the catastrophe that many predicted, and did an outstanding job managing the chat list.

Neither I nor any member of the AB or EC received even a single complaint about Dennis’ performance. And finally, I’d like to thank the Election Packet Assembly Team in Kansas and the Mailing Team in Texas for getting thousands of packets assembled and mailed out to members on September 1.

As a final note, the 2010 Election Chat List, as has been done in the past, will be kept open for one additional week for supporters and candidates to wrap up any unfinished business. On Saturday, November 27, the Election List will be shut down (as the campaign is now over), and any further discussions can move over to the various STARFLEET-related lists.

I congratulate both candidates and their teams for running a refreshingly positive and civil campaign. Anyone who was around back in 2007 will hopefully agree that things went MUCH smoother this year…and that deserves a huge “thank you” from me and the Election Team.

So please join me in welcoming the first-ever non-U.S. resident to hold the position of Commander, STARFLEET: Dave Blaser. Whether you voted for Dave’s team or Emmett’s, the campaign is now over, and I hope everyone will agree that it’s time for us to all come together in friendship and cooperation….and of course, in our shared love of Star Trek.

Rear Admiral Jon Lane
Chief of Communications and 2010 Election Coordinator
comms@sfi.org