CHAPTER ACTIVITY REPORTS

COMMANDING OFFICERS

AN EARLY HISTORY OF THE USS REPUBLIC NCC-1371
The Atlanta area's first STARFLEET chapter was chartered in December 1987 as the Shuttle Nautilus NCC-544/6, launched from the USS Perseus NCC-544 of Columbus, Georgia.  Under her first commanding officer, Christopher Ernst, Nautilus grew to a remarkable crew of 123 at the time of commissioning as the USS Republic NCC-1371 at Dixie-Trek in May 1988.
        Within the Star Trek canon, the Republic has had a stellar career.  According to events chronicled in the episode "Court Martial" in the in original Star Trek series (and confirmed in Bjo Trimble's authoritative Star Trek Concordance and Michael Okuda's Star Trek Chronology), a young ensign named James T. Kirk once served aboard her.  It was established in Margaret Bonnano's novel Strangers from the Sky that Ensign Kirk's position on the Republic was navigator.  According to the Starfleet Officer's Manual, the Republic was one of Starfleet's original ships, constructed even before the fabled NCC-1701 Enterprise.  To have our local ship named after the original Republic is an honor.
        The USS Republic formerly served as the mothership for two shuttles, the Perth NCC-1371/2, stationed on Atlanta's east side, and the Alacrity NCC-1371/1, which was commissioned in February 1993 at the Vulkon convention.  The Republic also coordinated the activities of STARFLEET Atlanta, an association of STARFLEET organizations located within the metropolitan Atlanta area.  This organization also included Outpost RandEcliptic, a Deep Space Nine-style "station" launched in Marietta in February of 1993.
        STARFLEET Atlanta joint activities included recruiting at Dixie-Trek, Atlanta Fantasy Fair and at Dragon*Con, as well as the premiere screening of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country at the Fabulous Fox Theater in Atlanta.  There were joint "away missions" to Egleston Children's Hospital and the Muscular Dystrophy Association Summer Camp.
        During the 1992 Christmas season, members of the crew of the Republic worked as hosts at the Festival of Trees, an annual fundraiser for Egleston Children's Hospital.  In 1993, the crew of the Republic assisted at the Sci-Trek Museum's phenomenally popular Star Trek exhibition, "Federation Science."
        The Republic's original logo combined the familiar Starfleet badge insignia silhouetted against an abstract depiction of a diamond-brilliant flash of sunlight at the edge of a planet as it turns to face a new day.  This is reminiscent of a final scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as the new sun peeks over the horizon of the newly formed Genesis planet as seen from the USS Enterprise.  (A picture is worth a thousand words of explanation.)  The logo captures the hope and optimism of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe.  It was designed by former Chief of Communications Paul Timm.

THEY BOLDLY WENT BEFORE
        The command and crew of the USS Republic gratefully acknowledge the service of all those members of STARFLEET International who previously served aboard our chapter.