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SNN Freelance Articles
[Introduction]------[Genesun Han]------[Franco Torres]------[Mike Cathcart]
[Mike Ballway]------[Mike Bourdaa]------[Jeff Field]------[Mark Wilson]------[Related Pages]
The SNN Freelancers
Entire generations of STFers, especially those on the WeBB, have served in an era when the Starfleet News Network has been dominated by the two Zygweebil Mufasa Productions publications, SNN UPDATE -- a somewhat-serious newsletter for STF*Prodigy -- and WeBBsights, the unofficial newspaper of the STF WeBB. Many know nothing of Executive Editor Mike Ballway's early work, even less of the Saturday-Night-Live-esque works of Larimda ME and Mike Cathcart, the first two leaders of SNN. And few on the WeBB are aware of the fact that right under our noses, Mark Wilson and Mike Bourdaa are contributing to SNN. This page is dedicated to proving that SNN doesn't stop at WeBBsights and SNN UPDATE -- it just gets better!

Genesun Han (Larimda ME)
Genesun Han founded the Starfleet News Network in either 1991 or 1992, in STF's infancy. His columns seemed to be patterned after the "Weekend Update" segment on "Saturday Night Live." In any event, they were funny, and Genesun was SNN's first Editor-in-Chief. Unfortunately, only one of his columns remains; if you have others in your archives, please email them to me.

Franco Torres
Franco was one of STF's first leaders, and in July of 1992, he wrote this freelance article for Genesun's SNN:

Mike Cathcart
Mike Cathcart, who would later be elected President in 1995, carried on as Editor-In-Chief of SNN after Genesun left. His columns were known for their political satire and the skill with which he poked fun at STF's then-leadership. Cathcart went AWOL in late 1995, taking with him his SNN archives; all that I have are what I managed to copy off of his original posts, and what's been sent to me by other STFers. If you have any other material, please send it.

Mike Ballway (Adam Kent)
Mike Ballway, currently Executive Editor of the Network (Cathcart never resigned as Editor-In-Chief, so Mike simply created a different position for himself), started out as a lowly SNN reporter for Cathcart's media giant. Before striking paydirt with SNN UPDATE, which would become the longest-running STF column series of all time, Mike wrote updates on the OC (our then-legislature).

In late 1996, Mike -- under the name of his RPG character Adam Kent -- began writing the column Kent's Corner to take the place of Mike Cathcart's old columns. Although "Botched Political Statements" and "The Special Edition" were well-recieved, Mike never got around to writing a fourth K.C. and the series was abandoned in mid-1997.

Freelance -- as Mike Ballway

Kent's Corner -- as Adam Kent

Mike Bourdaa
One of the first members of STF, Mike Bourdaa had left in 1992 to help found STC, another club. In 1997 he returned to STF and, in the summer of that year, published two SNN columns while Mike Ballway was AWOL. In August of that year, Bourdaa published a faux-SNN UPDATE.

Jeff Field
Jeff Field was one of the most-active members in STF in late 1997, with an RPing job on almost every STF ship. He still found time, however, to write "JMNN Update," a satire of Mike Ballway's newsletter.

Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson, affectionately known as the "Convert from STNG," is a crewmate to Mike Ballway who began writing SNN articles with a little encouragement from the Executive Editor in late 1997. He found that he liked it and went on to write the somewhat-regular SNN Headline News starting in 1998.

Related Pages
The Starfleet News Network Other STF Pages of Interest
Page Created on 25 August 1997 -- Last Updated on 25 June 1998
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