the starfleet news network | snn update archive | s.u. issue no. 50
Saturday, 10 January 1998 -- Mike Ballway
=/\= SNN UPDATE #50 =/\=
=/\= Stardate 98011.0 =/\=
Welcome back once again to SNN Center -- fifty issues after the first time that STF welcomed this periodical into its ANNOUNCE subjects. It being the dawn of 1998 and all, and the 50th anniversary of SNN UPDATE, and my own 5th anniversary with the club here in the Games BB for that matter, I think it'd be nice to reflect on what has gone before. I invite each of you in our readership to do so as well in replies to this note.
On our 50th issue, I give you: the SNN UPDATE story.
=/\= DATELINE: STF, 1994
STF was very different in '94, but at the same time it was quite similar. When SNN UPDATE began publication, the most influential people in STF were Jim Midyette, Ryan Lucas, Julie and Grace Larsen (no relation!), Mike Cathcart, and of course our one-term then-President, Jerry "Z" Phelps. Mike Ballway, future SNN UPDATE publisher, was a Captain by then but had no command. The President's term was four months. Club business was conducted largely through the inefficient OC, though the Presidential Edict was also firmly established. We had three fleets and more than a hundred members.
It was into this environment, so different from today's, that SNN UPDATE was born. At the time when Mike had joined STF, in early 1993, he had wanted to write a newsletter to inform the membership -- this all stemmed from the "Midyette Scandal" of 1992, talked about incessantly among the leadership but unknown to the Lieutenant-Commanders and Lieutenants. Mike wrote updates on OC bills and on 9 September wrote his last freelance piece, the widely-distributed "SNN News/Announcements Service," more like a prototype of SNN UPDATE than anything else. SNN UPDATE #1 was written on the 21st of that month.
=/\= SNN UPDATE -- A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS
SNN UPDATE's original purpose was to inform STFers. Our 1994 issues were straight-faced, just-the-facts affairs. In 1995 we added an additional "to entertain" to our unofficial mission statement, but with the seclusion of Command from the rest of the club (no member of the Cabinet served on an RPing ship in early '95), SNN UPDATE was mostly just our way of making sure everyone knew what was going on in club government.
Somewhere in the middle of this "second stage" of development, Ryan Lucas, Brian Misamore, Jason Brocklesby, and many others all left the club without leaving behind any records. "No Regrets" was STF's only historical document. Thus, in 1995, Mike added "to serve as a historical chronicle" to SNN UPDATE's tasklist.
The last change occured between '95 and '96. STF changed drastically in those years, moving from a big club with a secluded command to a medium-sized "family" where, like "Cheers," everyone knew your name. News reporting had become almost unnecessary and except in the case of a few scoops, was relegated to the back burner. As it stands now, SNN UPDATE's primary goal is to chronicle STF happenings for posterity and, if at all possible, provide STFers with a few chuckles -- all in good fun.
=/\= SNN UPDATE #50
has been a pointless retelling of the events that have led up to this moment with regards to SNN UPDATE itself. The one obvious omission in this story is the absence of SNN UPDATE's Journalistic Motto of "Quick, Informative, Totally Biased Reporting of STF Events," which first appeared in the disclaimer for SNN UPDATE #11, 20 November 1995. SNN UPDATE's first disclaimer appeared in #7, 21 January 1995, and referenced the "Almighty Sisko," besides stating that Mike's opinions are not necessarily those of the SNN management. It's also the first time he signed off thusly:
Commodore Mike "bwsc65c@prodigy.com" Ballway
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