With a longing for a Star Trek group a little closer to where I lived and the chance to show the naysayers that it was worth at least trying, the other half and I decided to spread our wings and give running our own group / chapter a go.
I had seen SFI (Starfleet International) advertised online and while the first time I joined there was really not a lot happening within Region 20 (the region the UK Ireland and its outer Islands are part of) I decided (a few years later) to give it another try. In late 2012 I took the plunge and with more members assigned to Region 20 and an ever-growing passion to try something new, the other half and I signed up for a year’s membership to SFI.
In February of 2013 while at a yearly event held in the UK (called the SFBall) we were lucky enough to meet up with some other members of the Region who we were able to have a long chat with about SFI along with many other things, like their love for Star Trek and how they themselves found out about and then became members of SFI.
Through it all my desire to do something myself (with the help of the other half and friends) grew exponentially, to the point where in March of the same year (just over a month after the SFBall) the USS Iceni was formed and became the latest chapter within Region 20 of SFI.
While we started out with the intention of being a full-on Star Trek group, deep down we always new we wanted to become so much more than that and over the years (since we first started) we feel we have achieved that goal. Yes we are all first and foremost Trekkies at heart but most of us are also Whoovians, Brown Coats, bearers of lightsaber and fans of many other sci-fi shows as well.
This is why since 2014 we no longer call ourselves just a “Star Trek group” but a “Star Trek, Sci-Fi & Fantasy group & Chapter of Starfleet Internationals Region 20”
Fact 8 -
The earliest use of the term Science Fiction, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was in 1851 when it was applied to poetry or fiction interweaving a story with scientific fact.
