SFI History C10

Starfleet History Chapter Ten

Dan McGinnis
The next election was to be even more contentious then the last. Region Twelve Coordinator Admiral Dan McGinnis was again running for the position of Commander, STARFLEET. With a new slate of backers, Fleet Admiral Lerman ran for reelection, and Rear Admiral Janis Moore, one of Fleet Admiral Lerman's oldest supporters, also entered the fray. This time Admiral McGinnis would win the plurality of votes, thus being elected the 10th Commander, STARFLEET. However the outgoing Executive Committee refused to seat him due to the continuing financial scandal, taking the unprecedented step of revoking his membership. The Executive Committee did however swear in the new Vice Commander, STARFLEET - Admiral Deborah Nelson.

He’s gone, but he’s back?
Nelson's first act as interim Commander, STARFLEET, was to restore Admiral McGinnis to STARFLEET. Then Nelson named him her Vice Commander, then resigned as Commander, STARFLEET. Consequently in the end and in less than a day after his dismissal from STARFLEET, Dan McGinnis became Fleet Admiral and the Commander, STARFLEET. Fleet Admiral McGinnis then appointed Admiral Nelson Vice Commander, STARFLEET. This event was later known as the "Nelson Shuffle".

The McGinnis Administration
Strife and disagreement riddled and haunted the Administration of Fleet Admiral Dan McGinnis. Although thought to be a brilliant administrator by some, McGinnis endeavored, in the beginning of his term, to continue the legacy set by his fellow Commanders, STARFLEET. The infamous 'Questar Debacle', which actually broke a few months into his administration, plagued Fleet Admiral McGinnis throughout his tenure. The affair arose from Admiral McGinnis' booking company, 'Questar', allegedly failed to pay Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Wil 'Wesley Crusher' Wheaton for appearing at conventions hosted by Questar. Although some STARFLEET members tried to work with the new administration, others were less cooperative and more vocal.

There were several members who throughout the first few months of 1995 called for Fleet Admiral McGinnis to resign. The most vocal of these members were Region 15 Coordinator Rear Admiral Alan Ravitch and former candidate for the CS position, Rear Admiral Janis Moore, who at the time was serving as Region 4 Coordinator.

Midway through the first year of his term a push by some influential members within STARFLEET,in a plan called "The Compromise", which called for Fleet Admiral McGinnis and his entire Executive Committee to resign and to install the popular Chief of Operations, Admiral Cindy Krell as Commander, STARFLEET. "The Compromise" fell apart when Region One Coordinator, Admiral Linda Neighbors, called for a secession of the attacks on Fleet Admiral McGinnis and then started an effort within her own region to have others sign on to a pledge to do so. The member of McGinnis' own staff, Vice Chief of Staff, Fleet Captain Michael 'Ranger' Smith, who was trying to mediate the affair for McGinnis, resigned in protest of the failed compromise and joined the vocal opposition.

The Atlanta Massacre
These attacks on Fleet Admiral McGinnis came to a head during the 1995 International Conference in Atlanta when charges of 'Conduct Unbecoming an Officer' and 'Violation of the Officer Code of Conduct' were brought against Ravitch and Moore. Admiral Moore was accused of releasing materials (given to her by what appears to be the Wheaton people) that Fleet Admiral McGinnis felt was a personal problem best handled privately by the courts. Admiral Ravitch was very vocal over the unofficial STARFLEET Mailing List. Known as the 'Atlanta Massacre', the consequences of these charges would lead to their dismissal as Regional Coordinators.

Another Member Attacked
A year later, during the 1996 International Conference in Oklahoma City, Captain Herrmann was brought up on the same charges, for his outspokenness over the STARFLEET Mailing List. As a result Herrmann was reduced in rank to Captain and dismissed as Commanding Officer of the USS Rutledge. The officers and crew of the Rutledge refused to recognize the dismissal by the McGinnis Admiralty Board, standing by Captain Herrmann as their CO.

The Fall Begins
As membership services started to falter under the siege mentality undertaken by the McGinnis Administration, members turned to each other for support. Regional summits and conferences, which began in earnest under the Lerman Administration, spread to every Region and were attended by people from adjoining Regions. But some chapters and members decide to withdraw from STARFLEET, some who would form other Star Trek fan organizations.

The charges and countercharges, along with slanderous attacks against both supporters and detractors of the McGinnis Administration began to exact a heavy toll on STARFLEET’s chapters and members. Many decided not to renew, and some of the most vocal detractors actually had their membership renewals sent back to them, unopened and uncashed, and chapters started to pull out to become either independent or join the other existing Trek fan clubs, waiting and hoping things would get better soon.

Members Jump Ship
One of these fan clubs that STARFLEET chapters and members joined was the United Federation of Planets Internationalé. Debuted to the world at the Region 4 Conference by Kaye Downing and Dennis Rayburn, many in STARFLEET saw UFPI as "the way STARFLEET used to be" and either became dual-affiliated with them, or abandoned STARFLEET outright to join UFPI. Other saw it as a way to destroy STARFLEET and McGinnis. Perhaps because it was debuted in Region 4, this Region was hit especially hard with defections to UFPI.

The IRS
As for STARFLEET, the IRS issue continued to percolate on the back burner. Fleet Admiral McGinnis noted that while STARFLEET owed back taxes, he was filing the necessary Form 990’s with the IRS to ensure that STARFLEET remained current. However, it appears that, like Maddox, McGinnis never filed these forms, and once again, they would come back to haunt the next Administration.

There Was a Bright Spot
One of the bright spots during the McGinnis Administration was the appointment of Bjo Trimble, known as the First Fan of Star Trek, as Commandant of STARFLEET Academy. Regional Conferences and Summits became even more numerous during this time and more and more members turned to their chapter to organize parties and celebrations. Another beacon which members could go to was STARFLEET's unofficial Editorial Website "Area 52", run by 'Cap'n Mike Wilkerson, who's cartoons graced previous STARFLEET Membership Handbooks.

'Cap'n Mike' Cartoons alleviated the hardship the members faced, informing them and entertaining them at the same time. Also the Membership Handbookformat was changed from a small-type half page pamphlet to several large full pages publication. The Handbook was only recently changed when an updated handbook, which kept the full page readable format, was finally released in 1999.

Epilogue
Admiral Nelson, noting the complete lack of communication between herself and Fleet Admiral McGinnis, resigned as Vice Commander in August of 1996 and was succeeded by Region 12 Coordinator Paula "Coyote" Schaff, who continued to serve as RC while VCS. She resigned shortly after the 1996 IC, citing the same reasons as Admiral Nelson.

At that moment Fleet Admiral McGinnis, who had declared he would not be seeking a second term, announced before the beginning of November 1996, that he would resign the position of Commander, STARFLEET, as well as his own STARFLEET membership, effective on Nov. 14. As McGinnis had yet to appoint a new Vice Commander, STARFLEET, Commodore James Herring, Chief of Operations, STARFLEET, and next in the line of succession, became the 12th Commander, STARFLEET.

The legacy of Dan McGinnis was the condition in which he left STARFLEET which would haunt the organization into the next election as the administration of Admiral Herring would try to do their duty to that membership. As a postmortem on all this, McGinnis would later be arrested and found guilty of criminal charges (unrelated to anything done while in service to STARFLEET) that would send him to a Federal Penitentiary, which he was released from in 2000.