History of ShOC

Below is what I have from the following people and sources: Excerpts from "A Short History of Starfleet" by Jeffery Higdon, information from the following people: Denise Peterson, Sharon Shrock, Scott Ackers, information gathered from copies of earlier CQ's provided by Keira Russell-Strong and Janet Sheperd, and a timeline of ShOC Directors by Linda Kloempken.

Thanks to all that have donated their information. This page was last updated 11/19/03

In the beginning until 1984 all the program consisted of was to have a couple of members in Starfleet and request of the Commander Starfleet to start a chapter in Starfleet and you became a planetary outpost for only a short period of time (Enough time to process paperwork)

At the high point of the Longshaw Administration in 1977 STARFLEET could boast 16 active starships and 35 planetary outposts (predecessor to the current Shuttlecraft Program).

In 1985 the Starfleet Shuttlecraft Program was developed as a part of the Fran Booth's administration as a useful tool to expand the organization and to both recruit new members and chapters and to train their leaders in how to run successful chapters in STARFLEET. All you had to do at that time again was to have three members in Starfleet and put in a request to become a chapter.

The Shuttle Program started under Fran Booth was improved in the Steve Smith administration in about mid 1987. In the Steve Smith Administration Shuttle operations were handled by the Chief of Operations. In the Oct./Nov. CQ these guidlines were posted on how to start a new Shuttle. To form a Chapter/Starship in Starfleet, you followed these guidlines: 1. You must be a paid member of Starfleet. 2. You must be a member of an operating Starfleet Chapter. 3. You must be at least 18 years of age. 4. You must file a "Shuttlecraft Formation Petition". This petition was to contain the following information: A. A name for the Shuttle/Chapter to be (The Shuttle could not use the USS prefix until they were commissioned as a Starship). B. Next on the petition would be the names of at least 4 paid members of Starfleet one of which is to be the pending Commanding Officer and another to be the pending First Officer. C. Then finally the Chapter and Region that you wished the Shuttle to be attached to. Even at this time the 30 to 50 mile rule was used and as now handled on a case by case basis approved by the Regional Coordinator. Then the petition is signed by the chapter CO of the Chapter that they wished to be attached to. Next the petition was sent to the Regional Coordinator(s) to either grant or deny the petition. If you request to be a shuttlecraft of a starship that is not in your region then you had to have both the Regional Coordinator of the region where that Starship resides and the Regional Coordinator of the region where the shuttlecraft resides to approve the petition for being a shuttlecraft. A copy is also sent to the Sector Chief. If the petition was not approved by the Regional Coordinator(s), then the Shuttle had the option to appeal to the Sector Operations Chief, this person's decision was final. After approval the shuttle CO was given the rank of Commander and the Shuttle First Officer was given the rank of Lieutenant Commander, unless they hold higher ranks previously in Starfleet. Then the Shuttle had one year to complete the following steps: 1. The Shuttle CO and First Officer must complete and pass the OTS course offered by Starfleet Academy. 2. The Shuttle must gain at least 10 paid members in Starfleet who are not the CO or First Officer of another Starship. Then the Shuttle had to remain a shuttle for at least 9 months before they could petition to be a Starship in Starfleet. The second petition was signed by the Mothership Chapter CO and then sent to the Chief of Operations, Starfleet with copies sent to the Regional Coordinator(s) and Sector Chief. The second petition had to contain the following: A. A photocopy of the OTS diploma and/or scoresheet to confirm passing of the program. B. The signatures and addresses of all of the ten or more members. C. The requested Starship class, name, and NCC (Naval Construction Contract) number. A list of approved classes, NCC numbers was provided by OTI (Office of Technical Information).

In the beginning of the Jeanette Maddox Administration the Shuttle Program was handled by the Vice Chief of Operations, Sherry Bowen. In October of 1989 the department of Shuttlecraft Operations Command was formed as a part of Operations. Jeanette Maddox was trying to improve the Shuttle program and she was so impressed with the Regional Shuttle program that Denise Peterson had set up in Denise's region that she asked Denise if she would do this program on a national level and Denise accepted and became the first ShOC Director to serve as a part of the Executive Committee of Starfleet. The Shuttle Program was fine-tuned and improved under Denise's direction. At first there were thirty-four shuttles and in a short period of time shuttles were found to exist. Even more were formed and the count went up to sixty shuttles! Then Denise wrote a shuttle handbook which is the predecessor of the START manual as we know it today. The handbook contained all the guidlines that helped the chapters to be become even better in a long run! The timeline of ShOC Directors to serve Starfleet on the Executive Committee from Denise's term to present is listed below
The requirements for launch as a Shuttle were updated to require 5 Starfleet members instead of the previous requirement of 4. The other requirements were that you had to report to the ShOC Director instead of the Vice Chief of Operations. Basically the rest of the requirements remained the same for a Shuttlecraft launch. There were a couple of requirements for commissioning as a starship that were added during this administration and they were, OCC (Officers Command College) became a requirement to be completed and passed by both the CO and XO of the shuttle before Commissioning as a Starship. You had to have a ShOC Certificate stating that you had completed the Shuttle Program (This came from the ShOC Director). In order to get this certificate, regular and on time monthly reports had to be received by the ShOC Director.

From this point up to the present, there have been many improvements in the ShOC department and as pointed above, I will update this history as I get the information.

Below is a timeline of the previous ShOC Directors starting with the earliest director as provided by Linda (Reynolds) Kloempken.

10/1989 to 06/1991 Denise Peterson
06/1991 to 08/1992 Kenny Proehl
08/1992 to 01/1993 Cindy Krell
01/1993 to 11/1993 Dave Ryan
11/1993 to 01/1995 Jennifer Levine French
01/1995 to 01/1997 Linda Reynolds (now Kloempken)
01/1997 to 12/2000 Dennis Gray
01/2001 to 06/2002 Alex Rosenzweig
07/2002 to 12/2003 Chris Wallace
01/2003 to present Jerry Tien

- Biff Bassett