About Us

Community Introduction

Outpost 10F is an online community focused on providing interactive discussions and events for fans of the science fiction and fantasy genres. Genres of focus include Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings. Founded in 1997, Outpost 10F is a place where members can work together to support and promote both the community and each other through contributions of their individual skills, talents and experiences. Outpost 10F is not limited to the virtual world; it also participates in conventions and hosts unions - gatherings where members can come together and socialize face-to-face - on a local, national, and international scale.

Through enabling community membership the opportunity to participate in the development, presentation, and evolution of the community, Outpost 10F has been able to foster a strong sense of unity. Community members are joined by their shared interests and the motivation to grow the community.

Outpost 10F is structured in a fashion that encourages membership the opportunity to participate and play a role the community's development. A ranking structure is in place; as members demonstrate their dedication to the community - via good conduct, spending time in chat forums, or assisting in various work groups - they increase in rank and earn more say and responsibility within the day-to-day operation of the community. Such a format enables Outpost 10F the ability to recognize and obtain dedicated members and place them in roles that benefit both the community and the individual.

The content provided by Outpost 10F is organized into various work groups or departments. Each department is responsible for a set of related content and is composed of a set of management positions. Members who have proven themselves as capable and dedicated are placed in these management positions and in turn lead the department. Departmental managers recruit other members of Outpost 10F and assign them projects to assist with. Through such a structure Outpost 10F is able to delegate tasks to a large number of people, hence making it possible to manage a large amount of content.

Outpost 10F is led by a small group of people - the Executive Council - who work to make important high level decisions, assemble strategies, and plan the long term direction of the community.

Community Goals

Mission Statement

Outpost 10F shall provide its membership with a safe and family-oriented community that offers the opportunity to showcase one's creative talents and appreciation of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. The community shall provide the membership with experiences and responsibilities that will positively influence their contributions to the organization. These shared experiences shall be an asset not only to Outpost 10F, but also to the individual, as they are incorporated into one's real-life endeavors.

Goals

Outpost 10F has a set of goals for the members, the leadership and the community as a whole:

1. Outpost 10F will uphold the "Three R's" and Prime Directives that promote a true global community on both the Internet and in real life.

2. Outpost 10F will offer the membership a place to showcase their creative talents, technical skills and appreciation for the genre, and to share this experience with each other, not only in an online environment, but at meetings, events, and unions.

3. Outpost 10F will create and support a command structure of officers who are dedicated to the future of the Outpost, who have the vision to see that future, and the commitment to execute strategies to achieve goals without favoritism, personal agendas, and the understanding that the Outpost is for all the members, not just the individual.

4. At Outpost 10F, the energies and knowledge of the members will provide a medium for the embracement of lifelong learning, a quintessential element in the navigation of life and its challenges.

History

In June, 1997 two young men in Vancouver, Canada decided to explore the Internet and use what limited resources were at hand at the time, to construct a website where people from all over the world could communicate and share their ideas, skills, and culture with others; to build a site where the members could work together as a team, toward a common goal. In order to best showcase the ideas and concepts of the site, they chose a theme that offered unlimited possibilities - Star Trek!

Quickly building their site, "Ten Forward - A Star Trek Chat" was opened in August 1997. Although a bit slow to catch on, the uniqueness of the layout, ideals and environment coupled with a rank system that offered the opportunity to move up within the structure and gave access to more sophisticated and "fun" functions. By December 1997, it became apparent that the site needed an organized means to manage the memberships talents, ideas, and suggestions. And so, departments were formed.

Understanding that the Outpost is a hobby, and not a full time paying real-life job is a challenge when recruiting the leaders of the teams that make Outpost 10F run smoothly. But with the right people in the right places, teamwork taking a front seat and lots of hours of hard work, the summer of 1998 showed just what could be accomplished! The members actually liked having their work displayed, receiving awards for a job well done, being recognized as contributing members of a community.

August 1999 saw the commissioning of the new site name "Outpost 10F" and something really new - a union! An Outpost 10F union is an event in the "real world" where members of the community have the opportunity to meet face-to-face. The union was held in Las Vegas and attended by 25 people who enjoyed a weekend of conversing and visiting the various sites of interest.

In September 1999 Outpost 10F expanded its offerings and opened up the "Cloud City Cantina," a Star Wars themed chat forum. The Outpost had truly gone where no website had gone before - the combining of the two most recognized science-fiction genre's into one domain. What a concept!

Over the next few years departments were expanded, new members appeared, new projects and ideas were rolled out and in the summer of 2000, the decision was made to globalize the site; to fully integrate all departments and teams and events so that both affiliations (Star Wars and Star Trek members) could work together for the best interests of Outpost 10F. Additional unions were planned, more members joined, and the Outpost became bigger and busier and even more popular.

In August 2001 a large union was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands where many of the members put their heads together, made lots of notes, and hatched a new idea - "The Vision for the Future." Six days of hard work and conversation followed by an intense month of Executive brainstorming produced a document that would take Outpost 10F to the next level. The "Vision Plan" was kicked off in October 2001. After months and months of hard work, "v2" (version 2.0) of Outpost 10F was launched on July 15th, 2002. The v2 release contains substantial technical upgrads that will better position Outpost 10F to achieve its goals.

Although the newest in technological skills and talents of our members have been integrated into "v2," the Vision of Outpost 10F will continue to expand, to grow, to bring new members and fans into our community, thereby keeping the promise made by our founders 5 years ago. Outpost 10F is, and will always be a global community that serves the membership best by bringing people together regardless of race, religion, politics or country of origin. There is no bias, no favoritism; violence and conflict are not tolerated. We are proud that any parent can view any conversation, project, web page or event and be assured that their children are safe, that we hold to the ideals as set forth in our Prime Directives and the Three R's.

And, the adventure will surely continue...

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