The Dauntless is a Star Trek fan club based in Cape Town, South Africa. We're a Starfleet-style club, complete with ranks, titles and uniforms.

We're also a chapter of STARFLEET The International Star Trek Fan Association Inc. STARFLEET is the largest Star Trek fan club in the world, and being one of their chapters connects us to hundreds of other Starships, and thousands of other members across the world.

We're not just an online group. We regularly get together for social events and Away Missions like game days, hikes, 5k runs, paintball, conventions, movie nights and lots more. We also have crew-members in a number of cities around the world who participate in our events in their own Away Teams.

Our crew-members have the opportunity to earn rank promotions by volunteering for service at the chapter, region and fleet level, or simply by engaging with their crew-mates in day-to-day activities aboard ship.

We're not a role-playing group. Although some of our members do enjoy some role-playing games from time to time, our ranks and titles are earned through real-life activities, not just by pretending.

We're not a cosplay group. Our members take great pride in the uniforms they wear, after having spent, in some cases, decades earning the privilege of wearing them. Although some among us do enjoy cosplaying from time to time, our uniforms are professional attire, not costumes.

We're not a business. The Dauntless is a non-profit, volunteer organisation. We charge no membership fees, and all our expenses are paid for by anonymous donations by some of our members. 

STARFLEET uses fictional elements inpired by Star Trek as the organising metaphor for its internal structures. Specifically, STARFLEET chapters are referred to as "Starships", and their chapter-presidents are referred to as "Commanding Officers".

There's no actual space-vessel called the USS Dauntless. That name refers to the organisational structure that binds us together as a group. The "Starship" isn't a ship at all, it's the crew.

The ship's imaginary design and technical specifications are an extension of the metaphor that helps us to define various thematic elements, including which set of uniforms our crew wears.

Our name was inspired by the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, named for the fictional British warship depicted. As homage, we have adopted the pirate theme in our naming and insignia.