Communication Systems
The USS Dauntless employs a number of different communication systems, both internal and external. This gives our members, passengers and friends a number of options when it comes to interacting with each other on board ship.
Official Communication Channels
There are two official communication channels that are used for official internal communications. These are for crew-members only, and are the appropriate place for all ship-wide announcements and discussions relating to official Dauntless business, as well as other content.
Primary:
Google Groups is a social networking tool that can be used as either an email list, a web-based forum or a combination of the two. This is the system through which all the most important announcements are made.
All crew-members are required to maintain an active subscription to our Google Group in order to be considered members of the crew.
Secondary:
Discord is a private chatroom-style environment which facilitates either mass conversations, smaller groups or one-on-one chats. All announcements are made in Discord, and it is the primary location for discussions, reporting and coordinating ship activities.
Non-official communication is also allowed (and encouraged) in Discord, provided it is held in the appropriate channels.
All active-duty crew-members are expected to be on Discord,. Reserves, former crew-members and invited guests are welcome as well.
Ancillary Channels
Members are invited to participate in ship activities through these other channels. In general, these are restricted to active duty crew-members only.
Formerly known as "Battle.net", member chat via the Blizzard game distribution system.
For members wishing to list their Dauntless affiliation on their professional, civilian resumes
Similar to Discord, Slack provides a private chatroom-style environment. Slack used to be the default comm channel for Active Duty personnel. While the Dauntless' Slack workspace remains open to Active Duty personnel, it is not currently under further enhancement by Engineering.
External Channels
In addition to this website, the Dauntless maintains several channels through which we make announcements to the outside world
Civilian Outreach Program
It is core to our mission of pursuing Gene's Dream that we help to bring the message of Star Trek to our local communities. The Civilian Outreach Program is the main thrust of that effort.
The program isn't a recruiting tool, although often new recruits do find us through these channels. This is our way of supporting the local Star Trek fan communities consisting of people who love Trek, but aren't necessarily interesting in serving in STARFLEET.
The Dauntless has never engaged in active recruiting, and obtaining new members isn't the objective of the outreach program. Our goal here remains to support the non-STARFLEET community in engaging and growing the Star Trek fandom at large.
There are two main legs to the program. These are social media and civilian-friendly events.
Social Media
Our Communications Department operates the Star Trek South Africa Facebook Group in which we encourage civilians to indulge in their love of Star Trek.
We promote discussions around news, humour, fan-art and just about anything else of interest to fans. We also use the channel to promote the USS Dauntless from time to time, but we keep that to a minimum.
Events
Most Dauntless events and Away Missions are appropriate for civilians, so we often promote them using social media.
Whenever we engage in an in-person event, particularly when the event involves an opportunity to display our uniforms, demonstrate our interest in Star Trek, or engage with Star Trek directly, we are sure to promote the events as widely as possible.