Faces old and new

My Star Trek Meet-up Group had another coffee meeting tonight and we were joined by three new first-timers, one a familar face from the old days of ASTREX. Nine members all up tonight, with several apologies.

The manageress of the coffee shop finally asked if we all knew each other from work, but she was genuinely surprised to hear that our common interest was the Internet, and that that had been what ultimately brought us together. She's seen our numerous past monthly meetings, where I've requested the furniture moved to create long tables, and then only four people show up!

I do find myself concerned over the fate of Star Trek fandom at the moment. There seems a great reluctance for people to make meeting fellow Star Trek fans a high priority in their lives. My group could only garner three attendees for our recent picnic afternoon. There was an almost-total lack of enthusiasm or interest - or even curiosity - from the traditional ACT and Brisbane fannish groups to the recent Sci-Nut conventions. In fact, the two lone QUEST members positioned behind their trestle table of QUEST fliers and merchandise at Onelia's Brisbane Star Trek day, last Sunday, threatened to outnumber the attendees who weren't already members of QUEST! And no one in the recently-formed, supposedly enthusiastic BrisScifi group, whom I met online recently, were able to coordinate themselves to drop by either. And the Sydney Webloggers' Meet-up Group seems to have gone stagnant, with my emails going unanswered and no new events scheduled. So disappointing.

Now, I do know it was Fathers Day in Australia that day but, in the good/bad ol' days, many geeky Trek Dads would have accompanied their families to a Star Trek event, or else the fans were so estranged from their families that a Star Trek day might have provided an excellent excuse not to attend traditional family lunches.

Hurry up with Star Trek XI, JJ!