We all should be aware to some degree of the STAR TREK WELCOMMITTEE and the role it plays in our hobby.
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| Title: | We all should be aware to some degree of the STAR TREK WELCOMMITTEE and the role it plays in our hobby. |
| Creator: | Gerald M. Williams |
| Date(s): | December 1975 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
We all should be aware to some degree of the STAR TREK WELCOMMITTEE and the role it plays in our hobby. is a 1975 essay by Gerald M. Williams.
It was printed in Subspace Chatter #6, of which Williams was the editor.
Some Topics Discussed
- fandom and profit
- the work of Star Trek Welcommittee
- the mistake printed in Star Trek Lives! that quoted the cost of Directory of Star Trek Organizations at fifty cents instead of seventy-five cents and did not mention info about postage and including a SASE) -- this mistake, combined with the flood of inquiries (over 6000 in backlog) could cost the committee roughly $2,100
- fandom and visibility
- for-profit companies making money off of fans, and the benefits these companies got from fandom
- perhaps these companies should pay the Welcommittee some money
- many fans have a lot of money to pay for pro merch and fan-created items
From the Essay
...due to some unexpected and unprepared for publicity recently, the STAR TREK WELCOMMTTEE may be dying. It isn't starving to death in a desert of apathy and non-involvement-- just the opposite! It's drowning in an ocean of 'Here I am! I want to know about others like me!" cries for help from fans who have just found they're not alone.[..]
Since the STW operation is in the nature of hobbies and spare-time rather than a business, it has been operating on a pricing system that does not make any profit for the group . (The average STW member is a college student. ) $2,100 is too much money to be absorbed anywhere along the line. So, to survive, STW is going to have to get this money somewhere, or alternatively, fold up -- a loss to each STAR TREK fan in existence!
Where can the $2,100 come from? Let's look at the possibilities:
First, the STW themselves can cough up the money. Between 100 members, each contributing $20, that should offset the present problem. But them, do you know what $20 means to a college student (or any of the rest of us for that matter?) Anyway, why should it be STW' s responsibility? They started this as a service organization, not a charity. And what about next month's mail bringing more loss?
Secondly, the STW could raise prices on the Directory, Newsletters, Booklets, bumper stickers, etc. But until they got the 'new' money from these 'new' prices, they wouldn't be able to print or mail out the 'new' pricelists listing the 'new' prices which would bring in the 'new' money
Thirdly, the individual fan could take the brunt of it by donating his spare change, say, every other weekend. Giving something for nothing, that is. Oh yeah? How many people will donate money when they could be buying posters and bumpers tickers and fanzines with it?
Fourth, the fan clubs around the country could be asked to pay for their inclusion in the Directory, or perhaps send in their extra change as a donation. Well, again, how many fan clubs do you belong to that are paying their own way, let alone making enough to help support another organization?
The future of the STW doesn't look promising at all.
Wait a minute. Just where is all of the 'big money' in STAR TREK? What about the items found in every trekker's collection? Look at your own shelves -- upwards of 20 professionally-published books. On your dresser? Seven plastic models. In your/your child's toy box? Dolls, puzzles, paint-by-numbers, coloring books, plastic phasers & belts, STAR TREK rayguns & helmets and tanks. Look into your collections -- insignias, scripts, film clips. Look at your television--how many times can you see STAR TREK in one day? One? Two? Three or more? That is where the big money lies... with the big corporations.
How many of these corporations are getting rich off STAR TREK? Mego, for instance, recently said they have a $15,000,000 (that's MILLION) a year market with STAR TREK items alone, plus another $8-$10 million in orders they can't fill because the demand is so great. The same phenomenon is evidenced in all the major corporations dealing with STAR TREK fandom. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars a year in PROFIT!
So what is $2,000 to a company dealing with millions? What is $500 to that same company? Peanuts. Throw-away pocket change. The STAR TREK WELCOMMITTEE is reaching hundreds of thousands, possibly a million or more hard-core STAR TREKkers each year, not to mention the neo-fen who find their way to the Welcommittee fold. I'd say a large corporation like Paramount, Ballantine, Mego, Bantam, or AMT should literally jump at the chance to get advertising to a million potential customers for only $500 to $1,000. It is exactly these people, people like us, who these corporations are trying to reach. $500-$1,000 for advertising like this? Cheap at the price--very cheap.
Now surely someone on the Welcommittee has already thought of this--but has any-thing been done about it? If not, why not? This is just a suggestion, but we think it has merit. You've got the figures--show them! A corporation will never ask if it may give you money--you've got to demand it --for services rendered! Tell each and every business making money off STAR TREK products about the letter-writing campaign to Paramount (Paramount will already know about the letter-writing campaign, as will NBC-TV!). Tell of the part STW played in that campaign's organization. Perhaps another letter-writing campaign to big-money corporations wouldn't be such a bad idea. Ask, we'll support you! And ask, ASK, ASK for that money! What do you have to lose? We need the STAR TREK WELCOMMITTEE: we need it to be alive and well, and we're willing to do what we can to keep it that way. But you, STW, must do the actual work.
Tell us what to do to help. Help us help YOU!