Richard's Biography
Born and raised in East London, I lived there until November 2023 when I moved to Cambridgeshire. My earliest memory of watching Star Trek was catching repeats of The Original Series on BBC 2 at 6pm on a Thursday evening. This was back when the United Kingdom (UK) had only 3 channels, and BBC 2 was the ‘spare’ channel where shows that weren’t expected to grab high ratings would be shown. I have (now) fond memories of Star Trek being shelved in favour of coverage of Test Match cricket or tennis at Wimbledon!
What got me hooked then and kept me enthralled throughout TNG (rental VHS cassettes from the local video store); DS9 (the first series that aired in the UK at the same time as the US) past Voyager, Enterprise and the rest was that sense of things CAN get better if we want them to, but we’ve got to put the work in to achieve it. Yes, the uniforms were cool, well except the season 1 & 2 TNG jumpsuits!, the gadgets were awesome (how cool would it be to have a computer you could hold in your hand…) and who wouldn’t want to whizz around the galaxy in the best ship Starfleet has available, but it was the underlying storylines that really resonated with me, and still do today. Star Trek has always been more than a Sci-Fi show for me – it’s been a challenge to conventional practice, a beacon for minorities and a place where you can be you – in whatever form that takes.
After school I wandered around a few jobs until I found my calling as an administrator, working primarily in the public sector in the UK. For a long time, I was an admin team leader/manager in the wider education branch of the National Health Service, but last year I took a role as the Head of Operations for a membership organisation. I run a small team that provides direct support to a network of local volunteer leads to support a membership of circa 23,000 spread across the globe.
My STARFLEET journey began when I decided I’d had enough of being a lone Trek fan, I found STARFLEET by googling for Star Trek fan clubs – I was completely blown away to discover there was an International group, so I paid my money and here we are! When I joined, Region 20 didn’t exist – I joined the ISS Saratoga, which was at that time a shuttle out of the USS Britannic in what would now be Region 9. When we commissioned and therefore needed our own Region I acted as VRC while the Region was set up. That insight into the wider workings of STARFLEET is what inspired me to get more involved, and after a period as acting VRC I took some time out. When I returned, I was eager to get involved and so I took on the role of Chief of Staff to the VCS for Theresa Bristow in 2016. That culminated in supporting the transition to the Westfall/Toole administration. At the same time I had been elected as RC for Region 20, so when I took office, I already had a good idea of what STARFLEET needed from its leaders.
In my 8 years as RC, I’ve focussed on ensuring that my Region is recognised, both as a growing part of the STARFLEET Family but also as a region that has different needs than those in the USA. A small but really good illustration of this is certificates – the default for STARFLEET certificates has been the letter/foolscap size commonly used in the USA. Nearly everyone else in Fleet uses A4 as a standard, so I’ve pushed and pushed for that to be an option, as Trek fans do like to print their certificates!
As a member of the Admiralty Board I’ve been involved in every meeting during my time in office and have attended 2 ECAB meetings in person. I’ve also served on, and chaired, a number of AB sub-committees dealing with a wide range of issues and topics.
There has been a long running joke amongst friends in Region 20 that they would submit my name for CS every time elections come around, and I’ve always steadfastly said I’m not interested. But that has changed during the past 2 years as I’ve seen what a really effective CS/VCS team, who are committed to improving SFI can achieve and have a team who are willing to work towards that goal. It also helped that both David & Ryan are very good friends and I found myself thinking about the potential to continue the momentum they had built up, so I approached Ryan and asked if he had considered standing for CS, and that if he had, would he be interested in having me as his running mate.
Ryan & I want to continue that momentum and push the organisation even further. There are plenty of opportunities out there and we want to capitalise on as many of them as we can realistically achieve. We want to open honest dialogue with those who own the rights to Star Trek, we want to give our members new experiences and opportunities, but we want to do all of this whilst we honour what has kept SFI afloat for over 50 years.
Forward, Together.