Who we are:
     The USS Tanasi is a Region One Chapter of STARFLEET International. Membership in STARFLEET required to join the chapter and hold rank. For those of you that are already Starfleet members, you will need to change your current membership to the USS Tanasi. We are an online Chapter so traveling to meetings is not a requirement. However we do have weekly watch parties and monthly online meetings, and participation is encouraged.
     We began as the Shuttlecraft LeConte, launched as the USS LeConte in early 1994 and began the tradition of Regional Summits in Region One hosting the first ever in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in 1995.  These summits were attended by 150 to 200 members of the fleet from multiple Regions. One of the happy consequences of the Regional Summits was the ability to send several local students to Space Camp due to money donated by the members of STARFLEET, The International Star Trek Fan Association, Inc. in attendance at the event and by various fund raising events held by the chapter during the year. The Regional Summit eventually moved to the Pigeon Forge area and was a firm annual event until around 2012.
    Our name was changed Bennu Station after an internal dispute that resulted in Ben Redding being voted in as the new Commanding Officer of the Bennu Station which is now the USS Tanasi
    The Chapter has contributed to food drives for the local food bank and animal shelter, participated in Movie premieres, marched in Christmas and July 4th Parades with the Tanasi at that time as it's shuttle. Chapter members also acted as judges for County Schools Science Fairs on several occasions.  For several years, the members would meet twice a week to collect the day old baked goods from a local supermarket and take them to the Children's Home in Sevierville, Tennessee. The USS Tanasi is currently a Starfleet International Inc correspondence chapter based in East Tennessee

About the name Tanasi:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanasi

    Tanasi first appears in the historical record in the early 18th century, at a time when the fur trade between the English and the Cherokee had grown to the extent that the colonists wanted to regulate it. Ethnologist James Mooney reported that the meaning of the town's name is unknown, but noted that it was used for other places among Cherokee lands in Tennessee and North Carolina.[6] The Cherokee name for the river upon which Tanasi was situated was probably Callamaco. Early Euro-American explorers and traders renamed the river after Tanasi.
    Among the earliest English traders to reside at Tanasi was Eleazar Wiggan— nicknamed "Old Rabbit" by the Cherokee— who operated out of Tanasi as early as 1711. He also served as a guide for later colonial diplomats and emissaries.
    In 1725, the province of South Carolina dispatched Colonel George Chicken to Tanasi to obtain Cherokee assistance in the colony's struggles with the Creek. Chicken indicated in his journals that the chief of Tanasi— known as the Tanasi Warrior or Head Warrior of Tanasi— ruled over the Cherokee Overhill, Middle, and Valley towns in the region. (But this would have been unusual. The designation of Middle and Valley Towns generally referred to groups of towns on the eastern side of the Appalachians in Western North Carolina. Kituwa was chief among the Middle Towns. Not only was Cherokee society highly decentralized and the towns generally exercised considerable autonomy under their own chiefs, but travel between these territories was difficult in the mountainous region.) Chicken recorded a speech in which the Tanasi Warrior pledged support for the English. The two later engaged in a pipe-smoking session in which the Tanasi Warrior told Chicken of recent Creek hostilities in the area. Colonel John Herbert visited Tanasi on a similar mission in 1727 and reported meeting with the "King and Long Warrior" of Tanasi at the Cherokee townhouse.
    In 1730, Sir Alexander Cuming, a trader claiming to be an emissary of King George II, journeyed to Tanasi and obtained the Tanasi Warrior's allegiance for England. As evidence of his success, Cuming sought an esteemed symbolic headdress known as the Crown of Tanasi— described as resembling a wig made of dyed possum hair— which he hoped to present to the king of England. To obtain this headdress, Cuming enlisted the aid of Moytoy, chief of Great Tellico. Cuming used his flamboyance to convince the Cherokee to crown Moytoy "Emperor of the Cherokee." In exchange, Moytoy obtained the headdress sought by Cuming. Cuming departed for England shortly thereafter, taking with him a party that included Eleazar Wiggan, future Cherokee leader Attakullakulla, and two Tanasi warriors named Clogoittah and Oukanaekah to present to the king.
    The crowning of Moytoy in 1730 shifted the Cherokee center of power to Great Tellico, which was situated along the Tellico River roughly 16 miles (26 km) southwest of Tanasi. After the death of Moytoy in 1741, however, Old Hop, the chief of Chota, began to consolidate power. The influence of Chota soon overshadowed that of Tanasi, and by the early 1750s, Chota had become the more dominant town. In 1765, Henry Timberlake, who had visited the Overhill towns as an emissary in 1761–1762, reported 12 dwellings and 21 warriors at Tanasi, and identified Old Hop as chief of both Chota and Tanasi. In 1775, the Tanasi Warrior was among the chiefs who signed a treaty with the Watauga Association of Carolina colonists, who wanted to create an independent jurisdiction west of the mountains, in what became Tennessee.

What is Starfleet:
 

     For over four decades, STARFLEET International  has provided Star Trek fans a way to make friends, have fun, give back to their communities, and show that the dream of Gene Roddenberry can live long and prosper.  On the local level, members can gather with other fans for a variety of enjoyable activities.  On the international level, STARFLEET offers our members a wealth of resources that cannot be found in any other Star Trek fan club.  In addition to a great set of membership materials and our regularly-published newsletter, STARFLEET offers members the chance to get involved with STARFLEET Academy, the STARFLEET Marine Corps, the Department of Technical Services, and much, much more.  They even have a group of academic monetary scholarships that are awarded to deserving STARFLEET members each year.

    For more information about STARFLEET International  please visit www.sfi.org

What is Region One:
 

     Region One is comprised of STARFLEET: The International Star Trek Fan Association, Inc. chapters in the following states:  Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia

​    For more information about First Fleet  please visit r1.sfi.org