-James Sharman
I signed every club guestbook I came across and e-mailed clubs without a guestbook asking anybody and everybody who would be interested in answering a few questions to please send me an e-mail.
I also sent e-mails to private people who had an e-mail address on their Star Trek WebPages with the same request, and posted the request on a Trek chatroom.
I hoped for a large response, but the initial response was little short of overwhelming. Allyson Dyar, communications officer of Starfleet International, one of the oldest and biggest Star Trek fan clubs, read my guestbook entry and added it to the club's listserves. Consequently many subscribers read it, and the next day over 60 people had sent cheery notes saying they'd be happy to answer some questions. More arrived in the next few days. I had devised a questionnaire, which I sent out to everyone - and within a few hours the first answers were back. The Canadian club USS Bounty was similarly helpful, with the president writing to all the members asking them if they'd answer my questionnaire, which many did.
Other people and clubs responded, as did the “SevTrek” chat room participants.
I wrote to people and clubs from America, Alaska, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan and Australia. I received responses from all of these, except Japan, Singapore and Spain. However, I additionally received some from Argentina, England and Ireland, from people who happened to come across one of my guestbook entries.
Everyone who filled out the questionnaire or helped me in any way is credited at the end of the project, along with the literature I used.
I based the project on what I found out first-hand, and only took ideas and passages from printed literature for comparison with my findings (these are indicated in the text) and for information on the history of the series, fandom, and merchandising (not indicated).
bravenet.com