General Northwest Regional Science Fiction Clubs and Organizations
Updated July 2, 2008


Other Non Northwest Regional Clubs & Organizations

Media Clubs & Organizations

Doctor Who
  • The Emerald City Androgums is a Doctor Who club that gets together once every month or two to watch some "Doctor Who" and the various new spinoff shows, catch up on the news, and eat Check them out if this is of interest to you.

  • Starship Achilles Star Trek club in the Portland/Vancouver and surrounding area. Official chapter of Starfleet International. Group has monthly meetings, attends movies, conventions, special events and more. A small but growing club.

  • The House of Kiln or Jesters of the Empire is a klingon club that cherishes humor, especially at the expense of Star Trek. Not sure what else is involved, but check the page for details. Their convention page indicates they will be visited some of the local conventions.

  • IKV Deathgrip! is a is a Klingon enthusiast organization stationed in the Seattle/PugetSound area of Washington State

  • The IKV T'Mar is an independent Klingon based general Science Fiction club in Tacoma, WA who perform random acts of charity and community service, in and out of costume.

  • The IKV Raptor is a Klingon enthusiast based general Science Fiction club located in the Portland, Oregon area and who also does acts of chairty and community service.
  • KIDC Washington State - Consulate Station - This is an affiliate of the Klingon Imperial Diplomatic Corps located real time in Walla Walla, WA. They describe by saying 'We're fairly new in that we've been an online recruiting station for about a year and are just wanting to get started real time in the local area.' (note that their free servers has popups and you might wish to keep popup blockers going)
  • Imperial Starbase Society They describe themselves as follows 'This is the dedicated Web Site for the Fan Club formerly known as Imperial Starbase Seattle.The originalImperial Starbase Seattle folded January 1st, 1996. However, due to the fact that there was still a lot of interest in this organization and with the permission of the original founders we decided to bring it back. As you may have noticed, we have renamed the organization to Imperial Starbase Society. The reason for this is simple: we don't want to limit ourselves to just the Seattle area.'

  • The International Federation of Trekkers (IFT) describe themselves as being 'one of the world leaders of Star Trek fandom founded with the help of Gene Roddenberry. We are a non-profit Star Trek fan club and organization with Star Trek chapters in the United States and around the world. IFT members and our IFT chapters raise funds for charities, perform public services, attend Star Trek conventions and events, write Star Trek fan fiction, and otherwise, have a lot of fun! We are also the official Star Trek fan club for New Voyages, a Star Trek fan film and fan movie that has become a huge online hit. Please explore our website to learn more about us and our goal of living TODAY Gene Roddenberry's dream of the future when he created Star Trek.' A nice page with links to a Granite Falls, Washington group and an Oregon based regional link.

  • Home of the MFI/USS John F. Kennedy - This is an Meridian, Idaho based group that describe themselves as: 'We are a general science fiction club located in Meridian, Idaho. Our members like all kinds of science fiction, horror and many other genres'

  • Region 5 for Starfleet International is the local northwest region including Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington for one of the premiere star trek organizations available. Either the region site or the general Stafleet International site are good places to begin to find out more about what is available. In particular, this is the first place to look for a local ship in your area.

  • Omega 1 Fleet is a Salt Lake City based group with a Star Trek emphasis. They describe themselves as follows 'We are a local based Star Trek fan club organization looking to expand the fleet by accepting existing ships, helping people to create new ships in their area, and recruiting new crewmembers for ships already in the fleet. Add your ship to our online database of fan clubs: The Omega 1st Fleet Alliance!'

  • S'harien Online is an adult star trek/science fiction/fantasy club for the Vancouver, BC, area. Check out their webpage for details about their social events and newsletter.

  • The Seventh Fleet describe themselves as being 'a Family of Star Trek Friends dedicated to having fun and helping our local communities in the spirit of the 24th Century. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, The Seventh Fleet also has chapters and corespondence members in other states and on US military assignments. There are no membership dues and remember to have fun every day.'

  • The Stormrider Fleet KAG West is another way to group the ever expanding population of "klingon" living among us. Not being quite sure how one group intersects with others or overlaps I add them because I noticed that they list our site and am happy to link back.

  • You can now get information about the Official Robert Picardo Fan Club from their Official Robert Picardo Home Page

  • USS SOL NCC-1733 otherwise known as the Fairbanks Ak. Star Trek Club describe themselves as being
    "Fairbanks Alaska's one and only Science Fiction Club." For those in Fairbanks it sounds like a good place to start.
  • Alpha Base is the Washington Chapter of Rebel Legion, a costuming group for those interested in the Rebels of Star Wars. The group has monthly business meetings, costume and prop workshops, attends conventions together and does appearances in support of charities.

  • The Cloud City Squad describes themselves as being "The Portland/Vancouver based Cloud City Squad of Garrison Titan is part of the 501st Legion - a Star Wars costuming fan club that currently holds a 1000+ membership in all 50 U.S. states and 21 countries worldwide. From Stormtroopers to Snowtroopers, Bounty Hunters to Sith Lords, the 501st is the premier Imperial Star Wars costuming fan club in the galaxy!" Check out their web site for more details.

  • The Dark Side Troopers describe themselves as being a "Star Wars costume enthusiasts serving in the Greater Portland, OR area. The purpose of our group is to bring together Star Wars costume enthusiasts and to use that enthusiasm for the good of our community by contributing to non-profit/not-for-profit organizations by making special appearances."

  • Emerald Squadron is Seattle based Star Wars group. In small letters you will find Seattle Star Wars Society. The site looks good. Check it out if this has interest for you.
  • Jedi Council of Spokane appears to be a fledgling Star Wars club making its inaugaral in the east side of Washington. Quoting from its founder 'Hi all, I am Jedi Los and I just moved to spokane. I'm one of the founders of the Jedi Council of Texas. I just moved here to Spokane and I would like to meet other fans in the area. I'm looking to talk about making a fan film, working on costumes and props and also getting together to go to any conventions that may be headed our way in the state of Washington. Thank you for your time' If you are in the Spokane area you might wish to check it out
  • Mos Everett Cantina is a chapter of the Fanforce USA, Pacific regional division. Their base of operations is in Everett, Washington They describe themselves as being 'a rag-tag band of Star Wars fans who also enjoy the Sci-Fi and Fantasy genre of movies, books and television. We plan fun activities and Convention Trips at our regular monthly meetings, and just BS about Sci-fi, Fantasy and Anime media. Besides fun sci-fi related activities, we also get involved with our communities through food drives and children’s gift drives.

  • Outerrim Squadron 501st. is a B C Squadron of the 501st Canadian Garrison belonging to the 501st Legion "Vaders Fist" Unofficial Costume Club specializing on cannon accurate costumes of the Empire in the Star Wars universe.

  • The Spokantina describe themselves as being "the Spokane, WA chapter of theforce.net's Star Wars fanforce clubs. We were started in August of 2004 and have members from Spokane and Coeur d'Alene, ID. We have an active costuming group, enjoy gaming, collecting, and attending conventions"


Stargate SG1/Atlantis
  • The Jaffa Legions are a Stargate SG1 / Atlantis fan club dedicated to spreading charity awareness, and to having an enjoyable time in charitable service. They regularly host LAN gaming parties and other events at sci-fi conventions held in the Northwest. The Jaffa Legions are based in Seattle, WA.
Babylon 5
  • NW B-5 is the web presence for Babylon 5 in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and Northern Washington state. Specifically, this is an online group of people who meet primarily either via mailing lists or the usenet and occasionally as they indicate on their main page 'occasionally get together for functions at local coffee shops
Serenity and Firefly
  • Vancouver Firefly/Serenity Meetup Group is a group of Firefly and Serenity fans that meets in the Vancouver, British Columbia region. Check out their meetup web site and see if it fits in for you.

  • Canadian Browncoats is a group with more than 400 members from across Canada who are getting to know each other, attending Shindigs, sharing ideas, stories, pictures, artwork, news articles, convention info and just about anything related to Firefly, Serenity and the Jossverse in general.
Goth
Steampunk in the Northwest

  • The Seattle Steamrats is a steampunk organization in the northwest that describes itself as being "a resource for members of the Steampunk community residing in and around the Seattle area". If you are unaware of this phenomena check out the wikipedia article on it.
Animation Clubs and Organizations
  • ASIFA-Northwest describes themself as being "the Pacific Northwest’s foremost organization for the animation community, with a collective membership of professional animators, filmmakers, students, teachers and fans as well as affiliated professions such as voice-over actors, composers, puppeteers, illustrators and cartoonists. The Northwest has a rich history of experimental and independent animation, as well as commercial production in the areas of stop-motion, computer graphics visualization, interactive and video game animation. The mission of ASIFA-Northwest is to promote the art of animation and foster the development of the animation industry in the Pacific Northwest, including Oregon, Washington, and Western B.C. Canada."

  • The TeleFantasy Appreciation Society of Canada is, in their own words, 'TASC (aka "Telefantasy Appreciation Society of Canada") is a fan appreciation dedicated to classic and current British and American science fiction, fantasy, telefantasy and cult television programs. ' If you are anywhere near where they having events, socials and more you might wish to check this site out. Quite elegantly laid out, as it happens.

  • Quickdraw Animation Society (QAS) describe themselves as being " incorporated as a non-profit society in 1984. QAS’s mandate is to support and encourage the production of innovative independent animation and to develop the appreciation of all types of animation as a viable artistic medium. The principles engaged in at QAS are: inclusion, co-operation, active participation by youth, and positive support and encouragement among the members." They are a Alberta, Canadian based group.
Convention Enertainment and Service Oriented
  • Bio-Hazard is noted for some of the more over the top entertainment (aka parties) that you might see at Norwescon. They maintain a web site for the organization that puts on these events. Please note that there is the potential of nudity in some places on the site. However, if you interested in what these parties are and how to contact the people who put them on, this is the place to go.
  • Clan Burnout is a long standing service organization at cons as well as live role playing. Their web site is a forum for those activities.

  • DevaWeb describe itself as being 'the realm of the nefarious Merchants of Deva Fan Organization. Purveyors of refined debauchery, distillers of alcoholic concoctions man was not meant to know. Pan-dimensional partiers extraordinaire, responsible for imposing the outré events of Demolition Drinking, the S.L.A.V.E. Auction, Invasion: FIFE and The Gauntlet upon unsuspecting conventions far and wide. The Merchants of Deva: Music, Mayhem and Mixology.' They certainly are all that and more. Look for them at the upcoming Westercon in Portland

  • The Oregon Festivals & Events Association is a collaboration of the many organizers and groups that accept the social, artistic and economic challenges of promoting and managing Oregon's community Festivals and Events. We explore the business and art of producing festivals and events through continued education, sharing knowledge and comparing the all the resources available.
Filking Organizations
  • The Emerald Forest Filk Society describe themselves from their web site as "a group of people devoted to extending the knowledge and experience of the musical form known as Filk throughout the region of the Greater Puget Sound (Oregon, Washington, and parts of British Columbia). "

  • DenverFilk is a closed yahoo group for Denver Filkers.
Anime Clubs, Organizations and Resources

  • Anime Checklist (a comprehensive listing of Japanese Animation since 1917)
  • Anime News Network Most trustworthy anime & manga news source on the net. Also, the encyclopedia is one of the largest collection of anime & manga on the world wide web.
  • NAAPAC is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Anime Conventions throughout the United States (including offshore territories) and Canada. NAAPAC is not a convention, nor is it a legislative body. NAAPAC does not determine policy. NAAPAC exists to offer financial (through grants), material, and advisory support to Anime Conventions in an effort to help them grow and prosper. NAAPAC functions as "guild" of anime conventions in order to promote the sharing of ideas and create a spirit of unity among anime fans.
Science Related Fannish Clubs
  • The Oregon L5 Society is a northwest Portland based group with the goal of educating the public on the uses of space and establishing a spacefaring civilization.

  • NSS Seattle or the western Washington chapter of the National Space Society is a Seattle based group with the focus of educating the public about space and getting us into space.

  • The Vancouver Robotics Club is based in BC and among other things sponsors a Robotics Competition. Check their web site and details for time and place.
Artist Clubs and Organizations
  • The Portland Graphic Artists Guild describe themselvess as being "a national union of art professionals who have come together to pursue common goals, share experiences, raise industry standards, and improve the ability of visual creators toachieve satisfying and rewarding careers.The Guild is made up of individuals who work in many disciplines including: illustration, graphic design, photography, cartooning, web design, multimedia, surface design and others. The experience, wisdom, and activism of our members, accumulated over 32 years, is by far our greatest resource."

  • The Seattle Graphic Artists Guild describe themselves as promoting and protecting "the economic interests of its members. It is committed to improving conditions for all creators of graphic art and raising standards for the entire industry. The Guild is a national union that embraces creators at all level of skill and expertise who produce graphic art intended for presentation as originals or reproduction."

  • Vancouver 3D Club This group describe themslves as bringing " together professionals, hobbyists and those with general interest to exchange ideas/techniques and to promote/host functions related to 3D imaging processes.'
Comic Book Clubs and Organizations
  • Cartoonists Northwest describe themselves as " An Association of professional and amateur cartoonists, animators, and illustrators based in the Pacific Northwest."

  • Comic Book Legal Defense Fund describe themselves as being "founded in 1986 as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community." Although they have a northeast base, this should be of interest to northwest comic artist, writers and others as well.

  • Friends of Lulu describe themselves as being "a national nonprofit organization whose purpose is to promote and encourage female readership and participation in the comic book industry." They have an active group in New York with dormant groups formerly in LA and San Francisco.

  • National Association of Comics Art Educators(NACEA) This Vermont based group describes themselves as follows "The National Association of Comic Art Educators is an organization committed to helping facilitate the teaching of comics in higher education. The increasing numbers of young artists who have chosen comics as their medium of expression continues to grow rapidly. Colleges and universities have been slow to acknowledge and engage these students."

Readers, Writers, Artists or Literary Genre Groups
  • Tai Pan: Tales of the Tai Pan Universe is a fanzine with an emphasis on furry fandom or anthopomorphic art and fiction. They also have several social events during the year including at least one on an SF theme that does not relate to their own project. Check their web site out and contact them via email for details.

  • Telgar Weyr: A Dragon Riders of Pern Fan Club

  • The Northwest Tolkien Society is just as it sounds, a the Northwest Branch of the Tolkien Society, a group dedicated to all things Tolkien. They are also the sponsors of TolCon, the Seattle area based Tolien convention.

  • Writers Cramp is a West Seattle based writers group that has been going for a number of years. Genre based in their choice of material, they have several Clarion graduates numbered among their members as well as a Writers of the Future winner.
Costuming and Props Clubs and Organizations
Gaming/Modeling Groups and Organizations

 

  • The Kingdom of An Tir Infoscroll is the local Kingdom's information source for our particular niche of the known universe. If you are not aware of the Society of Creative Anacronisms and its status as the originator of what it is to do live action role playing then you are in for an interesting experience. For more information about the SCA in general check out their Web Site

  • The Camarilla is a vampire fan organization that has a number of domains in the region. Among others, the Seattle domain is possibly a good place to start as is the Northwest Regional Web for the Camarilla.

  • The Empire of the Elan is a theatrical live role-playing group that invites other science fiction groups to come and participate in an environment that promotes interaction between all the diverse groups at the local conventions. On occasion there are several visiting royals from other realms both within and without the science fiction community most notably the SCA. As with every Imperial Court, there will be other science fiction/fantasy groups with presentation, awards to members past and present, declarations of war, and announcements of betrothals and possible wedding vows. The Empress awards the dragon's Heart Award to members of the Science fiction community in the NW that have gone above and beyond the call of duty. The Elan Empire currently is looking to increase its ranks with people who love acting and stagecraft.

  • Legacies LARP is a fantasy themed Live Action Role Playing game based in Western Washington. Weekend long games occur once a month, at Washington State Park ELC's, or Boyscout campgrounds. Combat is full contact using boffer weapons usually constructed of foam and latex and is completely safe.

  • NERO Alliance Seattle is a High Fantasy LARP which focuses on the weaving of epic tales with you as the heroes and heroines. They hold weekend long events at Washington State Enviromental Learning Centers about 8 times a year. Check out their web site for details.

  • Realms II describes itself as being a live-action role playing game that uses a boffer system to simulate combat. Based on a system begun on the east coast, it is being resecurrected in the Northwest. Check their web site for details and places and times.

  • Syndicated Planets is an economics based, science-fiction genre, live action role-playing group. In their universe the government is run by the MAFIA and piracy can be legal, but in all fairness, just having fun is the accepted norm.

  • Seattle Spiel is a web site for Seattle Boardgame Community.

  • YAGA (aka Young Adult Gaming Assosiation produces 2 games, Pathways and Scions. Both are Live Action Roleplay games that use boffer weapons. Pathways is a game set in the future, where players encounter hundreds of races and have to deal with their normal lives. The setting is both in depth and very well done. Scions is set in a more fantasy medieval type of atmosphere, where the gods select "adventurers" to help maintain the universe. Again a very well thought up idea and both game are very fun to play. Located in Seattle, Washington
General Gaming
  • Dragonflight is the organization side of the Seattle based gaming group that has three main activities designed 'to promote gaming in the area, sponsor a gaming club called the Metro Seattle Gamers, and to put on an annual gaming convention called Dragonflight'

  • MegaGamers Club at Pacific State University - This is a Portland, Oregon based group with a gaming emphasis. Check them out and see if they are right for you.

  • nwgamers.org describes itself as being 'Portal to gaming in the greater Spokane area.' It certainly is a virtual community from which you can probably find more info about what is happening in the Spokane area.

  • Oregon State Univeristy's gaming club. They describe themselves as follows: "Every Friday during the term, we gather to socialize and play a muliltude of board games, card games, role playing games, cheap-ass games, home-brewed games, and many others. All level players are welcome, and we provide instructions for all the games that we play! Check out the schedule page for every meeting location and time, and also take a look at our links section for resources to many of the games we play"

  • The University of Oregon Gaming Club describe themselves as being "a student-run organization for gaming enthusiasts of all kinds. We play board games, role-playing games, CCGs, large group games, and just about everything else under the sun, and we are always open to new games and new people! Just bring yourself, your friends, and your games to us, and we'll give it a try. "

  • Seattle Sputnik is a Seattle based group for game developers that meets monthly. Check their web site for details about their mailing list and information about their group.

  • Regional Role Players Guild This group is a Non-Profit Organization for Role Players based in the Boise Idaho Area. They also are actively involved in a new gaming convention for the Idaho area known as Oktobercon.

  • Greater Oregon Mayhem Committee - This Wilamette Valley gaming group describes themselves as follows: 'We are a group of Gamers, part of the Willamette Valley Gaming Society. Along with a wide ranging interest in all things Gaming, we enjoy demonstrating our favorite Games at Conventions, Game Stores, Comic Shops, Gaming Club meetings, pretty much anywhere that will have us…. '

  • Willamette Valley Gaming Society. They describe themselves as " A meeting place for members of the Willamette Valley Gaming Society. Open to all, meet people, discuss games and stuff, set up game times, talk about game stores, etc,"

PC and Video Gamers
  • VCVGC or Vancouver Classic Video Games Club is a Vancouver based group with an interest in collecting and sharing information about classic video games.

  • Party Northwest describe themselves as follows and let me emphasize that they are a LAN group " I will start off with "LAN". L.A.N. Local Area Network. With that said, it is bascily a bunch of gamers who come together, hook their computers, plug into the network, and play games until their eyes bleed. Both men and women attend LANs, some LANs include tournaments inwhich the winners may win computer products sent to the LAN by sponsors. Usally there is food provided... Pizza and POP... and a cool drink call BAWLS." Check out their web site and see if this is a group for you.

  • Northwest Classic Games Entusiasts indicate on their web site that if it has pixels they are for it. They also have a NorthWest Classic Gaming Weekend you might want to check their web site for.

  • SpokLAN is a Spokane based LAN gaming group. They describe themselves as follows: 'SpokLAN is a non-religious (and pretty much no-profit) online and  physical organization devoted to computers, the things we do with computers, gamers, their social interaction and multi-player gaming. On a regular basis, usually monthly, SpokLAN holds an event called a SMo-g. The name SMo-g was born during a January morning via several IM sessions between the ones who got all of this going. Rather than call our event a "LAN Party", which in essence they are, we thought we needed some kind of name that stood for something. Thus, SMo-g was born

  • The mission of the LAN Party Coalition is to support the proliferation of LAN and online based gaming in the midwest. While this falls outside of the northwest focus of our group, this might be a group fo interest to some of our visitors that do not live in the northwest.
Models, Miniatures and Legos
Service and Volunteer Organizations
  • The Order of St. Chiros is a Christian fannish service organization active in many local conventions.

  • AOV or Association of Operations Volunteers is a 501C3 organization with a stated goal to assist other events and organizations. Their focus stretches far beyond fannish events but they are actively involved in training throughout the northwest, providing equipment, personnel and technical support and producing specialized equipment.

  • Reading For the Future Northwest - Reading for the Future is a volunteer organization whose aim is to increase the readership of speculative fiction by K-12 students. RFF Northwest is the Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska and Pacific Northwest Canada chapter of RFF. Working with teachers, libraries, writers and readers, RFF provides books, booklists and curriculum materials that use and promote science fiction.


Online Communities of interest to Fandom