Open Speculation on UFP Membership

[Ramage]

Hi gang, here is a big, ungainly question with No Right Answer that I would like to bat around a bit.

The UFP has, according to multiple sources, 150 member worlds. Now that seems like a lot, but consider the number of worlds visited in various Treks and you will quickly realize it is microscopic. A larger question looms, however. What about colonies?

Mars and Luna are both, by various sources, colonized with good sized populations. The Andorians are traditionally believed to have colonized other worlds. The same probably goes for the Vulcans, Tellarites, and Centaurans.

Now this begs the question of membership.

Take this quote from p.231 of the Players Guide of the new DecTrek: "Some long-established colonies, such as those on Mars, Rigel, and Deneva, are essentially member worlds, and life on these older colonies is indistinguishable from life on member worlds." Earlier in the same book it discussed the fact that "dozens" of planets apply for membership in the UFP every year and that something like 10% of these requests are from colonies.

So, is Mars a "member world"? If not, why not? What status do colonies, new or old, have? How many colonies does the UFP create, and is this seperate from the number created by individual worlds within the UFP?

Thanks for any and all responses!

[qerlin]

I would suspect that there are a fair amount of colonies that are members, but that there would be limits on membership based on population (has to have a certain amount of sentients) and the government type (if a colony has a government form or commits certain social habits that are faux pas with the UFP, they don't get in...)

Using these parameters, most colonies wouldn't qualify and would fall under the control of the Bureau of Colonial Affairs or would be independent worlds. Older, better settled ones like Mars, Ejul Thelni, Cimera III, etc. would be full member worlds.

[Sea Tyger]

Another possibility is that the Martian colonies eventually gained representation in Earth's government. So, while they are effectively a member planet in everything but name, Mars is a member state of the United Nations of Earth and, thusly, part of Earth's membership in the Federation.

[SIR SIG]

Plus, while it has happened on a few occasions. Rarely will one star system have 2 or more UFP members.

Exceptions to this rule would be the Kes/Pritt from the same planet but they didn't get there membership anyways.

[spyone]

IMO, Mars is perfectly happy being counted as part of Earth for purposes of representation in the UFP.

A colony would only seek Full Membership if it found representation by the parent body in some way undesirable. Reasons for that include (but are not limited to) difficulty in communication, divergant interests, and/or philisophical differences.
However, the UFP is also cautious about allowing members to increase their representation by granting colonies independance.

IMO, YMMV.

[calguard66]

Also, planets colonized by a single world and administered by that homeworld would fall into the "internal planetary affairs" category.

Colonies are usually formed for economic reasons, many of which reasons disappear of the colony becomes truely independant. (Trekanomics notwithstanding).

I imagine that the Federation would be loathe to interfere in such a situation, provided that the homeworld was not abusing it's colonists in a way that would violate some aspect of sapients' rights... and would likely be careful even then.

So, unless a colony was granted it's independance free and clear by the homeworld (or homeworlds, for multi-sponsor colonies), or was colonized by the Federation itself, I don't imagine they would qualify.

[CorpBoy]

Originally posted by calguard66
(Trekanomics notwithstanding).

Trekanomics. That's too funny...

CB

[Ramage]

Hmm, so it seems that the 150 planets we are talking about in the Trekiverse are actually just 150 cultures, rather than individual planets.

And, yes, trekinomics is a WONDERFUL topic for conversation.

I posted something on it two days ago, but apparently it fell through the cracks... let me try again

[Sea Tyger]

150 cultures? Probably more than that. How many distinct cultures do we have on Earth right now? Geez, how many do we have in the US alone?

[pesterfield]

Concerning Mars and membership. Spyone suggested reasons for seperate membership being communication difficulties, divergent interest and philisophical differences.

Let's see if any of those apply
comm. difficulties: I bet the Mars colonization was by humans as a whole, and not a single group, but considering the timespan a Martain language wouldn't be out of the question.

divergent interest: I could see some arising from the difference between Martian colonial and Terran.

philisophical differences: Definately. The descendants of people who had to live under domes before Mars was terraformed, verses Terrans who pretty much had everything handed to them.

Another reason I can think for membership is just wanting to be recognized as Martians.

[Ramage]

I have to agree with this, which is why I think that either the 150 members is low or the UFP does not stretch as far as it appears to on paper maps.

Let us assume that each of the five Founder Races (human, centauran, vulcan, andorian, tellarite) founded two or more colonies prior to the creation of the UFP. This is not unreasonable to say the least -- Mars, Luna, and various moons of Jupiter would be starting points to our own race. Let us assume, for no good reason other than state of argument, that the number is 2 colonies. This gives ups 15 planets at the beginning of the UFP.

We know that human colonization has continued strongly ever since the foundation of the UFP (2161 by DecTrek timeline). This means that in 200+ years of warp drive there have probably been a LOT of colonies founded. For sake of argument, let us say that a new colony is founded every 5 years, a lowball number but good for discussion. This would put 40 colonies into play.

As more members are added, it can be assumed that at least 30% of the new races have also colonized at least one other planet. How many member races are there? Betazoid, Trill, Bolian, Efrosian, Deltan, Benzite come easily to my mind, but we know there are many, many more than this. And I'm not going to bother to count the "protectorates" like Bajor.

Okay, all of this is strictly a thought puzzle, but it seems that in 200+ years of the UFP's existense there would be more than 150 members . If not, then there must be extremely high standards for changing one's status from Colony to Member, standards that may cause resentment. The other possible answer, one which I am much more comfortable with, is that the 150 members refers to seperate and distinct races, rather than individual worlds. If that were the answer, then I think the matter becomes much more plausible.

Thoughts?