While the founding members of OVNI shared interests in many books, movies, and television shows, overwhelmingly they were united in their love for Star Trek, its ideals, and its heavy emphasis on science.
OMNI combined accessible articles on futurism and scientific discoveries alongside some of the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors of its time. Its format exerted a strong influence on OVNI's hybrid existence as a science fiction + science club.
The first volume of VORTEX, an anthology magazine which carried science news, editorial columns, original fiction and artwork from OVNI members as well as submissions from other students at Charles Page High School.
In November of 1980, a group of passionate Star Trek fans met at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs to form a science fiction fan club, the first of its kind in the school district. Cezanne McHenry, one of the founding members and an early officer in the club, described the event with a November 10th article in the high school's weekly newspaper, The Sandtonian.
The formation of the new club had been inspired in part by Rodney Echohawk (a reporter for the town newspaper, the Sand Springs Leader) and his friend Steve Conn, both of whom had been co-founders of a similar organization at Oklahoma State University. While several possible names for the new club were bandied about during the first meeting, the one that was ultimately selected was a based on a pitch from Cezanne McHenry to call it OMNI in honor of the science and science fiction magazine of the same name which had begun publication in 1978. Foreign exchange student Monica Perez suggested instead that the club be named after the similar-sounding Spanish word OVNI which meant "an unidentified flying object in space," which appealed to the sensibilities of the founding members.
For the next five years, OVNI would carve out a unique identity at Charles Page High School, providing a safe space for geeks of many fandoms who otherwise were ostracized -- and sometimes even physically bullied -- by "normies" who couldn't understand or appreciate why things like Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Dungeons & Dragons, Dune, comic books, Stephen King, Ray Harryhausen movies, science fairs, or computer games were actually awesome and beneficial forms of entertainment.
During its history OVNI would screen popular sci fi movies at the high school, host game nights, encourage members to share scientific presentations, invite in speakers from NASA, and even hosted a proto convention in the form of a weekend "sleepover" in the CPHS gymnasium -- a fond and highly talked about memory for the attendees. When a high school English teacher refused to publish science fiction stories in the official school literary anthology because they were "trash", OVNI's future fourth president, Neal Hallford, got the support of journalism teacher Laura Schaub to create an alternative anthology, VORTEX, which mirrored the format of OMNI magazine, and included both news stories and genre fiction.
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OVNI's impact on its members was significant, and many of them remain close friends. Several went on to careers in science, while others took on careers as writers, reporters, artists, game designers, and teachers who continue to take inspiration every day from speculative media. With OVNIcon, the founders wish to share their discoveries and curiosity with our home community, and do what we can to fund and support the creative and scientific programs at Charles Page High School, out of which will spawn the next generation of creators, inventors, and problem solvers who will build that Star Trek future that we started towards in the 1980s.