Officer for the meeting: Phyllis Lang

There were many topics brought up for the business meeting.  They included the phone line, Public Observing, Big Woods Key Holder summary, the Observer’s Handbook, Astronomy Days planning, the pros and cons of having the meeting in the Daily Planet Cafe and other topics.  See below for more information.

  • Phone Line

There was some discussion about whether to keep the phone line.  Right now we have a phone set up.  It costs about 250 dollars per year to maintain.  It is used to record messages and for the RACOB Go/No-go messages.  It is being used less and less.  There have been on average six calls per month.  During the meeting, about five members used it during the last year.

The next topic was to use a virtual voice mail, such as Magic Jack.  This would record outgoing messages and save messages.  An email trigger would be sent whenever there was a message.  We would keep the same number.  It would be accessible outside and inside the 919 area code.  It would have the same look and feel as a phone number.  The costs would be 110 dollars to set up and then 20 dollars per year.

It was brought up that the club has four online methods for information – Web page, Yahoo group, Twitter and Facebook.  It was also brought up that during Astronomy Days, some people were interested in knowing that there was a phone number.  Also during Astronomy Days, many used the smart phone symbol to get more information as well.

The choice presented in the poll and to the people attending the meeting was:

  1. Discontinue Phone Service
  2. Continue Phone Service using virtual voice mail

Here are the results when the online vote is reckoned against the live vote.  So taking the online vote count and filtering out the votes that were cast in person. Then add the filtered online vote to the live vote, this totals to 23 to maintain phone service with virtual voice mail and 20 to discontinue phone service.  So the conclusion is to maintain the phone service using the virtual voicemail option.

  • ·Public Observing

Saturday, October 20, 2012, 07:30pm – 09:30pm – Annie Wilkerson Nature Preserve

There were about 12 who could show up to help out with this event.  Brian Reasor will post at 5pm that day as to whether the weather has cooperated for this event. If you are able to assist with this event, please bring your scope.

  • Staunton River Star Party – A grill out?

There are a lot of left over hamburgers from the picnic and Phyllis put out the idea to have a grill out for those attending the star party 10/15 – 10/21.  There was some discussion about a fundraiser that was happening at the same time.  So this idea was really finalized.

  • Big Woods Key Holder Summary

This was a summary of the Big Woods Key holder procedures.  The keys are now to be more closely monitored than before.  Some highlights include that there must be a Key Holder present at all times during the observing, an email must be sent out to the rangers by 5pm regarding whether there will be an observing session – this includes RACOBS and ad-hoc, all key holder email information will be sent to the rangers for their information.  Of course, the key holders must never share their keys.  For ad-hoc observing, the rangers would like notice that this might happen the day before or on the last working day.  By 5 pm the day of the observing, the final decision is made on whether to go.  There is a document that all key holders must read in order to be familiar with the rules.

  • Observer’s Handbook

Phyllis Lang spoke about the handbook.  She is interested in getting a group discount.  The book covers many observing topics including meteors, comets, planets, and the sky.  It shows the sky month to month for the year.  It has 350 pages of information.  The cover price is 38.20 dollars for an individual copy.  It is 26.95 dollars for 2 to 9 copies and 23.95 dollars for 10 to 25 copies.  This includes shipping and handling.  There were at least 10 members interested during the meeting.  She put this out in the yahoo group as well. Please contact her if you are interested in a copy.  If she has not ordered them already, you can be included in the group discount.

  • ·August meeting in the Daily Planet Cafe

There were many suggestions and comments about this new venue.  This was a cafe and a limited menu was served for the evening.  Ian Hewitt spoke for this meeting.  Some of the suggestions, pros and cons are listed below:

  • Need to have two mikes. One for the speaker and one for the person asking the questions.
  • Ian Hewitt would have liked a lapel mike.
  • In the height of summer would not be a good time, since the sun is setting where the speaker is speaking.
  • Great for Panel discussions.
  • Could eat earlier, although some people still went out afterwards.
  • The menu was a bit limited.
  • Some of the slides were hard to read, depending on the angle.  You could look behind, but not see the speaker as you were looking at the slide.
  • Was a bit hard to hear closer to the kitchen.
  • It was bright and airy.  A good change of pace.
  • I believe they have Wi-Fi in that area – may be a feature if needed.
  • The temperature was comfortable.
  • This could be used every so often, but not for every meeting.
  • Miscellaneous
  • Since astronomy days have been moved to January now, a question was asked as to how long we have to discuss it.  Really we have next month.  It will have to be planned over email.
  • Web Master is now Michael Kidd.  Treasurer is now Chuck Jaynes.
  • Dinner was at Tripp’s.