February 24, 2014
Attended: Ian Hewitt, Mike Keefe, Chris Cole, Ann Murphy, Chuck Jaynes
- Open Actions/Old Business – All
Constitution/Bylaws Amendment Part II – Ian Hewitt
Term Limits –
There was a good level of interest. Ian will possibly call a meeting in March for the committee. There are some questions around how to implement. One question would be – Are we talking about minimum and maximum being the same? I.E. Co-chair would be three years and Secretary and Treasure being two years?
Other Items
Various other items were raised in the committee. There was a concern expressed over the requirement that any expense over $50 needs officer approval, but the club approval is not needed. However there is no minimum expense that needs to be brought to the club for approval. A suggestion would be expenses over $500.00. Another concern expressed was the fact that the officers had sole discretion over ousting a club member. There was no appeal process.
Phone Line Conversion – Mike Keefe
Mike will provide Jerry with new form and process to request number porting.
Web Site Update Status – Ian Hewitt or Mike Keefe
There has not been much more progress since last time. Officers to set up a LastPass account and send information to Mike Keefe. The AstroDays web site is in good shape. There was a request for Ian to provide some statistics on Astronomy Days web site.
RAC Inventory Listing – All
There was some discussion on how to properly note the disposition. Ann Murphy will provide a record in the appendix for disposal. For loaner telescopes, a link is sufficient.
- Speakers/Meetings –All
In Saturn’s Rings topic –
Mike Keefe made contact with Kevin McAbee. Kevin Macabee and his wife are more than happy to come and talk to the club. He is not sure that he has ever talked to the club.
Pamela Gay
Mike Keefe is awaiting a response from Pamela Gay. Mike Keefe gave her the list of available dates. He left the topic up to her. An interesting topic would be hearing about her experiences for social media. She can speak during the Spring, and Fall months. Mike Keefe will nail down a date for her to speak.
Matthew Goodson
Ian Hewitt will contact Matthew Goodson.
Other Ideas
Mike Keefe will look into the NCSU contacts. These contacts include Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Blondin and Dr. Frolick.
Ian Hewitt will touch base with Dr. Reichart from UNC.
The club can utilize other amateurs. These would include club members. Phyllis Lang could speak on Light Pollution. Mike Keefe will provided dates for her to speak, so that she can pick from these dates.
Ann Murphy will look at possible speakers from Astronomy League meeting.
- Policy Updates –All
Policy of Meetings open to the Public
Members raised concerns about having our meetings open to the public. This could cause a legal concern. This issue needs to be raised in a club meeting discussion. An attorney should be consulted regarding the A/V release and meetings open to the public statement. Ian Hewitt will contact Pat for consultation with his brother.
RAC participation in events that charge admission.
RAC has participated in events that charge admission. Currently this is decided on a case by case basis as to whether we participate. This issue needs to be raised in a club meeting discussion.
Dinner for Speakers
Members have sent feedback concerning this topic. It was felt that the club should just pay the speaker’s dinner, but not the members’ dinner. Ian Hewitt would like to get feedback from members. He would like to know if there would ever be a circumstance where a member’s dinner would be paid for.
- Budget Review – Chuck Jaynes
The 2014 budget is out on google docs. This budget includes the Brick House fee for every other month. This is the meeting place for the imagers. This would equate to six times a year. There would be more meetings during the spring and fall and fewer meetings during Christmas time and summer. Currently the club is $600 in the red for this year. This is taking into account the current dues and spending. At the end of last year the budget was barely in the black. Currently, the club has a credit card. Investigation needs to be done to see if there is a way to draw from the account, instead of being tied to a person as currently. This will prevent need for the card to change when the treasure changes.
- New Member Experience – All
There needs volunteers for a welcoming committee. People will greet the public before the meeting. If there is enough people, this should only be once or twice a year. The museum can provide a table and the small RAC banner could hang on it. There only needs to be two or three people to man the table at a time. The committee should consists of about nine people or so. Mike Keefe will take an action item to form the committee.
At RACOBS Mike Keefe and Doug Lively have been welcoming members as they set up. This could be part of the welcoming committee also.
- Public Observing Schedule – All
First Fridays
Can the club do First Fridays? The summer may not be a good time, since it gets dark so late. This could happen in the Fall.
North Cary park
This is a good setup. However, the club is running short on time to set this up. The question remains, can something be set up during the summer.
Lunar Eclipse April 15th
This eclipse will happen very early in the morning. This probably cannot be a public viewing session, since not much of the public will turn out for an early morning observing session.
Statewide Star Party
This is happening in April.
NC Museum of Art
Ian Hewitt was contacted by the North Carolina Museum of Art. The Young Professional Contemporaries would like the club to assist with this limited or public event. This group may charge admission, but not sure yet. This group would like to do it in August.
NRC on Green Roof
This event is called “Welcome Party for ASTC”. Observing will take place 6pm to 11:30 on the Green Roof of the NRC or the observing may take place outside in front of the museum. This is the Science Centers and Museum Conference and is very important to the museum. The website is ASTC.org.
Prairie Ridge Observing
Mike Keefe will reach out to Prairie Ridge for fall session.
Broadcast images from green roof on indoor meetings
Could some of the video astronomers broadcast images from the green roof on indoor meetings? This may be better during the Fall, Winter and Spring. In the Summer, it gets dark very late.
- Loaner Scope Program – Mike Keefe
Current request for expense approval
John Irwin has put together a list of items that the club wants to purchase. This would be in the range of $100 to $120. This equipment would be to get a telescope up and running. Mike Keefe will resend the email called “new loaner scope. 2 or 3 eye pieces”.
Moving towards a Astrophotography Program
This will get people started in Astrophotography. Mike Keefe would like to purchase some cheap webcams and mounts for the loaner program. Currently, there is a fair amount of equipment that is not being loaned out and used. He proposes that we take some of the equipment that is not used a lot in the loaner program and sell it. Then use the proceeds to purchase som
e astrophotography equipment. This will be part of the loaner program. Steve Izzo is open to being a contact for members that have questions on astrophotography. Members are interested, but not willing to make a private investment into the equipment. Mike Keefe will put a proposal out to discuss in March. - Education Program Update – Ian Hewitt/Mike Keefe
Mike Keefe used Google hangout to go over what was scheduled so far and to solicit feedback. The people who were interested, would like to stay with it. They would like to help teach or run the program.
Traditionally, this program had a one size fits all philosophy. It was a good start. But now there is a need to have something more specific. These sessions need to be modeled like the sessions with Astronomy days. However, they will be longer.
The format is set up so that sessions will be once a month. Every month the topic will alternate. There are three core classes that we want to have.
The Equipment Clinics will be outside on top of the parking garage at NRC. This is a good venue. We will work more with culmination. The fourth floor room will be for classes. The museum is handling the registration for all the classes, except the Equipment Clinics. RAC will handle the registration for the Equipment Clinics.
- Astronomy Days – Mike Keefe
Final Tally
The final count for the event was about 10,000 people, but it was closer to 12,000.
Feedback
There was not a lot of feedback. The feedback that the club received was mostly from Brian Reasor.
Astronomy Lectures
There were so many lectures. These were well attended. Museum is looking to get numbers and counts for them. The format of having every hour was really good. However, there was a need to balance them out. Perhaps they should be organize into three tracks. These tracks would be Space, UNC and Astronomy track. This would be helpful for the level of depth and speakers. This can help people determine which talks to attend.
RAC Conduct
RAC cohosts the Astronomy Days. Members are representatives for our club and should behave professionally.
Yahoo Group Email Prefixes – Mike
Mike Keefe has a simple proposal. This will help everyone in the yahoo group, not just imager or observers. What if the first word of the subject line of any post to the yahoo group referred to a set predefined topics such as:
Imaging
Club Biz
Outreach
Observing
Advertising
Mike Keefe will re-poll the membership to see if there is a need for separate groups. The discussion will take place in March. Mike will get together statics on the usage of the current two groups for the discussion.
- Other Items – All
NCSU Astronomy Club
The students at NCSU are forming an astronomy club. They indicated that they will be glad to do things in conjunction with RAC. The RAC club should provide support. The club should do everything that we can to provide an outlet and focus on the next generation. The club can help if they need speakers or expertise. Currently, they are recognized as a club by university and the Physics department knows about them.
Some questions were discussed. One is how to handle RACOBS. It was decided that the club can support them coming to RACOBs and the regular meetings. The second question brought up was – Are they only students studying astronomy or is it any major. They have people in other fields.
Social Media Credential/Access
The club is looking to increase our presence with the social media. There is a need to investigate tools to tie the social media together, so that it is easy to update. This tool would have to manage tritter and facebook. This will let the club get a handle on people following the club on the social media.
Ian Hewitt will investigate a tool called HootSuite. This tool can schedule tweets and facebook updates. There is a free service and a subscription service. Ian will try the free service first. This tool is designed for brand management.
Social Media Management
Ian Hewitt to investigate HootSuite
