• Embroidered RAC Garments

Some examples of the shirts were displayed at the meeting.  People could place there order at that time.  Here is more information about how to place an order and other information.

This is from Phyllis Lang. It’s time to place another order for RAC logo garments. This time, we are offering embroidered polo shirts (2 slightly different styles), zippered hoodies and caps. Please log into your account on http://raleighastro.org and see the article “RAC Logo Garment Order”. The article is visible to logged-in members only. It includes more details, pictures, sizes, prices and an order form.To place an order print the order form which is available in the article at raleighastro.org.  Attach cash or check and give it to Mark Lang at Friday night’s meeting (8/23) or mail it to the address shown on the order form.  The ordering period will remain open until September 8. The order will be placed on Monday, September 9 so that garments will be ready for distribution at September’s RAC meetings.

  • Dark Site Observing Committee forming

Matt Lochansky is looking to put together a committee to look for a darker site.  Some considerations for this site – finding an astronomy friendly physical property we can rent reasonably close to home, electricity, security, light protection, internet connectivity, and budget friendly. If you are interested in helping out, please let Matt know.

  • Imaging Meeting 8/15/2013 Recap

This meeting went really well. This was a webcast and it was streamed out to members.  If you missed it, you can watch via the link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qca89mMPf68>

During the meeting, members could watch the stream during the meeting, by logging into the RAC website. If you were watching via the stream, this was not interactive.  It was interactive only for the people in the room. This will be true for other web meetings.  There is another webcast scheduled for the September meeting.

  • Schedule change for meeting to be considered.

The museum is open late on Thursdays and would like to schedule all meetings on Thursdays.  This is not just for RAC, but all meetings in the museum.  This schedule change would not affect RACOBS.  RACOBS will still be on Fridays.  Any indoor meetings for RACOBS would take place on Fridays.  This would only affect the main meetings.  Ian Hewett brought this up for the members to consider this possibility.  Read below to get more information on the subject.  Let Ian Hewett know if you have
an opinion.

Some follow up on this topic from Ian Hewitt: We had a brief discussion of some club business during this meeting and I wanted to follow-up on one of the topics. That is the fact that the museum would prefer if we could move the regular indoor meeting to Thursdays instead of Fridays. This is to reduce the impact of having to keep staff member at the museum during nights when they are not open.  (the museum is open late on Thursday). We had some discussion, but the officers did not get a sense about people’s feelings either way.  A couple of key things.

  1. Since it’s a Thursday, it may make sense to start at 7pm instead of 7:30.  Does this make sense?
  2. RACOBS and informal meetings would still be Fridays!
  3. Is Thursday as good a day as Friday, worse, or better?
  4. We would be able to use the Environmental Conference Center for our meetings.  (it’s in the NRC, the new building). This has a lot of advantages, including: more space, better A/C (not as stuffy), state of the art A/V (three projectors that can be slaved together) and access to the green roof.
  5. We would be able to set up a table (staffed or unstaffed) in the NRC with club material and have a sign or two to direct people to the meeting.
  6. The last question is the RAC after meeting dinner. Would we still want to do this on Thursday’s? Or create a new event at some other time during the month to get together and eat/socialize?
  • Thanks to everyone that brought food for the social.   It was a really good time.