Date: August 5th, 2013
Attended: Ann Murphy, Ian Hewitt, Chris Cole, Chuck Jaynes
1) Constitution Update –All
The constitution needs to be updated to
- Align to current operational needs. This includes what is needed for a quorum and scheduling for main meeting.
- Make the constitution as flexible as possible.
- Insure alignment to legal requirements.
A committee needs to be created to review the constitution. Ian Hewitt has solicited for feedback on topics from the membership. He did receive some information. This will be a starting point for the committee, but anything can be open for consideration.
The committee needs to be kicked off in the month of August or at least by the September meeting. A process was proposed for the amendments. The committee will identify issues, discuss, and then determine the changes to recommend if particular changes will be brought to the club membership for discussion.
The officers did approve that if, necessary pizza could be provided to the committee . This was approved by all of the officers.
2) Speakers/Meetings –All
The August meeting did not have a speaker. It was decided to have the social for this meeting. This would solve two problems. The first problem was that August did not have a speaker and the second was that the social was not planned for September.
Except for August, the meetings are booked through October. The dates for the meetings through 2015 are stored on Google Docs.
Another topic discussed was the web speaker scheduled for the Imaging group on August 15th. This meeting will happen at the museum on a Thursday. It will be streamed out for those that cannot attend.
There was some discussion around the issues of a webcast. If RAC sponsors a webcast, there needs to be an A/V release from the speaker. The speaker must be made aware that the talk will be streamed. This needs to be done before streaming or recording the talk.
The last topic discussed was a policy about taking an audio/video/images of the club during meetings/events. This policy would be included in the new membership information to advise members that joining RAC gives permission to use these images for approved purposes. This policy would include any newsletter article and image used on the web site. (not in the RAC gallery). The club would have rights rights to the article and images (not in the RAC gallery) and can re-distribute it, for approved purposes, without seeking explicit permission of the original contributor. For the RAC gallery images, the owners would still have to give permission to share/use the images. This policy change will be brought to the club for a vote.
Action Item: Mike Keefe will draft the policy in place.
3) Budget Review – Chuck Jaynes
It was decided by the officers that there was no need look at the dues structure, since the budget is very close to breaking even. Currently, the phone bill is the only bill outstanding.
There was a discussion about making a formal policy about speaker dinner expenses. Currently there are inconsistent ways that this is applied by the officers. It was agreed that the speaker and their significant other is taken to dinner at the club’s expense. The person(s)/officer(s) hosting the speaker are not covered by the club, except explicitly approved in advance by the Executive Committee.
Phone Line Replacement Update/Schedule – Mike Keefe
The Magic Jack was ordered, but did not meet the club’s needs. We received no equipment, but Mike was charged. Working on a refund. Mike Keefe found another solution – envoice. The plan starts at $9.95 per month. If a number is ported, then the cost is $19.95 per month. The startup costs are waived for a nonprofit organization. It will take three weeks to port. The number will be ported as was voted earlier. (Please note that it was later determined that Segway provided a better cost and this service was chosen instead).
5) Apparel – Ian Hewitt
This involves getting RAC apparel with the RAC logo embroidered on the front. Phyllis Lang is handling the details. She is looking at the company Spectrum. Ian Hewitt is concerned that there seems to be no online ordering and someone has to hand manage the orders. Ian Hewitt asked Phyllis Lang to look into this with Spectrum..
6) Public Observing Schedule – All
Some potential public observing sessions that have been proposed by/to the officers. The officers will meet with various members to determine the fall/winter public observing schedule.
The Perseids meteor shower will be best viewed 8/12-8/13. This will not be a public viewing session, but a members only event, since it will be at Big Woods. Mike Keefe will publish this for anyone that wants to attend.
session at North Cary Park public observing session.
Prairie Ridge Ecostation observing session.
Annie Wilkerson Morning Comet Showing
Possibly host a “Coffee and a Comet” in December with/at the Museum. This will be at 6:30am-7:16am in December at the museum. The museum will provide coffee for everyone. This time may catch people before going to work.
With respect to dates, the best times may be:
In September , the planets Venus and Saturn are setting early. Potential dates are Thursday, September 26. Other Options are Saturday, September 21 or September 28. Since the RACOBS is 9/27 and we probably will observe on the Saturday as well, it was determined the best date was 9/21.
In October, the best date may be October 26. This was due to the fact that the Moon is in third quarter and Uranus and Neptune will be visible.
In November will be a good showing of the comet ISON, but only in the AM.. Morning twilight begins about 5:30am. The moon will be in the first quarter and November 16th is a full moon. Saturday November 23rd was dismissed, due to the fact that the moon will still be up and it is Thanksgiving weekend.
7) Museum Update – Ian Hewitt
On 8/15, which is the date of the Imaging Meeting at the Museum, there is a scavenger hunt going on at the museum. This may impact the location of the imaging meeting.
For future scavenger hunts, the Museum has asked if we would consider having an activity (like observing, having to find something) as one of the events. These hunts require pre-registration and have a capped attendance. RAC should consider this, but no decision was made.
Policies/Other
Promotion Requests – Ian Hewitt
The officers discussed the need for a policy about promotions, since more requests are coming in on this. As a club, we do not do commercial promotions. If it is something like movie passes,a discount for all of our membership, or something that does not require us to promote the activity, then that is acceptable. If the club is expected to promote materials at events, then that is not something that we can do.
RAC Participation in Events
For events that require an admissions fee, in general this is not accepted. Exceptions can be granted on a case by case basis.
New member experiences
The officers discussed how to improve the new member experience. This is something that the club needs to improve (based on some past observations).
One suggestion was to have a greeting table at the meetings. This table could be worked by one or two people. These people would not just be officers, since officers tend to get pulled away for other things. The people working the table could be rotated from a group of volunteers. This will prevent someone from always having to work the table at every meeting. The table will have business cards and brochures. It would also distribute the badges and have write on badges. This would allow us to identify visitors and start a positive interaction with
them. It will also make it easier to track attendees.
Another item discussed was that people should not put the guests on the spot and ask them to speak at the meetings. This may intimidate them and is now recognized as bad practice.
RACOBS: There should be one or two people at RACOBS specifically to answer questions and make the new people feel more comfortable. This could be rotated with a group of volunteers.
Education Program – Ian Hewitt
Currently there is a beginning telescope class. This class combines learning about how to work a telescope and a beginning astronomy. This session seems to run too long and the outdoor classroom can get ver cold, causing people to leave. It seems that we should split the class and teach a getting started workshop, and then a basic telescope class which is more hands-on. There also seems to be a need for a class for after you have learned how to operate your telescope and you need to fine tune things. Mike Keefe was thinking of five classes – Getting Started in Astronomy, Getting Your Kids Started in Astronomy,, beginning telescope, intermediate telescope/astronomy, and Beginning Astrophotography.
The officers will solicit for volunteers for these classes. Ian will get the with the museum about the seminars Getting Started, Getting Your Kids Started, and the Astrophoto seminars.
Astronomy days – Ian Hewitt for Mike Keefe
Mike Keefe made an announcement at the meeting regarding Astronomy days. This event will occur January 25th and 26th. Need more people to fill the exhibit lead slots and the seminars and workshops for this event. Planning meetings will be coming soon. Mike Keefe hopes to conduct these via the web. This avenue may be able to engage more people.
11) Web Site – All
There has been a small focus group which has had a series of meetings on updating the web site. There is a write up on the current status reviewed by the officers which Ian will make available to the membership. The update will occur in phases and it will be released it to a small set of testers initially. If you want to be involved in the development or the testing, please talk to Mike Keefe/Ian Hewitt.
