Attended: Ann Murphy, Ian Hewitt, Chris Cole, Mike Keefe, Chuck Jaynes

Fourth Quarter 2013 Officer’s Meeting

December 11th, 2013

  1. Open Actions/Old Business – All
    • Constitution/Bylaws Amendment Update

    In order to carry, there needs to be about 150 votes. Currently the quorum is 149 votes in favor.  This is 2/3 of the entire membership.  The club has about 168 members.  There is 204 votes eligible if you count family memberships.  Ian Hewitt will put out some postal mails in the week of 12/16.  It is hoped that people may respond via mail.

    • Phone Line Conversion – Mike Keefe

    This virtual voicemail line is active.  This club number is still using the AT&T line. Mike and Jerry need to work to port the phone number to the new line with AT&T (this is proving difficult).  Mike will ask for reimbursements when the virtual number is in use.  Mike Keefe will have more time to work on this during the holidays.

    • General Policies

    No negative comments were received for this document. This will be taken to the membership for approval after the constituational vote.

    • Web Site Update – Ian Hewitt

    Michael Kidd is working on the new website.  The new astronomy days website will be active in a week or so.  The officers were sent a preview, but all the links do not work correctly yet.

  2. Speakers/Meetings –All
    • Speakers are needed

    Currently, the club has speakers through January.  But after January, there are no speakers scheduled yet.

    Mickey Sorrell wants to do a presentation regarding the State-wide Star Party.  The officers agreed that Mickey Sorrell can be our speaker in February.

    • State-wide star party and Howell Woods

    The statewide star party is April 4th and April 5th.  The club has already committed to two locations, Prairie Ridge and Annie Wilkerson Nature Preserve.  The Prairie Ridge event will happen on 4/4 and Annie Wilkerson on 4/5 (according to Morehead).  Brian Reasor has informed us that the Howell Woodstock is April 5th.    The officers will discuss if the club wants to commit to a third location during the December meeting. It was agreed that we would like to add this event, despite the conflict..  Chis Cole will put it in the business section for the December meeting.

    • Club Social in March

    The officers are thinking of having more socials.  This is a way for the people in the club to get together and to be better connected.  Something could be running in the background, like a program with the types of images people have created.

    • Other Ideas

    Mike Keefe is communicating with Pamela Gay.  She can speak.  Mike Keefe will see if she can speak during the April meeting.

    • Streaming of Meetings

    This has worked well in the past.  The officers have discussed if this could be a routine occurrence (if the speaker agrees).  This would only include the lecture, not the business meeting.  There would still be a face to face meeting, but only the lecture would be streamed.  An advantage is that the meeting could be observed if someone cannot come downtown at night or if someone was travelling.  A concern is that the club may lose in-person attendance.  The attendance will be monitored.  If this attendance is adversely affected, then the club can decrease the frequency.

  3. Policy Updates –All
    • A/V Release from Speakers

    This release is so that the speaker can be photographed/streamed/recorded.  Speakers can still do programs for the club if they don’t want to agree, but we cannot stream it or photograph/record them.

    • A/V Release Club Members

    This release is so that any photographs can be taken of members during meetings and used.  This release is outlined in the General Policy document.  So when the General Policy passes, then it becomes club policy.  This means that current members will automatically fall under this release.  This release needs to be part of the new membership form for new members.

    Use of club member submissions – The general policy document will cover this as well.  The club gets rights (non-exclusive) to any content submitted to the web site.  This way, if someone contacts us for rights to republish, or the club wants to use the material for an approved purpose, it can do so without chasing down the original author (which we are trying to do now for an old article in one of the newsletters).  So any articles or images put on the regular website would fall under this.  Please note that this would NOT include images posted in the gallery.  The members who post the images still retain all rights to those!

  4. Budget Review – Chuck Jaynes

    Currently, the club is overspending by 312 dollars.  However, switching the telephone access, will bring the budget back in line.  As it stands, the imaging meeting location expense is not in the budget yet.

    The other big expense is the storage unit.  This storage unit is used to store telescopes and other club assets.  It is climate controlled..  Can get a cheaper location, but the location would not be ideal, because it does not have any ventilation.  There have not been any suggestions from members on cheaper climate controlled units.

    The next item discussed was the club assets.  This list needs to be updated and put on Google Docs.  The items stored in the safe deposit box are as follows:

    • Constitution
    • Listing of assets
    • Website dump of the website.  Please note that the provider also does backups.

    Webmasters must have superuser password for the web site hosting service.  Currently only Michael Kidd hasthe password.  We need eed to have another person have a password.

    The listing of the club assets is the responsibility of the Secretary.  Ann Murphy will work on this task next year.

  5. New Member Experience – All

    The process of welcoming new members needs to be put into place.  A table needs to be set up in the meeting room to welcome members and visitors.  There is a need to get more people to do this.  That way we can make sure that it is not the same people every time.  This will prevent burn out.  Chris Cole will bring this up at the December meeting.

  6. Public Observing Schedule – All
    • Prairie Ridge Public Observing session

    This is tentatively set for January 3rd or 4th.  The location will be the Prairie Ridge Ecostation.  Doug Lively will let the club know when the details are set.

    • Messier Marathon

    This can be done after March 4th.  The only problem is the Staunton River Star Party.  This is March 27-30.  There was a suggestion that this could be a public observing event, but, early evening during a marathon is is a busy time, so the officers did not feel that was appropriate.  This will be brought up at a club meeting for a decision.

    • Mars Viewing

    Mars should be the brightest in the first week of April.  If we waited for later in April, Mars would be higher in the sky.  If Mars gets a lot of press, this should prove to be a popular object to observe.  Need to see if this will happen and develop a public observing night or it.

    • Telescope Tuneup classes.

    This can be done during a public observing night.  However, people would still need to sign up in advance.  This is so that it will be known how many people will be attending.  This is a high priority to put on the new website.

  7. Education Program – Ian Hewitt/Mike Keefe

    There is a need to s
    chedule introduction workshops (getting started, use of a telescope, etc).  There was some discussion where to start posting some of these files that hve been  created so club members can comment/provide input.  Google Docs is somewhat quirky when sharing power point slides and other documentation.

  8. Astronomy Days – Mike Keefe

    Mike Keefe has scheduled some online planning sessions.  These went very well.  There was some good discussion.  These meetings had some follow up action items.  The exhibits are in good shape.

    A few changes will be implemented.  One change is that scripts will be written for each of the exhibits.  This will provide the basic information needed for understanding/explaining the exhibit.  This should motivate more members to volunteer for the exhibits.

    The Astronomy Days event will have a lot more speaker slots this year, so club members are being encouraged to speak.  The keynote speaker needs to be determined.

    Chris Cole needs to mention Astronomy Days at the December meeting.

  9. Term Limits – Ian Hewitt

    A committee needs to look into term limits for the officers.  One suggestion (as an example) is:

    The CoChairs will serve a three year term.  Each year a new CoChair will be elected. The other two CoChairs will be the same.  The Treasurer and Secretary will have two year terms.  On alternating years either a Treasurer or a Secretary needs to be elected.  So for one year, the club will vote on a Treasurer and the next year a Secretary.  The club will only vote on two officers per year.  The officers would not be allowed to shift positions.  Once an officer is done with their term, they would need to take off at least a year.

    Whatever is decided  would need to be phased in over the duration of several years.  The club would not want to start from scratch each year.  This goal is to get something in place before the June elections.  The term limits will require an amendment to the constitution.