June 25, 2014

Attended: Ian Hewitt, Mike Keefe, Chris Cole, Ann Murphy, Chuck Jaynes, Brian Reasor, Danny Marbell, Jr.

1) Open Actions/Old Business – All

  • Membership Administration

There are blank badges in the box where the badges are kept.  These can be used to update badges for new members.  The current members’ badges are in the badge box.  Members that have not renewed have been removed.  There is a document in Google Docs listing the current members.  The treasurer needs to update this when a member has paid dues.  This document should be consulted for requests for the Yahoo bulletin board.  If a member is not on this document, then that member should not be considered current.

Ian Hewitt has expired all expired members from the Yahoo group and web accounts.  This task is the responsibility of the webmaster.

The officers have update access to the membership spreadsheet.  All officers are moderators on the Yahoo groups and the Astro Imaging group.

  • Membership welcome document and Processes

The welcome message new members receive should include a message about joining the Yahoo group.

The process of updating the Yahoo group needs to be automated after a member has requested access.  Or this could be done automatically as part of the process of accepting a new member.  This is a high priority item.

Moving to a new email system is being considered to address the requirement for more automation.  Currently the new Yahoo interface is not very user friendly.

  • Advertise the speakers

The museum is interested in advertising the speakers.  For print, the speakers must be planned at least six months in advance.  For the web, the speakers must be planned at least a month for web advertisements.  This would include indoor meetings, RACOBS and classes.  This would mean arranging for speakers much earlier than currently.

Weekly notices and documents on the Google Drive.

Officers have rights to post to the front page and articles on the website.  The types of documentation include announcements, meeting notes, business meeting notes, budget reports and articles.

For announcements, there are canned announcements to cover a wide range of events.  These should be used as a template and modified to the specific event.  There should not be a reason to create one from scratch.

There are various documents stored on Google Docs.  These include the membership lists, and others.

Ian Hewett will set up a meeting with the officers to go over all of this functionality and how to access.

  • Stream meetings

The club is trying to stream the meetings.  Only the lecture portion is streamed, not the business meeting.  There are some tasks that will help the streaming.  These include:

There needs to be one or two people to monitor while it is being streamed to make sure there is video and audio.  They would fix any other issues as well.

Involve a webcam during the streaming.

There needs to be a microphone for the audience.

  • Social Media

The club has to make better use of the social media.  The pages must be more active.  There should be more use of Twitter and Google +.  A tool could make this more automated.

This could be modeled like the announcement of the speakers for Astronomy Days by using twitter.  Facebook could be used for more questions. The club needs more control of the pages.

The question is what needs to go up on the pages, what to post. Some suggestions the officers came up with was things such as Public Observing, perhaps Sky this Month.  This link should be public.

The responsibilities for the social media updates could be rotated among the officers.

  • Asset Listing

The asset listing needs to be consolidated and put into a document.

  • Voice mail.

Mike Keefe is still working on this.  He just needs to transfer number.

  • Yahoo Group

A person wanted to join the Yahoo groups to coordinate events.  This functionality is a member only benefit. So he was denied access, unless he wanted to become a member..

July meeting – Brian Reasor

2) 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.

  • Speaker List

The speaker list is accurate until November 2014.

  • Social

An idea talked about was to have a cook out in the fall.  The cook out should be on a Saturday or Sunday.  By September or October, things should cool off to have this cookout out of doors.  September 20th would be a good day for a cook out.

  • December 11th

This could be an indoor meting or a workshop.  Some ideas are :

Cleaning your Telescope

Collimation for your Telescope.

  • November

No meeting is scheduled since it is so close to Thanksgiving.

  • Move Meetings to First Fridays

The club is investigating having the indoor meeting on the First Fridays.  This will bring it back to Fridays and the museum will already be open.  There would not be a special overtime cost.  We will need to bring it up with the club.

  • Astro Imaging Meetings

This is scheduled for the 3rd Thursday of every month in the Brickhouse restaurant at 7pm.

3)    Public Observing Schedule – All

  • Title 1 – July 24th

Good time for the museum.  Spanish speakers a great help.  This will be Thursday night before RACOBS.

  • 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.

  • NC Museum of Art – Friday August 15th 8:30 – 11pm – Art in the Evening.

This will take place at the NC Museum of Art in the back of the building.  It was decided that the club could commit to this event.

  • NRC on Green Roof – Saturday October 18th

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.  This stands for the Association of Science and Technology.

  • Prairie Ridge Observing – Saturday September 13th

Times will be determined later.

  • Annie Wilkerson Nature Preserve Park – Friday October 3rd – 7:30 – 10:30

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.

  • First Night Raleigh

The theme is Out of this World.  The organizers of First Night Raleigh want RAC to bring out scopes to observe.  This is an alcohol free event.  We could just do solar observing to avoid being out at night.  This will be taken up with the observing committee.

4) Policy Updates –All

  • Term Limits

This topic will be addressed at the next meeting.  Next year Mike Keefe and Ann Murphy will roll off with term limits.  This topic should be voted on in the fall.

  • Budget Policy

Large Expenditures will need to be approved by membership.  Items included in the budget are AL membership and the storage facility.  These are normal operating expenses.  The budget will have quarterly updates.

  • Constitutional Amendments

Bring this up in the September meeting.

5) Budget Review – Chuck Jaynes/Danny Marbell

The budget is current up to the end of May.  There have not been many speaker fees.  At this time it does not make sense to change the dues.

6)    Committees

  • Website

This committee has enough members.

  • Greeting

Doug Lively will chair.  It is a small group.

  • Observing committee

Brian Reasor will chair.

  • ALCOR

Doug Lively will chair.

  • Education

Mike Keefe will chair.

  • Astronomy Days

Most of the people that volunteered for a committee – volunteered for this one.  Ian Hewett will chair.

  • Telescope Loaner

Mike Keefe will chair.  John is stepping down.

7)    Education Program Update – Ian Hewitt/Mike Keefe

The workshops have been well attended.  These workshops are located on the fourth floor of the NRC. The classes that will be held soon are:

  • Getting starting in Astro Imagining – Thursday July 31 (7:00pm to 8:30pm)
  • Getting Started in Astronomy – NRC – Thursday August 28th (7:00pm to 8:00pm)
  • Getting Your Kids Started in Astronomy – NRC – Thursday September 25th (7:00pm to 7:45pm)