[SJAAboard] June 21, 2008 - Final SJAA Board Meeting Minutes
Craig Scull
craigus at rocketmail.com
Sat Jul 19 23:14:07 MDT 2008
Here are the final minutes we approved. /Craig
======================================================
June 21, 2008 - SJAA Board Meeting Minutes
- Craig Scull
======================================================
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Members present
-------------------------------------
SJAA Board Members
*-Craig Scull
*-Rob Hawley
*-Rich Neuschaefer
*-Mark Wagner
*-Robert Armstrong
*-Gordon Reade
*-Phil Chambers
*-Lee Hoglan
*-Gary Mitchell
-------------------------------------
May Meeting Minutes
-------------------------------------
Rob made a motion to approve the May meeting
minutes. The motion was seconded by Robert
and approved by unanimous vote. There were no
abstentions or oppositions.
-------------------------------------
Coverage for upcoming events
-------------------------------------
June
27 -Fr- Houge Park star party.
Rob
28 -Sa- Astronomy Class (beginner's workshop) at
Coyote Lake County Park
Rob
28 -Sa- Public star party at Coyote Lake County
park.
Rob
July (Rob out all of July and 1st wk August)
4&5 -Fr&Sa- SJAA weekend at Glacier Point in
Yosemite National Park.
See the Yosemite Page for details regarding free
admission and camping.
Jim Van Nuland
11 -Fr- Houge Park star party.
Rob
19 -Sa- General Meeting.
Rob (needs to confirm)
25 -Fr- Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm.
Topic to be announced.
Mark (needs to confirm)
25 -Fr- Houge Park star party.
Gary
26 -Sa- Public star party at Coyote Lake County park.
Gary
August
8 -Fr- Houge Park star party.
Gary (needs to confirm)
-------------------------------------
Treasurer's report - Gary Mitchell
-------------------------------------
Treasurer's report for the SJAA board meeting, June
21, 2008
Accounts:
CD 1 5410.45
CD 2 6153.42
CD 3 5539.41
CD 4 5215.84
Obs. Fund 3323.64
Checking 6357.46
PayPal 408.76
Petty Cash 43.12
---------
TOTAL 32,452.10
CD 3 will mature and renew on July 5. I plan to
transfer $1000 from checking to CD 3 then.
Our liability insurance will be due later this summer,
I want to keep a fair amount in reserve for that.
After
paying the insurance premium, I'll consider whether the
checking account has enough to transfer another $1000
to CD 4 when it matures in October.
The Observatory fund CD will mature and renew on
July 5.
1-year CD's are currently renewing at an interest rate
of 2.76%, that's down from 4.65% last year. Still,
that's an order of magnitude better than the 0.10% our
checking account earns.
-------------------------------------
General Meeting Programs - Dave Smith
-------------------------------------
Jun 21 Dr. Helen Quinn (SLAC) The Mystery of the
Missing Antimatter
Jul 19 John Dillon Ancient Greek Astronomy
Aug 16 Dr. Frank Marchis (UCB) Binary Asteroids
Sep 13 SJAA members & friends Photo & equipment night
Oct 11 Dr. Monika Kress (SJSU) the Virtual Planet
Laboratory
Nov 8 tentative commitment
Dec 13 in negotiation
-------------------------------------
DeAnza Planetarium
-------------------------------------
Rob to learn more about the potential of this.
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Craig Poll on Observatory Committee
-------------------------------------
No progress last month to speak of.
Mark, Rich, Robert, Lee, Gary would like to
participate in formulating a direction.
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City Reuse Committee
-------------------------------------
Gary needs to write an $80 check to reimburse Rob for
the check he wrote to the city of San Jose for SJAA
reservations.
Reservations are already established through June 30,
2009 so all of our public programs are preserved.
Looking beyond June 30, 2009 things are less clear.
Robert made a motion that Rob will enter into a
dialogue with the city of San Jose reuse committee to
better understand the situation. Mark seconded the
motion. There 9 votes in favor of the motion. There
were no abstentions or objections. The motion passed.
All board members should read the Reuse Memorandum
before the next meeting.
-------------------------------------
Loaner Telescope Program
-------------------------------------
**Fate of Scope 28 mirror**
Not properly annealed, has zones. Rob made a motion
to sell the mirror for $50. The motion was seconded by
Gordon. There were 6 votes in favor. There were three
abstentions and no objections. The motion passed.
**Gary's Goals**
1) To provide a reasonable selection of telescopes
for members to borrow that are appropriate for those
relatively new to astronomy. The target members are
primarily those who don't own a scope, especially
newer members, so they may get started
without first having to spend hundreds of dollars.
2) To provide a small but reasonable variety of
telescopes for members to borrow who may already
own one type of scope, but want to become acquainted
with different types of scopes without having to buy
them first.
3) To provide a small but reasonable variety of
telescopes for members to borrow who occasionally
have a need for a type of scope that they don't own,
but
may not use often enough to justify purchasing it.
(added by Robert)
4) The board will formulate rules to ensure
appropriate usage of the loaner telescopes.
Mark made a motion that we accept Gary's Goals for
the SJAA Loaner Program with the additional point 4
added by Robert. Robert seconded the motion. 9 Voted
in favor. There were no abstentions or oppositions.
**Daystar Solar Filter for 60mm Telescopes**
~$500 required to restore this filter to working
order. This price includes a 10 year warranty. This
telescope is more complex and fragile to use than the
newer models of solar telescopes like the PSTs. Gary
made a motion that the club spend up to $500 to repair
the club's Daystar solar filter. 9 Voted in favor.
There were no abstentions or oppositions.
Rob raised a question as to whether the solar
telescope that uses the Daystar filter should be a
part of the loaner program. We decided to table the
discussion until a future meeting.
**Mid July Shutdown of new loans**
Rob who our interim loaner telescope chairman will be
gone for most of July, so he proposed that we not
accept any further loans during this period. Mark made
a motion that we pause the loaner proposal for the
month of July while Rob is on vacation. Rob seconded
the motion. 9 Voted in favor. There were no
abstentions or oppositions.
**Star Charts for loaners**
Mark solicited input from TAC about the loaner
program. Feedback from people recommended that we
include a star chart with each telescope. The Deep Map
600 is laminated, sustains dew and costs ~$20. Gary
made a motion that the SJAA purchase enough of these
star maps so that every beginner class telescope loan
would include one of these. Rob seconded the motion. 9
Voted in favor. There were no abstentions or
oppositions. Timing is TBD due to the changing numbers
of telescopes in the program.
**When can new members request loan?**
FYI's
Recently Rob denied a loan to an out-of-state member
who wanted to use the telescope out of state. Rob
approves loans to people who join the SJAA the same
day.
**Refractor Lee is storing**
This telescope will be added to the loaner program.
**Recall of old loans**
Rob wants to recall 3 extended loans (6" Edmund
Newtonian, 8" Dynamax, and a 5.5" Dob) that have been
for 3+ years.
**Working Draft 2 Recommendations**
Rob reminded us that this document exists and that it
can be reviewed at their convenience.
-------------------------------------
School Star Parties - Jim Van Nuland
-------------------------------------
School star party results, 2007-8 school year
Hi, All,
Here are the totals for the 2007-8 school year. We
did well.
Guessing at 160 kids/school, we had easily 8000 kids,
and if we
averaged 5 scopes per school, that's 40,000 "look"s.
Thanks very much to all who brought telescopes!
Cumulative list of school events for 2007-8 school
year
Completed events as of May 14
Total Good Part. Cloudy Cancel
sched sky succ. fail at noon
Jul 1 1 - - -
Aug 3 3 - - -
Sep 2 1 - - 1
Oct 9 4 2 1 2
Nov 9 7 - 2 -
Dec 4 2 - - 2
Jan 6 3 - 1 2
Feb 8 7 1 - -
Mar 9 7 1 1 -
Apr 8 7 - - 1
May 4 4 - - -
Jun 1 1 - - -
-----------------------------------
Tot 64 47 4 5 8
Coming attractions as of June 10
Total Firm Makeup Negotiating
Aug 1 1 - -
Oct 3 3 - -
Nov 1 - - 1
2009
Mar 2 - - 2
-----------------------------------
tot 7 4 0 3
"Makeup" are pre-scheduled make-up dates and are
firm.
They will be dropped from this list if the primary
event
is successful. If primary fails, the makeup event will
be moved from 3rd to 2nd column, and the name of the
school
will be added to the list on the Current Events page.
Clear Skies (47 out of 64 tries)!
-------------------------------------
Membership Report - Rob Hawley
-------------------------------------
**************Monthly expirations******************
Last SJAA Meeting 5/17/2008
Report Date 6/18/2008
May-08 10
Jun-08 21
Jul-08 18
Aug-08 20
Sep-08 17
Oct-08 17
Nov-08 13
Dec-08 24
Jan-09 19
Feb-09 20
Mar-09 18
Apr-09 9
May-09 20
Jun-09 50
Jul-09 5
more than 13 months 8
complementary 28
expiring 10
paid(current) 279
email delivery 44
Labels Generated 269
S&T Members 172
New Members since last meeting 12
current + complementary 307
********************Membership
Retention*******************
paid only
Members at
end of year Members retained
2008 35
2007 52 45 87%
2006 58 26 45%
2005 64 17 27%
2004 68 ** 17 25%
2003 61 ** 22 36%
<2003 173 ** 117 68%
** based on 12/04
total 279
********************Count History*********************
Combined
Current
Paid
Complementary
New Members
8/14/07 308 274 34 8
9/18/07 305 270 35 5
10/17/07 304 271 33 4
11/14/07 296 265 31 2
12/14/07 297 264 33 4
12/28/07 302 269 33 5 52 in 2007
1/18/08 305 273 32 9
2/21/08 305 272 33 4
3/17/08 305 273 32 5
5/14/08 305 276 29 8
6/18/08 306 279 28 12
The meeting was adjourned at 7:50.
Note: the next board meeting will start at 6:30pm!
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