[SJAAboard] Help on the Houge proposal

[Rob Hawley-SJAA]

This was written rather quickly so please understand if the spell/grammar
checker did not catch something.

My family appreciated my spending the evening with them instead of clock
watching waiting until I went to SJAA.  I got zillions of brownie points.

I understand from Robert and Craig that you found my recording to be useful.  I
am happy that Lee suggested it.  Time was short and that allowed me to bring you
all up to speed more quickly.

You already accomplished the most important item for our successful bid. You
prevented the board from imploding.  You even managed to get Mark back on board.
Now we can focus on providing the city with the most compelling proposal we can.
Don't assume this is a done deal.

We need to have a lawyer review at least Exhibit A.  Exhibit A is our formal
statement of what we are going to do. It is the core of our contract.   I have
included the current draft in its current state below. See if you can get a pro
bono lawyer in the next week.  The rest of the document is our sales pitch or
city mandated boilerplate.  I suspect we will have little ability to change the
latter, but I will ask my lawyer about that as well.

Evan from GSSP said he would do it, but did not return my emails. If you don't
have any luck I will see if my trust attorney is willing to review it.  She owes
me a favor anyway.  If not, the two Roberts will pay her.  I expect it will not
take her that long.  

Thank you David for the speakers list.  The current draft has the last and next
six months in it. The city admonished us to hold down the length of our
presentation, however, selectively including some of the former speakers like
Alex Filippenko is more powerful than burying them in an exhaustive list.

There are three areas that I asked Lee to highlight

CLUB HISTORY (particularly with respect to Houge)
This is a black hole to me.  Someone needs to flesh this out completely.  We
need to track down as much of the Houge Neighborhood Association as we can. We
need to track down the maintenance guy that gave us the great recommendation at
the 2005 meetings between Mike and the city. Having members of the community
throw their arms around us significantly strengthens our argument.  Mike would
be a significant help in this.  

EXPERIENCE AND CAPABILITIES
I have a pretty good start on this section.  We should expand it and include
numbers where we have them.  Again we were admonished to keep the proposal short
so this needs to have high impact without being overly long.

REFERENCES
We need to check with every name we offer to confirm we can use them.  So far,
the only confirmation I received was from FPOA.  I would also like to reference
PAS and their observatory. That is another volunteer operated public/private
program.  I was not able to contact the professor at West Valley.  We need to
include one or two teachers from the school program.  Ozer being the head of
AANC might also be interesting.  Some recognizable SETI or NASA person would
help.


The executive summary is basically our city letter. I have tried to highlight
our biggest argument that our use will likely not compete with other uses.

When I return I am going to focus most of my efforts on Exhibit A and the
Public/Private partnership. These sections will contain most of the meat with
respect to what we are going to do contractually.

Finally, we need someone who is a beter proophreader than I too review th
finally document.

I am going to record some notes after the Monday meeting.  I hope I can make the
recording available in form that will be useful.

------------------------

EXHIBIT A
DESCRIPTION OF SCOPE OF SERVICES, TIMES AND DATES AND LOCATION OF PROGRAM
PREMISES

	The San Jose Astronomical Association agrees to continue its existing
educational public programs at and around Houge Building One.

SJAA operates on a lunar and not Gregorian Calendar therefore all commitments
are in terms of lunar months. All telescope viewing events are subject to
weather. "Weather" in this context means anything that obstructs a clear view of
the sky including clouds, high humidity either at the surface or aloft, or haze.
SJAA may elect to cancel these with 2 hours notice posted on our website.

Telescope Viewing (aka Star Parties) is defined as one or more members of SJAA
or associated amateur astronomers making their scopes available for viewing by
the general public.  We use the sidewalk between the tennis courts and the
parking lot.  SJAA can not commit to a definite number since the participants
are volunteers.  If the weather is poor it may reduce participation even though
SJAA has not cancelled the event.  

a. CONTRACTOR agrees to provide the following community serving program and
services ("Community Services") at the Program Premises: 

1.	Provide 24 opportunities for telescope viewing (aka star parties) each
12 lunar months. 
2.	Provide additional star parties for special events such as lunar
eclipses, when the board feels we can do so.
3.	Provide 9 beginner level astronomy classes per 12 lunar months.  
4.	Provide 10 advanced lectures per 12 lunar months.

b. All SJAA programs will occur between 7 PM and morning twilight on weekdays.
We will generally schedule from 6 PM to midnight on the full moon Saturday. The
Star Parties and beginner classes are scheduled on Friday nights.  

c. SJAA requires no city funding or personal to run its programs.

SJAA shall, at its own expense, make its schedule available to the local
community via community groups, direct mailings, or signage at Houge Park (if
permitted by PRN) at its discretion.

d. We must still be able to control the parking lot and building one lights.  

e. The city shall not operate the park sprinklers between Houge building one and
the parking lot or between the parking lot and the tennis courts before 1 AM to
prevent damage to the volunteers' equipment

f. We are granted key access to Houge Building One and the park bathrooms.  We
will insure that both are locked at the end of any public program.

g. SJAA is permitted two floating meetings per month each after 7 PM.

h. SJAA is permitted to conduct two events whose effect will be to gather
donations, but also serve the astronomy community. During each of these events
SJAA will use Houge Park from 8 AM Saturday morning to 8 PM Sunday night.

1.	Provide a rummage sale type event ("the swap") that gives the public the
ability to buy miscellaneous small parts and telescopes.
2.	Provide an auction type event that allows the public to sell larger new
and used equipment






Rob Hawley