[SJAAboard] Help on the Houge proposal

[Rich N]

Hi Rob,

Please have a look at the notes Phil sent to the board the other day about the
meeting tomorrow with the city.  I've forwarded you a copy.  

Thanks,
Rich


> 
> 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 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> SJAABoard mailing list
> SJAABoard at sjaa.net
> http://sjaa.net/mailman/listinfo/sjaaboard_sjaa.net
>