[SJAAboard] January10 2009 - Draft SJAA Board Meeting Minutes

Sat Feb 7 01:31:25 MST 2009

Below you can find the candidate for the final meeting minutes for last month. The treasurer and membership reports have been added since the initial version of the minutes that was sent out. /Craig

======================================================
January 10 2009 - SJAA Board Meeting Minutes
- Craig Scull
======================================================

-------------------------------------
Members present
-------------------------------------
SJAA Board Members
*-Craig Scull
*-Rich Neuschaefer
*-Robert Armstrong
*-Gordon Reade
*-Mark Wagner
*-Lee Hoglan
*-Greg Claytor

Kevin Roberts (member)
Paul Mancuso (member)

-------------------------------------
December Meeting Minutes
-------------------------------------
Robert made a motion to approve the December board
meeting minutes as amended. The motion was seconded by
Craig and approved by unanimous vote. There were no
abstentions and no oppositions.

-------------------------------------
Coverage for upcoming events
-------------------------------------
JANUARY
16 -Fr- Houge Park star party. Sset 5:15 pm, 58%
moon rise 11:57 pm. Star party hours: 7:00 until 
10:00 pm.
{Gary}

16 -Fr- Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. The
topic will be Telescopes & Eyepieces.
{Rich}

17 -Sa- Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 5:16 pm, 48%
moon rise 12:57 am.
{Gary}

24 -Sa- Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 5:24 pm, 1%
moon rises 6:59 am. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot
has been reserved.
{Possibly Greg}

30 -Fr- Houge Park star party. Sset 5:31 pm, 21%
moon sets 10:09 pm. Star party hours: 7:00 until 
10:00 pm.
{Gary}

FEBRUARY
  7 -Sa- General Meeting. Our speaker is Dr.Chris
McKay of NASA, who will tell us "What We Have Learned
From the Mars Phoenix Lander". Board meeting at 6:30;
General Meeting at 8:00. This is the Annual Meeting,
to elect the Board of Directors.
{Rich}

14 -Sa- Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 5:47 pm, 66%
moon rise 11:48 pm.
{Not assigned}

20 -Fr- Houge Park star party. Sset 5:53 pm, 12%
moon rise 4:59 am. Star party hours: 7:00 until
10:00 pm.
{Gary}

20 -Fr- Astronomy Class at Houge Park. 7:30 pm. The
topic will be Advanced Chart Reading.
{TBA}

21 -Sa- Dark-Sky weekend. Sset 5:54 pm, 7%
moon rise 5:32 am. Henry Coe Park's "Astronomy" lot
has been reserved.
{Not assigned}

-------------------------------------
Treasurer's report
-------------------------------------
Coming via email.

Robert is going to keep selling the remaining RASC
handbooks to help us recoup our costs.

-------------------------------------
General Meeting Programs - Dave Smith
-------------------------------------
Feb 7    Dr. Chris McKay (NASA ARC)
The Mars Phoenix Lander

Mar 7    Dr. Kevin Zahnle (NASA Ames)
Earth After the Moon-Forming Impact

Apr 5    Auction

Further updates pending communication from Dave

-------------------------------------
Nominating committee report
-------------------------------------
There are 5 seats up for election in February. Two of
those seats do not have candidates. To fill those
seats the committee has contacted Rod Norton and Mark
Johnston.

Mark made a motion that we accept Kevin Roberts to
fill the position left open from Rob. The motion was
seconded by Lee and approved by unanimous vote. There
were no abstentions and no oppositions.

-------------------------------------
Houge / PRN
-------------------------------------
Mark reviewed some points from the reuse proposal
with the board. The board agrees with Mark's suggested
actions and interpretations of the contract. Board
members are suggested to review the documentation
provided by Mark in further detail after the meeting.

-------------------------------------
Nelson ad in Ephemeris
-------------------------------------
This ad was not included in the January Ephemeris for
unknown reasons. There was some discussion about what
kind of content is allowed in the newsletter. There is
some precedent for the placement of ads in the
Ephemeris. 

Robert made a motion that the Ephemeris is not going
to accept political ads for people seeking office or
directorship in the club. The motion was seconded by
Mark and approved by unanimous vote. There were no
abstentions and no oppositions.

-------------------------------------
Term limits on president
-------------------------------------
Deferred until next meeting.

-------------------------------------
SVAS example of membership requirements
-------------------------------------
Deferred until next meeting.

-------------------------------------
Observatory fund donors
-------------------------------------
Mark suggested that we run an ad in the Ephemeris for
4 consecutive months seeking guidance from the prior
donors to see what they suggest given that a fixed
location observatory may not necessarily be obtainable
within the club's budget or even the best thing for
the members.

Jim Van Nuland will be asked for historical input as
well, along with Bob Fingerhut. The goal is to try to
honor the original intent of the donors with regard to
how the money is spent going forward.

-------------------------------------
School Star Party Report
-------------------------------------
Cumulative list of school events for 2008-9 school year

Completed events as of Jan.10 2009

    Total  Good Part. Cloudy Cancel
    sched  sky  succ.  fail  at noon
Jul  1    1    -    -    -
Aug  2    2    -    -    -
Sep  3    3    -    -    -
Oct  11    9    -    -    2
Nov  7    4    1    1    1
Dec  4    2    1    1    0
-----------------------------------
Tot  28    21    2    2    3

Scheduled events as of Jan.10 2009

    Total  Firm Makeup  Negotiating
Jan  5    4    -    1
Feb  10    9    -    1
Mar  10    9    1    0
Apr  1    1    -    -
May  1    1    -    -
-----------------------------------
Tot  27    24    1    2

  "Makeup" are pre-scheduled make-up dates and are
firm. They will be dropped from this list if the
primary event is successful, and the dates will become
available.
  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!
-- Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical
Association
<http://www.sjaa.net/school/indexs.htm> School star
party site

-------------------------------------
Membership Report
-------------------------------------
Coming via email. Greg made several suggestions for
how to increase the membership.

-------------------------------------
Auction
-------------------------------------
Deferred until next meeting.

-------------------------------------
Beginning Astronomy Class
-------------------------------------
Deferred until next meeting.

-------------------------------------
S&T Situation
-------------------------------------
Deferred until next meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:52pm.

Note: the next board meeting will start at 6:30pm!