May 2019 Board Meeting

Board Meeting - May 17, 2019

Attendance: Present at the lunch meeting at Copper restaurant were Craig Brockmeier, Evan Zorn, Duane Perkins, John Blaesi and Denise Gregg.

Topics discussed:

  • First Christian Church storage arrangement:

    • We reviewed the MOU and related documents (attached at bottom). We didn't have a full quorum of BAS Board members to vote on whether or not to proceed with using the offered storage space, but the Board members present were in favor of doing it. Craig said he would submit this to a vote of the full Board before proceeding further.

    • In looking through Club materials, Evan did find one document that prompted him to think we should take out more "small group" insurance. He is going to check into this. We still agreed, though, that this storage plan is worth doing.

    • Craig suggested that we plan to have two people access our storage unit at any one time, rather than just one person. Use the "buddy system"!

    • We also agreed that we would keep our own log book of who goes in and out and when.

    • We agreed that Craig (Club president) and Rick Buck (outreach organizer) would have the two sets of keys.

  • MSRAL 2020:

    • Do we want Club level or just individuals? We decided that Craig, when he attends the meeting tomorrow in Tulsa (Brookside Library, 12 pm-3 pm as part of Tulsa Astronomy Club board meeting) would try to find out what they would expect us to do before we would decide whether or not to commit at a Club level. We discussed possibly being more willing to do things during the final week of MSRAL (manning registration tables, final setup etc.) more than work that would be ongoing through the next year, such as getting door prizes from vendors or arranging for speakers. Craig will say that several people in the Club are interested in helping with MSRAL on their own.

    • Representative from Club, if we do this: We will wait to see what Craig finds out at the meeting tomorrow. We would want to know how much time and effort such a coordinator would need to commit to the project before we'd decide to see if someone wanted to do this.

  • Sunfest:

    • Rick Bryant has the new banner and will give it to Craig at next Monday's BYA meeting. Denise is working with Rick Bryant on getting a smaller logo for the one-pager and 6-pager documents we have. When she has that, she will make 30 copies of the one-pager and 20 of the 6-pager at Staples. She will also get 3 laminated copies of the QR code page (which has QR codes for BAS main site, BYA main site, and the email signup page). After she puts the new logo on the one-pager, she will get 3 laminated copies of this also at Staples, and then submit the copying and laminating costs for reimbursement by the Club. She will also bring the printed email signup pages as she has done before.

    • Craig and Denise will also see if any BYA youth (and parents/guardians as needed) are interested in manning the Sunfest booth at Monday's meeting. (The BYA rule is that youth under 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian at all BYA/BAS activities. Children (youth under the age of 13) must be directly supervised by a parent or guardian at all times at any BYA/BAS activity.)

    • Evan will supply the truck. Evan will drive to Denise's house at 9 am on May 31, planning to arrive at her house about 9:20. John Blaesi and Craig will meet Evan at Denise's house, load up equipment in the truck and then go to Sunfest. Denise will notify Sunfest that she will arrive at the check-in booth between 10:00-10:15 am. John Blaesi said he could use his truck to take things to Sunfest if needed. He also has a small cart which could be useful for taking things down to our booth.

  • ALCOR dues renewal:

    • This is due by June 30. There are a couple of ways to handle this and we agreed to do the simplest--just say that BAS membership includes ALCOR and then the ALCOR dues are $5.00 per member. (This is what you do if 90% of BAS members are in ALCOR.) Before we pay ALCOR, Evan will make sure the membership list is up to date--make sure recent new members are added, and any who have not paid current dues are taken off our membership roster.

  • Outreach programs:

    • We agreed that we would give priority to requests for the Club to do things when such requests come from the greater Bartlesville area (i.e. Woolaroc to the south up to Coffeyville, KS, to the north). We won't have anything in writing that says this at this point; this is just what we prefer to do as we are more likely to generate new membership for the Club when such activities are in our area. We also do have some of our Club presentations stored on our Club site. Denise said that she has made a more concerted effort to get these (when preparing Club minutes) in the last 6 months or so, and she will continue to do this going forward.

  • Mugs for speakers?

    • Denise brought a mug from the Cosmosphere commemorating Apollo 8 Earthrising (Cosmosphere logo on one side, the marble Earth rising over the lunar surface on the other). Both of these "appear" when you pour a hot beverage into the mug. We all liked it and thought something like this would be a good thank-you gift for future Club presenters (not retroactive) and for people on the outside who host star parties for us, do Planetarium presentations (such as Bryan Kyle at TASM), etc. Craig will see about making up a sample BAS mug and find out cost.

  • Donation to Our Savior Lutheran Church and First Christian Church:

    • Duane said that he is part of a radio club that meets at First Christian Church and they donate $100.00 to the Church annually. So we decided to recommend that the Club do this for both churches.

  • Social time after BAS meeting:

    • Craig mentioned doing something at Braum's on the east side of town after meetings. Braum's is a family-friendly location open to 10:45 pm. We agreed we could try it and see how it goes. We also discussed doing constellation, planet, star, etc. spotting in the parking lot if it seems feasible.

    • This led to a more general discussion of focusing on identifying constellations. We could perhaps have seasonal star parties dedicated to this. Such parties could be of general community interest, not just Club members.

Forms from First Christian Church: