Dec 2018 Board

BAS Board Meeting, December 11, 2018

Attendance: Craig Brockmeier, Rick Buck, Evan Zorn, Karen Cruce, Rick Bryant, Derek Herrman, Kristi Herrman, Mike Woods, Duane Perkins, Bob Young, Denise Gregg.

The meeting took place at Our Savior Lutheran Church, courtesy of Bob Young, who is a member.

Topics:

Star parties:

• Karen Cruce has insurance documentation for when the Club has parties to which the public are invited.

• We need to call the City whenever we schedule a party at a City park.

• We have also been considering making a donation to Friends of the Parks.

• Denise gave Rick Buck her contacts at Tri County Tech and the Bartlesville Community Center.

• Rick Buck gave us his overall plans for star parties and events:

  • Have an event about once a month when possible, alternating between public, club and dark site club observing events. Take advantage of special events such as eclipses and transits where possible. Incorporate at least one or more lunar events.

  • Plan for two successive events at any given time.

  • Establish and maintain an active list of locations with contacts.

  • Post contact info for star party organization on Club site as well as maps and driving directions to public or community locations. (Derek would do this)

  • Post confirmed event dates on Club calendar online. (Derek would do this)

  • Provide notifications to Club members at least four weeks in advance when possible.

    • Create and post flyers for public events on Facebook and Club site at least four weeks in advance when possible. (Derek would do this)

  • Provide updates to Club and public on weather within last three days before events. Issue cancellations and rescheduling as needed with Board approval.

  • Be present on site 30 min before and after to direct traffic and answer questions as needed.

  • Provide simple refreshments hand warmers, bug repellent at events. We discussed hot chocolate as a simple refreshment example, but maybe not bug spray.

  • Arrange for monitor display of imaged objects (EAA) using Club scope.

  • Use anonymous surveys (paper copies or electronic, such as with Survey Monkey) afterward to solicit Club input toward continuous improvement.

  • Provide Board with summary and club input during Board meetings. Denise will do this. She has about 1400 emails to her office email address to sort through--or at least forward to personal email by January 1. A lot of these emails have star party, Sunfest and other club event information. She is going to create a template for reporting on events, fill these out for past events as best she can to post on Club site, and do this ongoing.

• Rick Buck has mapped out some possible star party dates:

  • Jan 20--Club--total lunar eclipse

  • Feb 23--Club

  • March 29--Public

  • April 27--Club

  • June 24--Club

  • July 26--Club

  • August 24--Club

  • October 26--Club

  • Nov 11--Club

  • Nov 22--Public

• The events planned for public parties are all on Friday nights. We discussed the Jan 20 eclipse party as possibly being a public event, but due to it going into the wee hours, decided that might not be best as it is on a "school night".

• Name tags: Denise (when she retires in January) will look into getting glow-in-the-dark name tags for Club members (useful for star parties), with new Club logo of buffalo with Milky Way design.

• Portable low footpath lanterns to light the way at star parties: Denise (after retirement) will price these out and see if the Club would want to acquire these. Would probably do battery-powered or solar-powered. Denise could probably store at her house.

Storage for Club materials:

We need to figure out the costs of storage and make a full Club inventory of what we have, including Club telescopes, about a half dozen NASA kits, the new Club canopy, and other items. Denise can store some materials (not the telescopes) at her house, but we need some permanent storage. We discussed selling or giving to others scopes that are in storage at Mike's house to reduce Club inventory. Denise already has the new Club canopy at her house.

Tulsa Air and Space Museum Planetarium trip: Craig is working on this with Brian Kyle and Luke at the Museum. Try to get a Friday evening with a nominal fee for members ($5-10 range) with at least 20 people attending.

Recovery of club telescope from Jerry: Craig will work on this.

Library telescope and logo design:

Library scope: The telescope is ready to be donated. Discussed doing this before the Christmas holidays, with a photo opportunity for the donation with 4 people if possible—Abby, Lashawn, Rick Bryant, Derek, Kristi and Craig were discussed as participants. Evan might be able to come also, as he works downtown. Rick Bryant might not be able to come as he works in Tulsa. Rick Buck works at the Research Center so he might not be able to get away at lunch (unless on vacation).

Logo design: We decided to use the one that Rick Bryant came up with—buffalo with Milky Way design. Abby had designed one that featured a Bartlesville scenic backdrop including the Price Tower, but that might require approvals to use and adapt.

Board members list. Is it current? It is current, and we have one vacancy for a member at large. Karen Cruce, past president, was nominated to fill the position by the Board, and she accepted.

Other topics:

Decision to be made at Board level:

We discussed the types of things that the Board would decide vs. full membership at meetings. For example, if we are invited to participate in an event that will require a lot of volunteers, it will take full membership to decide to participate, based on recommendation by the Board. For spending Club funds, the President, VP, and treasurer can authorize an expenditure of up to 200.00. The Board can authorize an expenditure of up to 500.00 and Club membership an expense higher than that.

Latest Club projector is missing.

Overall agenda plan for membership meetings:

• We reviewed the plan submitted to us by John Blaesi. Overall it is a good plan.

• One thing we decided to do is have someone be designated as a greeter for the club, who would make an effort to recognize visitors, learn their names, something very brief about them to introduce them with (we don't want to put them on the spot) and then introduce them at the start of Club meetings and encourage members to visit with them after the meeting. Denise volunteered to do this since she will be retired by the next Club meeting, and the Board agreed. The idea is not to find out, for example, if they have a telescope or not; rather things like what their general interests are, how did they find out about the Club, etc.

• Another thing we decided to do is to post the meeting notes online for members to review, and then approve at the next meeting.

• We also discussed introducing a "have you read a good book lately" feature and a Constellation of the Month feature

• We discussed "layering presentations". By this we mean having a good balance between general/introductory topic presentations, those that are highly technical, and those that are in between. Be cognizant of meetings where there may be more prospective new members--such as right after Sunfest--and not schedule a very technical presentation for those meetings, which could serve to drive people away. Denise mentioned even doing an annual reprise of her meteor shower presentation (and add some new bits as she finds them) for the August meetings, ahead of the Perseid meteor shower.