Jan 2018 Board

In attendance: Karen Cruce, Vicky Travaglini, Rick Bryant, Kristi Herrman, Derek Herrman, John Grismore, Craig Brockmeier, Duane Perkins, Bob Young, Mike Woods, Denise Gregg

Not present: Evan Zorn, Daryl Doughty

Agenda and discussion:

Holding more observing events:

• Public and Members only

• In conjunction with local schools

• BAS/BYA combined

• Monthly?

Discussion:

The “ideal situation” might be something like a star party every month, perhaps half open to the public, half for members only (generally including BYA). There was general agreement that this is probably too much for us to try to take on at this point, due to these reasons—

• Steve was the one who organized most of the star parties before. (Denise and Racheeta handled the publicity, but Steve made the arrangements.) We would need to appoint someone to arrange star parties.

• Youth need bathroom facilities

• Weather is always a concern. Might spend a lot of time scheduling events only to have to cancel due to weather.

More discussion:

• If we do appoint someone to arrange star parties, the Board would need to draw up exactly what that person would do.

• If we can’t find someone willing to organize all star parties, at a minimum, we need to have an organizer for each star party.

• Bob’s church in Park Hill would be a good location to have star parties as there would be bathroom facilities available as well as indoor meeting space in case of clouds or rain. In other words, if we planned an outdoor party but the outdoor part didn’t work, we could do something else indoors, such as teaching telescope setup. We don’t know, however, if Bob’s church would be OK with members of the public coming to star parties there, as opposed to just members of the Club. Also, Bob’s church participates from time to time in Family Promise, which provides shelter at the church for homeless families.

• Tri-County Tech is a good location although wouldn’t pick up any drive-by traffic, such as the BCC parking lot/grassy area might pick up.

• In discussing that more, we realized that when we had a lot of people come to the BCC even a couple summers ago, that was more bringing in Pokemon Go foot traffic on nearby streets than cars. It was pointed out though that with the development upcoming of the space between the BCC and the Price Tower, there might end up being more lighting in the area that would not be as conducive to parties. Having said that, it was also pointed out that for public star parties, the public is more interested in seeing things they are more familiar with like the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn—that can be seen from the BCC---than in things like star clusters that are better spotted at a darker site like Tri-County. The BCC won’t permit star parties on nights where there are events in the BCC.

• The Hulah Lake site was also brought up but that may be not as amenable to a public party. (Public events would need to be closer to town.) Also, the Hulah Lake site doesn’t have nearby bathroom facilities.

• We discussed perhaps aiming to do a star party every quarter, with every other one including the public. First Friday of each quarter? Or Saturday? Etc.

• It was agreed that star parties for the Club and BYA would need to be at darker sites—i.e. not the BCC.

• Star parties would probably need to be on Friday and Saturday nights.

• For events open to the public, publicity would need to say to look at the Club Facebook page for last-minute cancellation information. (We would not want to post an individual member’s cell phone for an event open to the public.)

• We really didn’t discuss having star parties at specific schools, although we have done that in the past. (Last one was at Kane Elementary almost two years ago.)

Centralize equipment and resources:

• Renting a storage locker?

Discussion:

• We will probably need one, based on what Rick and Mike decide to keep (what is in Mike’s storage at home, plus any other equipment).

• The question came up about insurance but there was general agreement that what is in a commercial storage locker would be covered by insurance carried by the locker company.

Taking over Steve Plank’s responsibilities:

• NSN materials

• Retrieving our two video projectors from the family

Discussion:

• We decided that it would be good if Lashawn and Abby would contact Steve’s family, as they know his family. One of the two video projectors is recent; the other dates back some years. There may be other Club materials Steve had at his house—such as the Sunfest banner, which we think is at his house.

• Sunfest: The Club also used personal items of Steve’s for Sunfest—the canopy and the long table. We discussed buying these from the family to use for the Club. (We think that Steve’s family would probably be willing to sell the canopy; if not, we’ll need to buy one. They may want to keep the table.)

• Post-meeting thought from Denise: I have two card tables in my garage that I’m not using. I would be willing to donate these to the Club if Steve’s family would like to keep the long table. Two card tables would also be easier to transport to Sunfest since I don’t have a pickup truck. The only disadvantage to using two card tables is that you would have more table legs underneath to work your legs around, for the table-sitters. But, they do fit into the trunk of a car!

Cleaning out Mike Wood’s storage shed of old equipment:

• Labeling everything with “Property of BAS”

• Getting rid of outdated or broken items

Discussion:

• We will want to label all equipment (including serial numbers) with labels that won’t come off, and record what we have in an inventory.

• Rick and Mike offered to get together at Mike’s house to see what is there and what should be kept. We will probably need to get a storage locker for what we decide to keep.

• Rick said that Rick Buck is writing a loaner procedure for equipment. These procedures would include—only loaning to members; 2 month loaner period; loaner would be responsible for any repairs needed if the loaner damaged the equipment; and getting a copy of the driver’s license of the loaner.

• John said that instruction would be needed for anyone checking a go-to scope out.

• Rick Bryant estimates that there might be 6 telescopes available for loaning out.

• We discussed possibly selling to Club members anything that was not deemed suitable for loaning out.

Retrieving from Jerry Koenig the eight-inch Meade Lx90 telescope that was donated to our club:

Discussion:

• We discussed Karen sending Jerry an email; Mike gave her Jerry’s email address.

• Denise looked up the March 2017 meeting minutes on her phone to see if there were any more details about the Meade but there weren’t. Derek also said the March 2017 minutes were missing on the BAS site; Denise sent them to him on Friday.

Tulsa Library Astronomy Night (Tues March 6, 7:00-8-ish pm):

• Covering costs of supplies

• Having members bring telescopes

Discussion:

• There are anticipated to be 150 youth at the event, each with an adult. Denise wore her comet necklace and brought the instructions for making them as well as some copies of the comet handout. Lashawn Bollenbach is in the process of getting supplies. Denise offered to Xerox off the comet information sheets at home as the cost of photocopying at Staples has really gone up over the last year or two. With the event only taking place for about an hour + we may need to prepare individual kits in plastic bags for the youth to finish assembling at home if need be.

• As far as expenses go, anything over $200.00 needs Board approval, minimum.

• We would also need to line up people to bring scopes.

Dues increase:

• To cover cost of renting storage locker?

Discussion:

• We would need to raise dues to pay for a storage locker, if we get a storage locker.

• We discussed raising dues from $20 to $25 for an individual membership, eff. November 1, 2018.

• Dues for a family of two are $30. A family of two can be two adults, but in many cases in the club it is one adult parent and one child, which also is recognized as a family of two. Since that may hurt families of two wanting to be members, we decided to keep the two-person memberships at $30.

• Students (age 13 and up) would remain $10.00.

• A family of three or more would remain the same at $40.

• Rick said there was one family that had to back out of the youth group because they could not afford the $40.00 family membership. We discussed having scholarships for deserving families but the more we thought about it, the more we backed away from it, because questions could come up later about why the Club helped one family and not another. And even if an individual person offered to sponsor one family and another family found out, they could ask why they sponsored the other family but not them. So there was a general agreement not to pursue that idea.

• We guesstimated that the cost of storage locker would be $60-70 per month.

• The idea came up of getting a storage locker out of town to save money, but then we agreed that would probably not be a good idea, as people wouldn’t want to drive out of town to pick up equipment before a star party.

• We discussed trying to store telescopes at buildings in town (like a school) but then realized that wouldn’t be practical as we would need after-hours access.