February 2026 Board Meeting Notes

Bartlesville Astronomical Society Board Meeting Notes

February 24, 2026

In attendance:

Officers--

Evan Zorn

Denise Gregg

Luann Wright

At-large Board Members--

John Grismore

Craig Brockmeier

Previous past president--

John Blaesi

Club meeting presenters:

·   April:  Gary Nealis has been approached to present in April.  Topic TBD, likely Artemis.

·   May:  Fran Stallings will present

·   June:  Possibly ask Brian Turner, who could prepare a good presentation for a general audience.  Denise reminded us that we like to have a good general-interest presentation for the Club meeting right after Sunfest, and so far, there are no Night Sky Network guest speaker initiatives in the offing.

Science Fair, February 27 and 28: 

·       Evan is working on possibly observing exhibits, with an idea to doing something as a group next year.

Website work:

We discussed proceeding with establishing a contract with Meagan Clymer to work on our website and publicity/marketing, after the meeting that was held with her February 17.  Considerations:

·       John G would like to update the look and feel of our website.

·       John G said that ultimately, we exist to promote interest in and respect for science.

·       Evan said that he would like to grow our Club membership and volunteer base.

·       Craig said he’s looked at the websites of about 20 astronomy Clubs.  They were created with several platforms. 

·       We would make a three-month commitment to this work.

·       Cost would be $500/month for each of the three months.

·       Meagan would need Google Site access and likely Google Drive also, since that is where our files live.

·       We would want to see a mockup of a potential website before we would do anything.

·       Who would update the website after the three-month initial period?

o   Copyright concerns?

o   Instructions, especially if not using Google Sites

o   We would need to be able to do last-minute updates to the website!

·       Meagan suggested that we come up with a Club slogan or “tag line” and consider redoing our logo.  Denise mentioned that she saw Maria Gus with Visit Bartlesville recently and she gave her our Club business card.  Maria loved the buffalo logo as it ties in with Bartlesville publicity in other ways—for example, with the 100th anniversary of Route 66 coming up, Maria is working on a campaign for Bartlesville being 66 miles from Route 66, and they are incorporating a buffalo image created by a local artist into this publicity!

·       If we use the proposed WIX site, we will need to find out costs to do this for—

o   A site without ads

o   Ability to use PayPal on it  (we understand that the most basic level of Wix wouldn’t allow this)

o   Ability to have more than 2 admins (basic level only allows 2).  We think there are various levels—one allows 5 admins, one allows 10.

o   We would also need to find out if there is a limit on content for various levels, and get costs accordingly.

o   Evan said the initial fee would be $17.99/month; Craig said it would increase to $30/month after three months.  This would be for the most basic level.

·       Craig suggested having a “constellation of the month” at our Club meetings.

·       Meagan also mentioned our website’s SEO (Search Engine Optimization); she thought it might need some work.

·       We would need to see if the QR code would change.  If it does, we would need to revise and reprint:

o   QR code sheets

o   One-page summary sheet

o   Six-page astronomy guide

o   Osage Hills trifold

o   All laminated sheets

o   Business cards

o   Club banners

·       Any other links to the site would also need to be changed (such as AlCor/MSRAL listings), if the QR code changes.

·       Our current website includes a Google Form for newsletter subscription.  This would need to be accommodated in a new website.

·       Our Club PayPal account would need to be changed to a “business” PayPal account so we could allow people to join our Club properly online, not just make tax-deductible contributions.

Examiner-Enterprise newspaper announcements update:

·       Denise isn’t sure now of the status of being able to post meeting announcements in a newspaper calendar. 

·       Andy Dossett has recently retired from the newspaper, and he had been her contact.

Bartlesville monthly magazine:

·       We discussed putting meeting publicity in this publication.  Meagan said that people do read this!

·       We also discussed even putting an ad in this publication, which would cost money.  Luann looked at prices--$365 for a ¼ page ad; $200 for a calendar banner.

Young Professionals of Bartlesville: 

We discussed contacting them.

Mall display: 

The video display isn’t work.  Circuit breaker might have tripped—need to check this out.

Sunfest: 

·       Denise has signed us up for this. 

·       We will be invoiced $50 at some point by PayPal. 

·       We decided that we would meet at Sooner Park on the Friday it starts to do setup, as we have done in years past; Denise will notify Sunfest that we will want the go-cart to haul our supplies after we check in. 

·       Evan says that he can come with his truck to help with setup, as he has in the past.

Club membership renewals: 

·       Luann informed us of one member who isn’t renewing.

·       Denise will send an email to the newsletter list about renewing if you haven’t, and you can join if you have been thinking about it!

Dark sky outings:

·       We discussed scheduling a meeting next week to work more on this.

Visit Bartlesville:

·       Craig and Denise mentioned that they saw her recently.  Maria said she would be willing to make copies of our Osage Hills trifold to put out at the visitors’ center!  John B said that the trifold was basically up-to-date—Denise said she would make sure all the QR codes work before she would give a soft copy to Maria.

·       Craig also mentioned the 2045 total solar eclipse, with Bartlesville being on the center line, to her, as this will bring out-of-tonw visitors to Bartlesville.