CFAS Monthly Board Meeting Minutes
CFAS Monthly Board Meeting Minutes
November 19th, 2003
Board members present:
Ray Jones
Joseph Strait
Frank Sperl
Paul Kronenwetter
David Furrow
Pat Weeks
Jean Bassick
Ray Jones called the November meeting to order at 7:00 PM at Dan’s Family restaurant.
David Furrow made a motion to accept the meeting minutes from the October meeting which was seconded by Paul Kronenwetter and accepted by the board.
**** Note We did some preliminary discussion on the budget at this point and the notes that I took say that we voted to approve something but I don’t think that’s really what happened. Please let me know your thoughts.
The board discussed how to determine the membership credits given to members for meeting presentations. After a lengthy discussion Alan Hoffberg made the following motion; Any member(s) giving a program as a part of a general meeting will received a credit towards a 1 year membership for the next fiscal year. The program chair (currently Pat Weeks) will determine the fractional portion of any credit given. Credits can be proportional for presentations given by more than one person. The motion was seconded and approved by the board.
Membership: Jean Bassick presented Santa Lucia and Ryan Rosario (same family) as new members. Ray Jones made a motion to accept the new members. The motion was seconded and approved by the board.
Programs: Pat Weeks mentioned that Bob Nelson, a former developer of the Robinson Tinsley telescope, was being invited to attend the annual Christmas party and we would offer to pay for his lodging while he was here.
Pat mentioned that a future general meeting presentation would be about astrophotography.
Ray mentioned that CFAS needs to find someone to take responsibility for the CFAS library. Several names were mention but it was finally decided to ask Hunter Jackson if he would be interested in the task.
Publicity: Joseph Strait mentioned that Arlene Mendelson, a Orlando Sentinel reporter, was interested in attending one of the December dark site viewings to gain information about local astronomy groups.
Orlando Science Center: Laurence Lurie was not present. Ray announced that OSC had a new website.
BMAL: Frank Sperl and Paul Kronenwetter stated that there were ~25 respondents to the CFAS member survey and that they would be compiling the data shortly. Frank (Paul?) gave status on donating scholarship stipends to UCS and SCC. He stated that he was still waiting on a response from Dr. Campine (sp???) at UCF and that Laurent Pellerin would help find the person at SCC that would help guide the donated funds to the planetarium.
Observing: Walt Hamler said that the last visit to the Harmony dark site had a big turnout of about 30 people and that many local people had shown up. He also said that about 6 people came to the SCC site the next night but they had to close up a little early. Walt mentioned that Frank Gutowski had volunteered to work with Paul Gardner (UCF Astronomy group President) to help support the UCF visitors night at the Robinson Observatory. Walt also mentioned that Todd Parker had received a request from Weingarten Elementary school for help setting up a binocular observing program. Todd is waiting on his contact at the elementary school to get back in touch with him for more information.
Robinson Committee: Ray stated that there were 3 members awaiting their 2nd night of Robinson training and that Ed Williams would be their session instructor.
Ray announced that a Robinson Observatory reservation system had been set-up and could be accessed at the main CFAS website.
Ray and Alan Hoffberg discussed the details of the account for the old ATM group. Alan said that the issue needed to be clarified and he would bring the issue back to the group in the future.
There was a detailed discussion of the 2004 budget. Most of the committee chairmen had presented budgeted amounts for their area for the board to consider. The total budget requests were considerably higher than the expected income for the year. Ray and Alan agreed to work together and decide on a final budget for the year and present it to the board for an email vote.
Ray mentioned that Bob Nelson was considering donating a Meade LX200 to CFAS and that Dr. Availlo (sp????) might donate a 25 inch Obsession to the group. As a part of this discussion Ray stated that he will begin a dialog with the Harmony group about building a roll-off observatory and placing Dr. Availlo’s scope in the observatory as a loan. The scope would remain a property of CFAS.
No committee reports or representation from the Dark Sky Committee and the Astrolog Chair position remains open
A motion to adjourn was made at 9pm, it was seconded, and the meeting adjourned