Minutes from the November 2011 Meeting

What a great night on our Nov 12, 2011 Club meeting.

The place was packed and almost every seat was taken with new guests, new members, and the usual suspects 🙂

 

Eric Walker opened the floor to the board and attendees to nominate next year’s staff and voting will be done at the 10 Dec Club Meeting and BANQUET!

President – Bill Engberg

Vice President – Eric Walker

Secretary –Jim Fisher

Treasury – Andy Reed

Immediate Past President – Jim Fisher

Board: Jim Dixon, Carl Freyaldenhoven, John Reed, and Coy Scott.

 

 

After calling Hollywood, I verified there are no Astronomers, nor Prophets on staff that were consulted before making “2012”. I gave a PPT brief about the Mayan Calendar and how it is very cool how they developed it and that CAAS/Little Rock will be aligned with the Mayan Ball Court at Izapa for the (Friday) Dec 21, 2012 Galactic alignment…front row seats!

I think we should throw a big astro-party at CAAS and invite Little Rock (new membership / huge interest)

 

John Reed showed/taught about his excellent (and portable) Nikon DSLR Astro Camera rig…nice!

Roger Gudith gave a wonderful presentation on Astronomy.

Jim D gave a great lesson on the Constellation Perseus, its history and the objects of interest in it.

 

We had many guests Saturday night:

Vikrant Vijay

Amanda Poss

James Lane

David Williams

Nancy Jackman (winner of the Telescope!)

Lorali Brown (?)

 

Other CAAS members there were

Jim Dixon,

Eric Walker,

John Reed,

Rocky and Carol Togni,

Pat and Sandy Morris;

Coy Scott;

Roger Gudith;

Landon Sanders

Aimee Voisin;

William Bryden;

Allen Lee;

Carl Freyaldenhoven;

John Reed;

Tom and Barbara Walker

…and me, your humble scribe.

 

The clouds broke at the perfect time and the “Club built 10-inch scope ” was set up by Carl F. and the gang, for viewing by all of our first time guests.

 

Projects:

Done! Ardent’s new 9’ x 9’ concrete pad was uncovered and unveiled to the club.

 

Done! New driveway is smooth like….like…new concrete butter!

 

Hero!: Allen Lee came up with a great idea to work with PMSP or a school, etc, to advertise a L.R. “Set up your telescope Night” at PMSP or downtown, since so many people are asking CAAS members to help set up. A great membership drive to get Kids (  =  Parents!) and young people into CAAS. Contact Allen if you have ideas or wish to help.

 

—Need a CAAS hero to take care of this small $10 project.

Three…let me emphasize…. THREE different 1st time visitors at different times said the same thing. When they arrived in the pitch black night, the only light they saw was to the bathroom (I had propped the door open).  They said we need a light above “the door you are supposed to go to, if you’ve never been here before.” For safety/liability reasons, I couldn’t agree more. Recommend a RED “L.E.D. Touch light” / hanging Red L.E.D. Lamp we can reach up and hang on a hook / or some other battery powered (or permanent switch fixture), for people to “home in on” at night, since it is a maze of buildings for 1st time guests arriving in a sea of darkness. Once we have our 501C status approved, you will get a donation slip for the amount you paid. If you paid $100 for the lamp or permanent switch/fixture, you get a $100  tax write off.  Or, if you can visit some electricians in town, ask if they will volunteer a donation of parts OR labor.

 

—Officers

Need permission for me to buy this $35 HDMI-to-VGA-converter- box so new laptops can run our old projector

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Converter-Support-1080P-Output/dp/B0057UNQ18/ref=lh_ni_t

 

—Need a CAAS super hero who will donate an old computer to permanently plug into the projector, for when people want to run a Presentation. I’ll even donate the Microsoft Office / PowerPoint software. Once we have our 501C status, you will get a donation slip for the amount “you paid for the computer back in 200X.” If you paid $3000 for the computer, you get a $3000 tax write off. Nice.  Contact me if questions.
Blue Skies  
Bill
   Club Scribe