President Stacy Edwards called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m.
Old Business:
Stacy recapped that at the last business meeting we decided on a lease agreement and modest fee for observatory use and also installing a security gate in the front building to separate the telescope storage area from the bathroom area.
New Business:
Allen Lee has offered to donate money toward the purchase of a new storage building to house our tools, lawn mower, and gasoline away from the East Observatory. He has done some research and found acceptable steel buildings and a model from Rubbermaid. The steel building would require a foundation of some sort so there would be cost after the initial purchase while the Rubbermaid has its own foundation and should set up quickly.
Stacy brought up the idea of adding a PayPal link to the website for dues payment and, hopefully, spontaneous donation. We discussed the pros and cons – hopefully members would be quicker to pay their dues versus the fees incurred. David Reynolds mentioned that Amazon has a similar service and that we might add a link to that as well. He also had the idea of adding book suggestions to the site. If, for example, we recommend a book and a web site visitor makes the purchase through our link then we will make a modest commission.
No immediate decisions were made on the two topics above but it decided to do some research and then have the board vote on them outside of an official meeting. Both need to be decided on before the end of the year.
A proposal was made to make the CAAS property non-smoking and this was passed. Someone will purchase and post some signs.
Wade Van Arsdale asked about leasing the East Observatory. He is willing to give a 30 day notice to let someone else step forward if they would like it first. He is considering building a platform around the pier to make the building more practical for scopes other than long refractors.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:50.
Submitted by Jim Dixon.