From rnapo at znet.com Mon Aug 1 00:18:00 2005 From: rnapo at znet.com (rnapo) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:28 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] star party publicity References: <42ED55AC.2010506@aenet.net> <42EDBFF6.6A7B@svpal.org> Message-ID: <000601c59669$2749d610$99f61345@RNDell1> What about flyers at Orion in Cupertino? There must be different neighborhood groups or activity groups, etc. with websites that would be willing to put a note and a link to the SJAA Houge Park star parties. Maybe even some of the college groups. Rich > Gary Mitchell wrote: > > > > Who is currently working on publicity for our public star > > parties? Jim? Rob? > > > In the July 25 Mercury is a separate Calendar section > > That section replaced "Venturing" that used to be in the sports > section on Thursdays. The new thing wants 3 weeks lead time, whereas > Venturing wanted just 3 days. > > I've been sending 3-week notices to with > no results. The first time I also copied the old address. > > Venturing was very reliable. This new thing is trying to be > everything to everybody, and I fear it'll be nothing to anybody. Boo. > > -- > Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical Association > JVN's web site > > > _______________________________________________ > SJAABoard mailing list > SJAABoard@sjaa.net > http://www.sjaa.net/mailman/listinfo/sjaaboard > > From robhawley at earthlink.net Mon Aug 1 16:37:58 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:28 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] New membership rates in effect Message-ID: <20050801233806.1B4637CF1@mail.whiteoaks.com> I posted the revised web pages. If you have accessed these in the past you may need to force a refresh. Rob Hawley From robhawley at earthlink.net Mon Aug 1 16:39:40 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:28 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Publicity success Message-ID: <20050801233944.512187F66@mail.whiteoaks.com> We have not totally flamed out in our attempts to publicize SJAA events. Check out page 110 in the September S&T. Rob Hawley From craigus at rocketmail.com Mon Aug 1 19:07:51 2005 From: craigus at rocketmail.com (Craig Scull) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:28 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Guidelines for reducing Director & Officer liability Message-ID: <20050802020751.51960.qmail@web53810.mail.yahoo.com> http://www.chubb.com/businesses/csi/chubb3439.pdf The author is a frequent speaker at seminars throughout the country regarding D&O liability and insurance. I was particularly surprised to read "...the typical not-for-profit organization has up to six times as many claims brought against it as does the typical for-profit organization." I suspect this is because not-for profits are easy prey for goldmining lawyers and plaintiffs because they can't easily defend themselves and don't take a rigorous approach to reducing risk. From wb6yru at aenet.net Mon Aug 1 20:50:47 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:28 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Financial report Message-ID: <42EEED97.4010208@aenet.net> At the last board meeting, Mike asked for a summary report for 2004. It's attached, with 2003 for comparison. Let me know if anyone wants any details. Mike mentioned having this in the newsletter. In principle, I agree we should do that. However, the timing really sucks--we just raised the dues and our overall accounts have been increasing. Our expenses have been going up (note the entries for the newsletter and insurance) and our accounts have increased less during 2004 (by about $300), but it still increased. So far, we're do'n OK in 2005 too. I'm a little hesitant to show increases in the very same Ephemeris issue when the dues have gone up. Am I just being too sensitive? By the way, notice what would happen if we didn't have our annual auction and swap... We'd be bleeding a grand instead of gaining a grand. A lot of that comes from the sale of donated items. Gary -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: report 2003_2004.TXT Url: http://www.sjaa.net/pipermail/sjaaboard/attachments/20050801/2a1352f3/report2003_2004.ksh From north at znet.com Mon Aug 1 20:54:52 2005 From: north at znet.com (Dave North) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:28 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Financial report In-Reply-To: <42EEED97.4010208@aenet.net> References: <42EEED97.4010208@aenet.net> Message-ID: <304ec7822d09a2c570db245e40c97fc7@znet.com> Gary Mitchell wrote: > At the last board meeting, Mike asked for a summary report > for 2004. It's attached Heckuva good job, Gary. Clear, concise and thorough. Woo! Thanks, Dave North From wb6yru at aenet.net Mon Aug 1 21:20:28 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:28 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] star party publicity In-Reply-To: <42EDBFF6.6A7B@svpal.org> References: <42ED55AC.2010506@aenet.net> <42EDBFF6.6A7B@svpal.org> Message-ID: <42EEF48C.4090301@aenet.net> Jim Van Nuland wrote: > Gary Mitchell wrote: >>In the July 25 Mercury is a separate Calendar section > > That section replaced "Venturing" that used to be in the sports > section on Thursdays. The new thing wants 3 weeks lead time, whereas > Venturing wanted just 3 days. > > I've been sending 3-week notices to with > no results. The first time I also copied the old address. What about: events@mercurynews.com. Have you tried that one? Gary From wb6yru at aenet.net Mon Aug 1 21:43:33 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Guidelines for reducing Director & Officer liability In-Reply-To: <20050802020751.51960.qmail@web53810.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20050802020751.51960.qmail@web53810.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <42EEF9F5.2030009@aenet.net> Craig Scull wrote: > http://www.chubb.com/businesses/csi/chubb3439.pdf > > The author is a frequent speaker at seminars throughout > the country regarding D&O liability and insurance. > > I was particularly surprised to read "...the typical > not-for-profit organization has up to six times as many > claims brought against it as does the typical for-profit > organization." > > I suspect this is because not-for profits are easy prey > for goldmining lawyers and plaintiffs because they can't > easily defend themselves and don't take a rigorous > approach to reducing risk. There's another club I'm in where they aren't at all interested in legal matters, (god help you if you suggest they update their bylaws, etc). Perhaps some clubs like that unknowingly invite certain law suits. There's an amateur radio organization called NARCC who does coordination of radio repeaters in Northern California. They're a stubborn, hard nosed bunch who find themselves in court every once in a while. It's my understanding that most of the time those suits aren't necessarily trying to get money. I don't know if they have insurance. Gary From wb6yru at aenet.net Mon Aug 1 22:17:42 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Financial report In-Reply-To: <304ec7822d09a2c570db245e40c97fc7@znet.com> References: <42EEED97.4010208@aenet.net> <304ec7822d09a2c570db245e40c97fc7@znet.com> Message-ID: <42EF01F6.6020300@aenet.net> Dave North wrote: > Gary Mitchell wrote: > >> At the last board meeting, Mike asked for a summary report >> for 2004. It's attached > > > Heckuva good job, Gary. Clear, concise and thorough. > Woo! > Thanks, Oh... wow... a compliment? I was expecting someone to demand it be organized differently, maybe show the net profit of each item or something--and I was prepared to do it too! :) Or maybe there'd be some glaring mistake I couldn't see, but is obvious to everyone else. Well, not to worry, there's still plenty of time. ;) Thanks, Gary From craigus at rocketmail.com Tue Aug 2 20:22:23 2005 From: craigus at rocketmail.com (Craig Scull) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Insurance for the SJAA Board In-Reply-To: <7b25840105072914572049dca0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20050803032223.46573.qmail@web53802.mail.yahoo.com> I am concerned too for the same reasons, but if we follow the guidelines I referred to, I will not be. I am most concerned about Indemnification and establishing some "minimal" level of operating procedures to ensure public safety as has been mentioned in previous meetings. If anyone wants a copy of my version with yellow high-lights, I can send it to you. I can't post it directly here because it gets bounced by the moderator due to it's being over 40k. --- Bill O'Shaughnessy wrote: > Hello All, > I think we should pay the extra $700 to cover the > board. > Quite often law suits puncture the corporate > protection > and go after the board members because they have more > money and insurance then the club itself. > > Maybe we should spend a couple of hundred dollars to > to get a legal opinion on this. > > I don't have a defined benefit retirement, so I don't > feel comfortable > putting my retirement funds at risk, even if that risk > is small. > > Comments are appreciated. > > Bill O. > > _______________________________________________ > SJAABoard mailing list > SJAABoard@sjaa.net > http://www.sjaa.net/mailman/listinfo/sjaaboard > From areopagus125 at yahoo.com Wed Aug 3 14:57:05 2005 From: areopagus125 at yahoo.com (David Smith) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Deep Impact speaker for October 15 Message-ID: <20050803215706.91293.qmail@web31702.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I just received phone notification from NASA that astrophysicist Diane Wooden has been engaged to address us in the October 15 general meeting. Diane has been directly involved with the Deep Impact mission. -- David Smith __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From pkohlmil at best.com Sun Aug 14 23:20:59 2005 From: pkohlmil at best.com (Paul Kohlmiller) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] September Ephemeris Proofread Message-ID: <009b01c5a161$82555fe0$0400a8c0@PKHPXPP> Dear Ephemeris readers, We are running just a little bit behind schedule. I plan to send this issue to the printer on Tuesday. If anyone has a better caption for the Yosemite picture on page 2, please send it in. I can name 2/3 of you but not all. Also, I hope I'm giving proper credit for the picture. Anything else you want to say about the Slide/Equipment Night? Next month we'll be super strict on the 10th day of the month deadline because we'll be out of town for a few days after that. Thanks, PK -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.sjaa.net/pipermail/sjaaboard/attachments/20050814/abf7a65d/attachment.html From pkohlmil at best.com Mon Aug 15 00:53:37 2005 From: pkohlmil at best.com (Paul Kohlmiller) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Link to September Ephemeris Message-ID: <001c01c5a16e$72cbf1d0$0400a8c0@PKHPXPP> Sorry. I forgot to give the link to the September Ephemeris. http://ephemeris.sjaa.net/0509/EphSep05.pdf Paul K -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.sjaa.net/pipermail/sjaaboard/attachments/20050815/adda58c1/attachment.html From jvn at svpal.org Mon Aug 15 03:54:50 2005 From: jvn at svpal.org (Jim Van Nuland) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Link to September Ephemeris References: <001c01c5a16e$72cbf1d0$0400a8c0@PKHPXPP> Message-ID: <4300747A.6BA0@svpal.org> Paul Kohlmiller wrote: > > Sorry. I forgot to give the link to the September Ephemeris. > http://ephemeris.sjaa.net/0509/EphSep05.pdf Calendar material checks out. Very sorry about omitting three events in July. Everything looks good. I wonder whether to crop the group photo to better show the people. NAAA -- Yosemite's scenery is much prettier than my puss. Good work! -- Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical Association JVN's web site From craigus at rocketmail.com Mon Aug 15 21:15:35 2005 From: craigus at rocketmail.com (Craig Scull) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] July 23 SJAA Board Meeting Minutes In-Reply-To: <4300747A.6BA0@svpal.org> Message-ID: <20050816041535.11569.qmail@web53806.mail.yahoo.com> ============================================== July 23, 2005 - SJAA Board Meeting Minutes ============================================== --------------------- Board Members Present --------------------- Mike Koop Gary Mitchell Craig Scull Rob Hawley Bill O?Schaughnessy Gordon Reade David Smith --------------- Meeting minutes --------------- Minutes were approved from the last meeting. It was noted that minutes should clearly state motions. ---------------------- Treasury Report (Gary) ---------------------- Accounts: Money Market was closed (aka observatory fund). The money ($3,000) was moved to a 1yr CD with a 3.35% yield. $5,000 from general fund moved to 6 month CD 3.05%. When this one expires it will be rolled over into a 1yr CD. $5,000 from general fund moved to 1yr CD 3.35%. $4,036.23 Checking at time of meeting $ 401.57 Savings Gary to verify if Mojo has been paid an honorarium for his web hosting services for the club web site. ---------------------------------------------- Membership Report (Rob) + Membership Reduction ---------------------------------------------- We?ve gained more new members up to this point for this year (25 new) than in recent years. Mike has been keeping track of how many members and non members have been attending the meetings and Houge park star parties ? he is finding that from 1/2 to 2/3 of the people are members. A motion was put forth that memberships should be on a per household basis. Motion approved. Rob brought up the point that the current web text on the club?s site almost encourages people to not be members. Rob will send out some revised text to the list. Rob to put PDF version of club brochure on the web site. The majority (estimated 2/3) of our memberships are now coming through Paypal. ---------------------------------- Loaner Scope Program Report (Mike) ---------------------------------- Not many scopes are loaned out right now and this is unusual for this time of year. ------------------------------------------- Observational Astronomy Class Report (Mike) ------------------------------------------- Mike is doing the next class, ?what?s up in the sky.? Mike notes that he is looking for someone to do an SCT class. ---------------- ATM Class (Mike) ---------------- 3 People at last meeting. Mike has cancelled the Thursday classes due to his softball schedule. The 10? club mirror is now spherical to the edge. Mike brought up the idea of having John Dobson to host a class. Rob suggested Albert High- Albert?s style is to build telescopes with commercially purchased optics. ------------------------------- General Meeting Programs (Dave) ------------------------------- Dave has the speaker set up for August (human endurance in space flight). September is slide and equipment night. October is open. --------------------------- Observatory Committee (Rob) --------------------------- No updates. ---------------------------- Houge Park Star Party (Mike) ---------------------------- Last two were well attended by both members and public. ------------------------------ School Star Party Report (Jim) ------------------------------ No updates, Jim not present at meeting. -------------- Calendar (Jim) -------------- No updates, Jim not present at meeting. Yosemite coming up 5th and 6th of August. Coyote star party is Saturday before that. Two star parties are upcoming for the Perseids, one at Villa Montalvo. --------------------- AANC Meeting (Gordon) --------------------- Next meeting is August 21st. Craig and Gordon to carpool. -------------------- Astrocon 2005 (Mike) -------------------- Rob to add link to Astrocon on the SJAA web site. $100 donated to Astrocon $400 loaned to Astrocon --------- Club Logo --------- No updates from Rhea. ---------------------- Club Procedures (Mike) ---------------------- We turned down board of directors insurance because it really only applies to employees for 90% of the cases that are filed. The SJAA has no employees. The other 10% of the cases are related to negligence in general. Everything that can be open to the public should be open to the public via the SJAA Board list to give people the opportunity to comment on issues as they feel fit. Some discussion ensued about the cases where information should not be public. Exceptions include insurance quotes, members that are discussing private donations, private email addresses, etc. We only have 15 people on the list but it?s ?public? because it?s indexed by Google. Before, during, and after discussion of ?private? topics a summary email needs to be sent out to the SJAA Board list. Everything that is a decision of the board needs to be included in the post. There should be some discretion as to whether a post should be made to the SJAA Board list in cases involving personalities, sensitive topics, negotiations with another entity, among others. ------------- Raffle (Mike) ------------- The raffle will continue for the rest of the year. A motion was put forth that Mike should be reimbursed on the order of $20 for each raffle. Motion approved. ------------- Calstar (Rob) ------------- 45 Registrations so far. ------------------------ Coyote Star Party (Mike) ------------------------ Last two were well attended. ------------------- Liability Insurance ------------------- No word about insurance. Gary will follow up with the insurance company to ensure we maintain our policy. --------------------- Membership Book (Rob) --------------------- Rob to bring print version to next meeting and board to decide on whether new members will be sent a printable version and/or a web version. From robhawley at earthlink.net Tue Aug 16 08:51:36 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] July 23 SJAA Board Meeting Minutes In-Reply-To: <20050816041535.11569.qmail@web53806.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Paul maintains the general SJAA web site. The membership book is available as a PDF at http://www.sjaa.net/rh/New_Member_Guide.pdf. Caution this is 1.2 Mbytes. This version came out well. It will serve well as either a printed copy or as a PDF. There is also a copy of the brochure available at http://www.sjaa.net/rh/SJAAbrochureAug05.pdf Rob Hawley -----Original Message----- From: sjaaboard-bounces@sjaa.net [mailto:sjaaboard-bounces@sjaa.net] On Behalf Of Craig Scull Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 9:16 PM To: sjaaboard@sjaa.net Subject: [SJAABoard] July 23 SJAA Board Meeting Minutes ============================================== July 23, 2005 - SJAA Board Meeting Minutes ============================================== --------------------- Board Members Present --------------------- Mike Koop Gary Mitchell Craig Scull Rob Hawley Bill O'Schaughnessy Gordon Reade David Smith --------------- Meeting minutes --------------- Minutes were approved from the last meeting. It was noted that minutes should clearly state motions. ---------------------- Treasury Report (Gary) ---------------------- Accounts: Money Market was closed (aka observatory fund). The money ($3,000) was moved to a 1yr CD with a 3.35% yield. $5,000 from general fund moved to 6 month CD 3.05%. When this one expires it will be rolled over into a 1yr CD. $5,000 from general fund moved to 1yr CD 3.35%. $4,036.23 Checking at time of meeting $ 401.57 Savings Gary to verify if Mojo has been paid an honorarium for his web hosting services for the club web site. ---------------------------------------------- Membership Report (Rob) + Membership Reduction ---------------------------------------------- We've gained more new members up to this point for this year (25 new) than in recent years. Mike has been keeping track of how many members and non members have been attending the meetings and Houge park star parties - he is finding that from 1/2 to 2/3 of the people are members. A motion was put forth that memberships should be on a per household basis. Motion approved. Rob brought up the point that the current web text on the club's site almost encourages people to not be members. Rob will send out some revised text to the list. Rob to put PDF version of club brochure on the web site. The majority (estimated 2/3) of our memberships are now coming through Paypal. ---------------------------------- Loaner Scope Program Report (Mike) ---------------------------------- Not many scopes are loaned out right now and this is unusual for this time of year. ------------------------------------------- Observational Astronomy Class Report (Mike) ------------------------------------------- Mike is doing the next class, "what's up in the sky." Mike notes that he is looking for someone to do an SCT class. ---------------- ATM Class (Mike) ---------------- 3 People at last meeting. Mike has cancelled the Thursday classes due to his softball schedule. The 10" club mirror is now spherical to the edge. Mike brought up the idea of having John Dobson to host a class. Rob suggested Albert High- Albert's style is to build telescopes with commercially purchased optics. ------------------------------- General Meeting Programs (Dave) ------------------------------- Dave has the speaker set up for August (human endurance in space flight). September is slide and equipment night. October is open. --------------------------- Observatory Committee (Rob) --------------------------- No updates. ---------------------------- Houge Park Star Party (Mike) ---------------------------- Last two were well attended by both members and public. ------------------------------ School Star Party Report (Jim) ------------------------------ No updates, Jim not present at meeting. -------------- Calendar (Jim) -------------- No updates, Jim not present at meeting. Yosemite coming up 5th and 6th of August. Coyote star party is Saturday before that. Two star parties are upcoming for the Perseids, one at Villa Montalvo. --------------------- AANC Meeting (Gordon) --------------------- Next meeting is August 21st. Craig and Gordon to carpool. -------------------- Astrocon 2005 (Mike) -------------------- Rob to add link to Astrocon on the SJAA web site. $100 donated to Astrocon $400 loaned to Astrocon --------- Club Logo --------- No updates from Rhea. ---------------------- Club Procedures (Mike) ---------------------- We turned down board of directors insurance because it really only applies to employees for 90% of the cases that are filed. The SJAA has no employees. The other 10% of the cases are related to negligence in general. Everything that can be open to the public should be open to the public via the SJAA Board list to give people the opportunity to comment on issues as they feel fit. Some discussion ensued about the cases where information should not be public. Exceptions include insurance quotes, members that are discussing private donations, private email addresses, etc. We only have 15 people on the list but it's "public" because it's indexed by Google. Before, during, and after discussion of "private" topics a summary email needs to be sent out to the SJAA Board list. Everything that is a decision of the board needs to be included in the post. There should be some discretion as to whether a post should be made to the SJAA Board list in cases involving personalities, sensitive topics, negotiations with another entity, among others. ------------- Raffle (Mike) ------------- The raffle will continue for the rest of the year. A motion was put forth that Mike should be reimbursed on the order of $20 for each raffle. Motion approved. ------------- Calstar (Rob) ------------- 45 Registrations so far. ------------------------ Coyote Star Party (Mike) ------------------------ Last two were well attended. ------------------- Liability Insurance ------------------- No word about insurance. Gary will follow up with the insurance company to ensure we maintain our policy. --------------------- Membership Book (Rob) --------------------- Rob to bring print version to next meeting and board to decide on whether new members will be sent a printable version and/or a web version. _______________________________________________ SJAABoard mailing list SJAABoard@sjaa.net http://www.sjaa.net/mailman/listinfo/sjaaboard From robhawley at earthlink.net Tue Aug 16 08:59:32 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] July 23 SJAA Board Meeting Minutes Message-ID: Use this link to access the brochure http://www.sjaa.net/rh/SJAAbrochure.pdf Rob Hawley From areopagus125 at yahoo.com Tue Aug 16 17:09:52 2005 From: areopagus125 at yahoo.com (David Smith) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] November 12 speaker Message-ID: <20050817000952.35779.qmail@web31708.mail.mud.yahoo.com> For our November 12 meeting, we will hear from Ben Shelef, founder of the Spaceward Foundation. The topic will be achieving cheap access to space by building elevators to and past geostationary orbit. (See http://www.elevator2010.org/site/primer.html .) ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs From robhawley at earthlink.net Wed Aug 17 11:32:07 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] SJAA brochure updated Message-ID: The new one covers Sept - Dec. http://www.sjaa.net/rh/SJAAbrochure.pdf Rob Hawley From robhawley at earthlink.net Wed Aug 17 16:35:51 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] August Membership Report Message-ID: Hopefully with the secret decoder ring so this makes sense. We are continuing the trend of large numbers of new members. The June members will be receiving "final issue" notifications with this issue of the Ephemeris. Historically that should cause a few more renewals. Since PayPal was announced on 5/23/05 we have had 41 renewals via PayPal and 54 regular renewals. *******************Expiration Histogram****************** This tells how many memberships expire each month. It also give the overall counts of paid and complementary members. Last SJAA Meeting 7/23/2005 Report Date 8/17/2005 Expire Month Count in month Jun-05 7 Jul-05 4 Aug-05 6 Sep-05 14 Oct-05 18 Nov-05 9 Dec-05 16 Jan-06 21 Feb-06 18 Mar-06 20 Apr-06 14 May-06 23 Jun-06 63 Jul-06 18 Aug-06 24 Sep-06 9 more than 13 months 9 complementary 29 expiring 11 paid(current) 282 email delivery 11 Labels Generated 311 S&T Members 174 New Members since last meeting 10 current + complementary 311 ********************************Membership count History*********************** This gives the history of membership numbers back until 2002 Combined Current Paid Complementary New Members in month 2/20/2002 292 276 16 4/19/2002 289 273 16 5/13/2002 274 6/20/2002 288 7/26/2002 291 9/18/2002 305 10/16/2002 285 12/18/2002 320 2/24/2003 322 3/20/2003 336 4/15/2003 334 5/15/2003 333 9/13/2003 357 10/9/2003 347 4/13/2004 345 7/24/2004 342 8/26/2004 332 9/24/2004 333 10/26/2004 333 11/18/2004 324 12/15/2004 311 285 26 11 1/19/2005 308 284 24 5 2/23/2005 304 279 25 3 3/25/2005 303 279 24 5 4/19/2005 303 277 26 3 5/18/2005 294 268 26 4 6/15/2005 296 270 26 3 7/20/2005 302 275 27 11 8/17/2005 311 282 29 10 ***************************Length of membership Histogram ***************** This records how long paid members have been members of the club. We now have data on 76% of the members. It is a good assumption that almost all of the 69 for which we do not have data for joined prior to 2000. 2005 34 2004 55 2003 44 2002 23 2001 8 2000 1 < 2000 48 Specified 213 76% of members Not Specified 69 total 282 ************************Expiration Histogram******************************* This records when members who have not renewed joined the club. Complementary memberships are excluded from these counts. expired (not including ex-compl) 2005 0 2004 18 2003 16 2002 3 2001 0 2000 0 < 2000 0 Specified 37 61% Not Specified 24 total 61 This includes all people whose memberships expired from about Sept 04 until present. Starting next month I will begin retiring inactive members so these numbers will start reflecting terminations within the last year. Rob Hawley From wb6yru at aenet.net Thu Aug 18 01:34:52 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] August Membership Report In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4304482C.1030208@aenet.net> Rob Hawley wrote: [snip] > ************************Expiration Histogram******************************* > > This records when members who have not renewed joined the club. > Complementary memberships are excluded from these counts. > > expired (not including ex-compl) > 2005 0 > 2004 18 > 2003 16 > 2002 3 > 2001 0 > 2000 0 > < 2000 0 What remains to be seen in all this data is why they joined and why they didn't renew. I assume many joined on a whim because we were showing Mars at it's closest approach a couple of years ago, or something like that. But is it something else, something we could improve? That would be good to know. I understand we send out reminders to those who don't renew. Maybe it would be a good idea to encourage them to drop us a note if they decide to not renew and tell us why. Are we already doing this? Gary From north at znet.com Thu Aug 18 07:43:08 2005 From: north at znet.com (Dave North) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] August Membership Report In-Reply-To: <4304482C.1030208@aenet.net> References: <4304482C.1030208@aenet.net> Message-ID: <420e77a7c8b51fa61824bae63ee53f2c@znet.com> Gary: > Maybe it would be a good idea to encourage them to drop us > a note if they decide to not renew and tell us why. I used to send emails, and often got replies. Over the last couple of years I was doing it, the most common reason was people moved. Some people who move retain a membership, but most drop it when they leave the area. And lots of people were moving. This may still be the case; I don't know. Dave From robhawley at earthlink.net Thu Aug 18 07:43:22 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] August Membership Report In-Reply-To: <4304482C.1030208@aenet.net> Message-ID: This is the last chance message I send. Occasionally I get a reply, but most of the time the membership just lapses. Just a courtesy notice to let you know your SJAA membership has expired... we let it run for another month as a courtesy, but if you don't want to continue, please let me know. Note that if you were subscribing to Sky and Telescope this may disrupt your subscription. They are not giving the grace period like they used to, so its best to stay ahead of the game since they take quite a while to process paperwork sometimes. Thank you for your membership; I hope you decide to continue it! If you decide not to join could you let us know what we could have done better? Rob Hawley From jvn at svpal.org Thu Aug 18 15:40:59 2005 From: jvn at svpal.org (Jim Van Nuland) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Calendar for 2006 -- first cut Message-ID: <43050E7B.20AD@svpal.org> Hi, All, Here's a first cut at a 2006 calendar, link below. There are a few comments in the lower part of the table that may merit discussion. In particular, I've put the Auction a week earlier to avoid a clash with Easter. One of the two big-deal dates, the other is Christmas. I have dates for the mirror-making workshop, with just one miss, the Saturday in April. An extra happens in September. Shall we have one on December 30? The Houge Public star parties work out smoothly. Shall we have a class on Dec.8? Clear Skies (and schedules!) -- Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical Association 2006 tabular calendar From koopm at koopm.best.vwh.net Fri Aug 19 16:57:53 2005 From: koopm at koopm.best.vwh.net (Michael Koop) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Calendar for 2006 -- first cut In-Reply-To: <43050E7B.20AD@svpal.org> References: <43050E7B.20AD@svpal.org> Message-ID: <20050819174859.I75960@koopm.best.vwh.net> > > In particular, I've put the Auction a week earlier to avoid a clash > with Easter. One of the two big-deal dates, the other is Christmas. Could you please check to see if Saturday is available again? Would we want to change it from a Sunday? > > I have dates for the mirror-making workshop, with just one miss, the > Saturday in April. An extra happens in September. Shall we have one on > December 30? > Plan these for now. We can always cancel them. > The Houge Public star parties work out smoothly. Shall we have a > class on Dec.8? There should always be a Whats up in the sky talk even if we do not get a formal expert, so schedule all 12 classes. I find the calendar difficult to do with out all the information that I put into the calendar I make. Only then do we find that you may have scheduled a houge during a 90 percent moon or something like that. I have started on the calendar and will finish when I return. Mike > > Clear Skies (and schedules!) > -- > Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical Association > 2006 tabular > calendar > From koopm at koopm.best.vwh.net Fri Aug 19 18:13:51 2005 From: koopm at koopm.best.vwh.net (Michael Koop) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Insurance for the SJAA Board In-Reply-To: <7b25840105072914572049dca0@mail.gmail.com> References: <7b25840105072914572049dca0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20050729161958.E17621@koopm.best.vwh.net> I just called the our insurance broker for a quick quote. The cost will be around $1400. Where did you find a $700 policy. She also suggest checking your homeowner policy for coverage. You might find yourself covered there. There is alot of work we as a board need to do pertaining to liability issues. I feel that as a board, we can manage the problems so that we do not need to get Board of directors or sexual misconduct insurance for our school star party programs. We have discussed this at length but I can not seem to interest other board members in assisting in this effort. You all seem to look at me like I am chasing windmills (again)! A few points to make: a) Craig's article talks about exactly what I think we should be doing. Please read it before going to the meeting: http://www.chubb.com/businesses/csi/chubb3439.pdf b) 90 percent of the lawsuits against the board of directors involve employment termination issues. We need to identify what are the possible ways we as a board can get into a lawsuit and make processes to avoid them. For example, someone donates money for a specific purpose and we spend it somewhere else, would be a potential lawsuit area. c)Gary Mitchell has pointed out correctly that we need to act in a conscientious and proper manner as officers in our organization. Have we done that or are we just doing the status quo? To prove that we operate in a conscientious manner we need to start documenting our processes on how we do things. We need to do a safety inspection on everything that we do and come up with ways to improve things. As I have stated to Jim, pretend that the club has gotten into a lawsuit and you are on the witness stand. What evidence would you like to have to defend yourself? You can defend your actions by saying we followed the procedure approved by the board of directors which has an annual safety audit. Currently, we have nothing but to say but "this is the way we have always done it and we have never had a problem". In one case we take the problem on and try to solve it to the best of our abilities, looking for constant improvement. In the other, we are just putting our heads into the sand, and ignoring the problem. Which do you want to do? d) Even more articles to read and consider as part of our procedures: Sound Advice for Functions and Events: http://www.niac.org/NIAC2/ResourceCenter/DownloadableFiles/EventsBook1.pdf Directors and Officers Key facts about insurance and Legal Liability http://www.niac.org/NIAC2/ResourceCenter/DownloadableFiles/DandOBook.pdf Managing Volunteers: Balancing Risk and Reward http://www.niac.org/NIAC2/ResourceCenter/DownloadableFiles/VolunteersBook1.pdf The Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 http://www.runquist.com/article_vol_protect.htm Some Nice Tutorials here for the Risk Management for non profits conference in SF this September (left hand side tutorials) http://nonprofitrisk.org/training/2005/summit/summit.htm Enough for now. Have a good board meeting. Mike >From an Internet cafe in Cusco, Peru On Fri, 29 Jul 2005, Bill O'Shaughnessy wrote: > Hello All, > I think we should pay the extra $700 to cover the board. > Quite often law suits puncture the corporate protection > and go after the board members because they have more > money and insurance then the club itself. > > Maybe we should spend a couple of hundred dollars to > to get a legal opinion on this. > > I don't have a defined benefit retirement, so I don't feel comfortable > putting my retirement funds at risk, even if that risk is small. > > Comments are appreciated. > > Bill O. > > _______________________________________________ > SJAABoard mailing list > SJAABoard@sjaa.net > http://www.sjaa.net/mailman/listinfo/sjaaboard > From jvn at svpal.org Fri Aug 19 19:39:49 2005 From: jvn at svpal.org (Jim Van Nuland) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Calendar for 2006 -- and three errors fixed References: <43050E7B.20AD@svpal.org> <20050819174859.I75960@koopm.best.vwh.net> Message-ID: <430697F5.28FB@svpal.org> JVN wrote; > > In particular, I've put the Auction a week earlier Michael Koop wrote: > Could you please check to see if Saturday is available again? > Would we want to change it from a Sunday? No, no. Not after the burning we've taken, and the general success with Sundays. I'd much rather compromise once in a while than deal with the incompetence in that program. Yes, they are out of there just now, but could be back any time. > > mirror-making workshop ... Shall we have one on December 30? > > Shall we have a class on Dec.8? > Plan these for now. We can always cancel them. Agreed. Done. BUT see below; the 8th gotta get moved down a week. > I find the calendar difficult to do with out all the information that I > put into the calendar I make. Only then do we find that you may have > scheduled a Houge during a 90 percent moon or something like that. Oh, yes -- it's impossible without the moon ages! I start by making up the big sheet, then putting in the four moon phases. After that I can see where the dates come, but even so, the moon can rise or set anomalously early, so the times are needed in some cases. Example: Dec.8 is 4 days after full, but the moon rises at 8:46 pm. Depends on the angle of the ecliptic, and the peri- and apogees. SOME ERRORS -- Re-checking on dark nights, I find a too-early moonrise on July 14. Change it to 21. This applies to the class, too. Move Dec.8 to Dec.15, star party and class. The 8th has FM+4, but the moon is up before 10. AND, re-checking on moony nights, I find that I failed to enter Sept.29, 1Q-1 day. YES, I really need other people checking on all this stuff. Clear Skies (and schedules!) -- Jim Van Nuland, San Jose (California) Astronomical Association 2006 tabular calendar> From craigus at rocketmail.com Fri Aug 19 21:13:01 2005 From: craigus at rocketmail.com (Craig Scull) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Re: July 23 SJAA Board Meeting Minutes [motions edited] Message-ID: <20050820041301.17565.qmail@web53808.mail.yahoo.com> I've edited the minutes to include more detail around the motions. There were only two motions in the last minutes, and they have been edited as follows: "A motion was put forth that memberships should be on a per household basis. The alternative was that memberships would be per person. The motion that memberships be on a per household basis was seconded and approved with no abstentions." "A motion was put forth Mike should be reimbursed on the order of $20 for each raffle. The alternatives were for reimbursement of $30, $40, or $50. The motion that Mike should be reimbursed on the order of $20 for each raffle was seconded and approved with no abstentions." [thank you Gary for your off-post recommendation on the syntax - I'll also record the number of votes for each motion in the next meeting] The full minutes with the edited motions are as follows: ============================================== July 23, 2005 - SJAA Board Meeting Minutes ============================================== --------------------- Board Members Present --------------------- Mike Koop Gary Mitchell Craig Scull Rob Hawley Bill O?Schaughnessy Gordon Reade David Smith --------------- Meeting minutes --------------- Minutes were approved from the last meeting. It was noted that minutes should clearly state motions. ---------------------- Treasury Report (Gary) ---------------------- Accounts: Money Market was closed (aka observatory fund). The money ($3,000) was moved to a 1yr CD with a 3.35% yield. $5,000 from general fund moved to 6 month CD 3.05%. When this one expires it will be rolled over into a 1yr CD. $5,000 from general fund moved to 1yr CD 3.35%. $4,036.23 Checking currently showing in the checkbook $ 401.57 Savings Gary to verify if Mojo has yet been paid an honorarium for his services. ---------------------------------------------- Membership Report (Rob) + Membership Reduction ---------------------------------------------- We?ve gained more new members up to this point for this year (25 new) than in recent years. Mike has been keeping track of how many members and non members have been attending the meetings and Houge park star parties ? he is finding that from 1/2 to 2/3 of the people are members. A motion was put forth that memberships should be on a per household basis. The alternative was that memberships would be per person. The motion that memberships be on a per household basis was seconded and approved with no abstentions. Rob brought up the point that the current web text on the club?s site almost encourages people to not be members. Rob will send out some revised text to the list. Rob to put PDF version of club brochure on the web site. The majority (estimated 2/3) of our memberships are now coming through Paypal. ---------------------------------- Loaner Scope Program Report (Mike) ---------------------------------- Not many scopes are loaned out right now and this is unusual for this time of year. ------------------------------------------- Observational Astronomy Class Report (Mike) ------------------------------------------- Mike is doing the next class, ?what?s up in the sky.? Mike notes that he is looking for someone to do an SCT class. ---------------- ATM Class (Mike) ---------------- 3 People at last meeting. Mike has cancelled the Thursday classes due to his softball schedule. The 10? club mirror is now spherical to the edge. Mike brought up the idea of having John Dobson to host a class. Rob suggested Albert High- Albert?s style is to build telescopes with commercially purchased optics. ------------------------------- General Meeting Programs (Dave) ------------------------------- Dave has the speaker set up for August (human endurance in space flight). September is slide and equipment night. October is open. --------------------------- Observatory Committee (Rob) --------------------------- No updates. ---------------------------- Houge Park Star Party (Mike) ---------------------------- Last two were well attended by both members and public. ------------------------------ School Star Party Report (Jim) ------------------------------ No updates, Jim not present at meeting. -------------- Calendar (Jim) -------------- No updates, Jim not present at meeting. Yosemite coming up 5th and 6th of August. Coyote star party is Saturday before that. Two star parties are upcoming for the Perseids, one at Villa Montalvo. --------------------- AANC Meeting (Gordon) --------------------- Next meeting is August 21st. Craig and Gordon to carpool. -------------------- Astrocon 2005 (Mike) -------------------- Rob to add link to Astrocon on the SJAA web site. $100 donated to Astrocon $400 loaned to Astrocon --------- Club Logo --------- No updates from Rhea. ---------------------- Club Procedures (Mike) ---------------------- We turned down board of directors insurance because it really only applies to employees for 90% of the cases that are filed. The SJAA has no employees. The other 10% of the cases are related to negligence in general. Everything that can be open to the public should be open to the public via the SJAA Board list to give people the opportunity to comment on issues as they feel fit. Some discussion ensued about the cases where information should not be public. Exceptions include insurance quotes, members that are discussing private donations, private email addresses, etc. We only have 15 people on the list but it?s ?public? because it?s indexed by Google. Before, during, and after discussion of ?private? topics a summary email needs to be sent out to the SJAA Board list. Everything that is a decision of the board needs to be included in the post. There should be some discretion as to whether a post should be made to the SJAA Board list in cases involving personalities, sensitive topics, negotiations with another entity, among others. ------------- Raffle (Mike) ------------- The raffle will continue for the rest of the year. A motion was put forth Mike should be reimbursed on the order of $20 for each raffle. The alternatives were for reimbursement of $30, $40, or $50. The motion that Mike should be reimbursed on the order of $20 for each raffle was seconded and approved with no abstentions. ------------- Calstar (Rob) ------------- 45 Registrations so far. ------------------------ Coyote Star Party (Mike) ------------------------ Last two were well attended. ------------------- Liability Insurance ------------------- No word about insurance. Gary will follow up with the insurance company to ensure we maintain our policy. --------------------- Membership Book (Rob) --------------------- Rob to bring print version to next meeting and board to decide on whether new members will be sent a printable version and/or a web version. From craigus at rocketmail.com Fri Aug 19 21:16:06 2005 From: craigus at rocketmail.com (Craig Scull) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Re: July 23 SJAA Board Meeting Minutes [motions edited] Message-ID: <20050820041606.62983.qmail@web53802.mail.yahoo.com> Copies of the minutes will be brought to the meeting. If you do not require a copy, please let me know and I'll save the paper :) Craig --- Craig Scull wrote: > I've edited the minutes to include more detail around > the > motions. There were only two motions in the last > minutes, and they have been edited as follows: > > "A motion was put forth that memberships should be > on > a per household basis. The alternative was that > memberships would be per person. The motion that > memberships be on a per household basis was seconded > and > approved with no abstentions." > > "A motion was put forth Mike should be reimbursed on > the order of $20 for each raffle. The alternatives > were > for reimbursement of $30, $40, or $50. The motion that > Mike should be reimbursed on the order of $20 for each > raffle was seconded and approved with no abstentions." > > [thank you Gary for your off-post recommendation on the > syntax - I'll also record the number of votes for each > motion in the next meeting] > > > The full minutes with the edited motions are as > follows: > > ============================================== > July 23, 2005 - SJAA Board Meeting Minutes > ============================================== > > --------------------- > Board Members Present > --------------------- > Mike Koop > Gary Mitchell > Craig Scull > Rob Hawley > Bill O?Schaughnessy > Gordon Reade > David Smith > > --------------- > Meeting minutes > --------------- > Minutes were approved from the last meeting. It was > noted that minutes should clearly state motions. > > ---------------------- > Treasury Report (Gary) > ---------------------- > Accounts: > Money Market was closed (aka observatory fund). The > money ($3,000) was moved to a 1yr CD with a 3.35% > yield. > > $5,000 from general fund moved to 6 month CD 3.05%. > When > this one expires it will be rolled over into a 1yr CD. > $5,000 from general fund moved to 1yr CD 3.35%. > > > $4,036.23 Checking currently showing in the checkbook > > $ 401.57 Savings > > Gary to verify if Mojo has yet been paid an honorarium > for his services. > > > ---------------------------------------------- > Membership Report (Rob) + Membership Reduction > ---------------------------------------------- > We?ve gained more new members up to this point for this > year (25 new) than in recent years. > > Mike has been keeping track of how many members and non > members have been attending the meetings and Houge park > star parties ? he is finding that from 1/2 to 2/3 of > the > people are members. > > A motion was put forth that memberships should be on a > per household basis. The alternative was that > memberships would be per person. The motion that > memberships be on a per household basis was seconded > and > approved with no abstentions. > > Rob brought up the point that the current web text on > the > club?s site almost encourages people to not be members. > > Rob will send out some revised text to the list. > > Rob to put PDF version of club brochure on the web > site. > > The majority (estimated 2/3) of our memberships are now > coming through Paypal. > > > ---------------------------------- > Loaner Scope Program Report (Mike) > ---------------------------------- > Not many scopes are loaned out right now and this is > unusual for this time of year. > > > ------------------------------------------- > Observational Astronomy Class Report (Mike) > ------------------------------------------- > Mike is doing the next class, ?what?s up in the sky.? > Mike notes that he is looking for someone to do an SCT > class. > > > ---------------- > ATM Class (Mike) > ---------------- > 3 People at last meeting. Mike has cancelled the > Thursday classes due to his softball schedule. The 10? > club mirror is now spherical to the edge. > > Mike brought up the idea of having John Dobson to host > a > class. Rob suggested Albert High- Albert?s style is to > build telescopes with commercially purchased optics. > > > ------------------------------- > General Meeting Programs (Dave) > ------------------------------- > Dave has the speaker set up for August (human endurance > in space flight). September is slide and equipment > night. October is open. > > > --------------------------- > Observatory Committee (Rob) > --------------------------- > No updates. > > > ---------------------------- > Houge Park Star Party (Mike) > ---------------------------- > Last two were well attended by both members and public. > > > ------------------------------ > School Star Party Report (Jim) > ------------------------------ > No updates, Jim not present at meeting. > > > -------------- > Calendar (Jim) > -------------- > No updates, Jim not present at meeting. Yosemite > coming > up 5th and 6th of August. Coyote star party is > Saturday > before that. Two star parties are upcoming for the > Perseids, one at Villa Montalvo. > > > --------------------- > AANC Meeting (Gordon) > --------------------- > Next meeting is August 21st. Craig and Gordon to > carpool. > > > -------------------- > Astrocon 2005 (Mike) > -------------------- > Rob to add link to Astrocon on the SJAA web site. > > $100 donated to Astrocon > $400 loaned to Astrocon > > > --------- > Club Logo > --------- > No updates from Rhea. > > > ---------------------- > Club Procedures (Mike) > ---------------------- > We turned down board of directors insurance because it > really only applies to employees for 90% of the cases > that are filed. The SJAA has no employees. The other > 10% of the cases are related to negligence in general. > > Everything that can be open to the public should be > open > to the public via the SJAA Board list to give people > the > === message truncated === From wb6yru at aenet.net Fri Aug 19 22:54:58 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Insurance for the SJAA Board In-Reply-To: <20050729161958.E17621@koopm.best.vwh.net> References: <7b25840105072914572049dca0@mail.gmail.com> <20050729161958.E17621@koopm.best.vwh.net> Message-ID: <4306C5B2.3000200@aenet.net> Michael Koop wrote: > I just called the our insurance broker for a quick quote. > The cost will be around $1400. Did they say anything about sending us a renewal bill? They're supposed to send us one. > b) 90 percent of the lawsuits against the board of directors involve > employment termination issues. We need to identify what are the possible > ways we as a board can get into a lawsuit and make processes to avoid > them. For example, someone donates money for a specific purpose and we > spend it somewhere else, would be a potential lawsuit area. FWIW, several years ago a member of another club who is also a lawyer told me that almost all the time a club (like this) gets sued by a member or someone closely associated with the club in some way because they got a bug up their butt about something. In other words, you'll probably see it coming and will be able to take steps to cool the situation before it gets out of hand. We're a pretty accommodating bunch, we don't walk around with our noses high in the air, we go out of our way to piss people off, etc. So, I really don't see much of a risk in that regard. I think this club's biggest risk for a lawsuit is if someone trips over a telescope at a star party, something like that. Our liability insurance covers those things. If we're at a park or school (which is almost every time), they have policies for things like that too. > c)Gary Mitchell has pointed out correctly that we need to act in a > conscientious and proper manner as officers in our organization. Have we > done that or are we just doing the status quo? To prove that we operate > in a conscientious manner we need to start documenting our processes on > how we do things. Well, I have looked into this somewhat, years ago, and it's my understanding that any risk to "piercing the corporate veil" comes from the officers/directors knowingly and willfully screwing up. This includes doing things contrary to our articles of incorporation, bylaws, or state law. The fact that we're sitting here worrying about this stuff tells me that we're already pretty much on the straight and narrow. > We need to do a safety inspection on everything that > we do and come up with ways to improve things. So much the better... This may not be overkill, but it sure looks to me that we're do'n OK. > As I have stated to Jim, > pretend that the club has gotten into a lawsuit and you are on the > witness stand. What evidence would you like to have to defend yourself? It really depends on the nature of the suit. Chances are it would be someone twisted their foot in the dark stepping over one of those parking bumpers (I forget what they're called) near where we set up at Houge. I, for one, would have plenty to say about that. But then, on the other hand, MacDonnald's got sued for having hot coffee. (tsk!) So... ? :/ > You can defend your actions by saying we followed the procedure approved > by the board of directors which has an annual safety audit. Currently, > we have nothing but to say but "this is the way we have always done it > and we have never had a problem". In one case we take the problem on and > try to solve it to the best of our abilities, looking for constant > improvement. In the other, we are just putting our heads into the sand, > and ignoring the problem. Which do you want to do? > > d) Even more articles to read and consider as part of our procedures: > Sound Advice for Functions and Events: This is all well and good, and I don't mean to discourage any of these concerns and efforts, but at the same time, there is such a thing as being overly paranoid too. I'm certainly not arguing against having a safety review. In fact, that's probably a good idea. But let's not get too carried away with it either. I'm not sure what we could do at star parties much beyond what we already do (ask people to not run, don't grab the scope, but do lean on the step ladder, etc.) This is a pretty passive activity, it sure doesn't compare to using playground equipment, for example. Gary From wb6yru at aenet.net Fri Aug 19 22:56:55 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Calendar for 2006 -- and three errors fixed In-Reply-To: <430697F5.28FB@svpal.org> References: <43050E7B.20AD@svpal.org> <20050819174859.I75960@koopm.best.vwh.net> <430697F5.28FB@svpal.org> Message-ID: <4306C627.2050803@aenet.net> Jim Van Nuland wrote: > JVN wrote; > >>> In particular, I've put the Auction a week earlier > > > Michael Koop wrote: > >>Could you please check to see if Saturday is available again? >>Would we want to change it from a Sunday? > > > No, no. Not after the burning we've taken, and the general success > with Sundays. I'd much rather compromise once in a while than deal with > the incompetence in that program. Yes, they are out of there just now, > but could be back any time. > I, for one, like having the auction on Sunday. Gary From wb6yru at aenet.net Fri Aug 19 23:05:08 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Re: July 23 SJAA Board Meeting Minutes [motions edited] In-Reply-To: <20050820041606.62983.qmail@web53802.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20050820041606.62983.qmail@web53802.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4306C814.1060505@aenet.net> Craig Scull wrote: > Copies of the minutes will be brought to the meeting. If > you do not require a copy, please let me know and I'll > save the paper :) I don't need a paper copy. Thanks. By the way, does anyone want a paper copy of the financial report e-mailed out a while ago? Gary From robhawley at earthlink.net Fri Aug 19 23:09:12 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Insurance for the SJAA Board In-Reply-To: <4306C5B2.3000200@aenet.net> Message-ID: I have the renewal bill and will bring it to the meeting tomorrow. Rob Hawley -----Original Message----- From: sjaaboard-bounces@sjaa.net [mailto:sjaaboard-bounces@sjaa.net] On Behalf Of Gary Mitchell Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 10:55 PM To: Business list for SJAA board of directors and members Subject: Re: [SJAABoard] Insurance for the SJAA Board Michael Koop wrote: > I just called the our insurance broker for a quick quote. > The cost will be around $1400. Did they say anything about sending us a renewal bill? They're supposed to send us one. From wb6yru at aenet.net Fri Aug 19 23:47:53 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Re: July 23 SJAA Board Meeting Minutes [motions edited] In-Reply-To: <20050820041301.17565.qmail@web53808.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20050820041301.17565.qmail@web53808.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4306D219.1080705@aenet.net> Craig Scull wrote: > I've edited the minutes to include more detail around the > motions. There were only two motions in the last > minutes, and they have been edited as follows: > > "A motion was put forth that memberships should be on > a per household basis. The alternative was that > memberships would be per person. The motion that > memberships be on a per household basis was seconded and > approved with no abstentions." > > "A motion was put forth Mike should be reimbursed on > the order of $20 for each raffle. The alternatives were > for reimbursement of $30, $40, or $50. The motion that > Mike should be reimbursed on the order of $20 for each > raffle was seconded and approved with no abstentions." > > [thank you Gary for your off-post recommendation on the > syntax - I'll also record the number of votes for each > motion in the next meeting] Looking over that note again and seeing the format you have here... Maybe I may have flubbed up just a bit. You don't have to include that alternative statement. That was just an example of information that you might want to include. The minimum is: who made the motion, the motion itself, and the vote results. Or if it didn't come to a vote, what happened, (e.g. wasn't seconded, got tabled, etc.) As far as minutes go in general, they need to contain a record of what the board did, they don't have to include everything that was said. Anything beyond the minimum is gravy. I'm in another club where the secretary writes down *everything*. It's funny... He even noted that we took a cookie break! :) (whenever I think about it, it makes me laugh.) That's really overkill. However, the minutes are published in their newsletter. It's nice to have all that detail for those who didn't attend the meeting. In our case, the detail of these minutes looks good to me. I like the clear division you make between topics. I think a good rule of thumb is to imagine that we needed to go back and see whether the board decided something or at least discussed it. If we could, then that's enough detail. It's fine to include more if you want to, but don't break a sweat. Gary From d_crom at yahoo.com Sat Aug 20 01:57:17 2005 From: d_crom at yahoo.com (Dana Crom) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Will not be attending the August meeting Message-ID: <20050820085717.10522.qmail@web51704.mail.yahoo.com> I am on an extended business trip and won't be able to attend the August meeting. Sorry if this is a resend - I didn't see the first email in the archives. Dana Crom ================================== Dana Crom - San Jose, California d_crom@yahoo.com (personal email) Dana.Crom@zoran.com (work email) ================================== ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs From koopm at koopm.best.vwh.net Sat Aug 20 07:40:12 2005 From: koopm at koopm.best.vwh.net (Michael Koop) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Insurance for the SJAA Board In-Reply-To: <4306C5B2.3000200@aenet.net> References: <7b25840105072914572049dca0@mail.gmail.com> <20050729161958.E17621@koopm.best.vwh.net> <4306C5B2.3000200@aenet.net> Message-ID: <20050820083320.M41251@koopm.best.vwh.net> On Fri, 19 Aug 2005, Gary Mitchell wrote: > Michael Koop wrote: >> I just called the our insurance broker for a quick quote. >> The cost will be around $1400. > > Did they say anything about sending us a renewal bill? > They're supposed to send us one. > We got the bill at the end of July...... http://www.sjaa.net/pipermail/sjaaboard/2005-July/002564.html >> b) 90 percent of the lawsuits against the board of directors involve >> employment termination issues. We need to identify what are the possible >> ways we as a board can get into a lawsuit and make processes to avoid them. >> For example, someone donates money for a specific purpose and we spend it >> somewhere else, would be a potential lawsuit area. > > FWIW, several years ago a member of another club who is > also a lawyer told me that almost all the time a club > (like this) gets sued by a member or someone closely > associated with the club in some way because they got a > bug up their butt about something. In other words, you'll > probably see it coming and will be able to take steps to > cool the situation before it gets out of hand. > Always a worry. By having the club open as possible, nothing in secret we can avoid this. Anyone is free to bring ideas and implement them with our money. Just do not tell us to do it. > We're a pretty accommodating bunch, we don't walk around > with our noses high in the air, we go out of our way to > piss people off, etc. So, I really don't see much of a > risk in that regard. > > I think this club's biggest risk for a lawsuit is if > someone trips over a telescope at a star party, something > like that. Our liability insurance covers those things. > If we're at a park or school (which is almost every time), > they have policies for things like that too. > Any we can Identify we can do something about. The annual saftey audits show that we are working to keep things safe to the best of our ability. >> c)Gary Mitchell has pointed out correctly that we need to act in a >> conscientious and proper manner as officers in our organization. Have we >> done that or are we just doing the status quo? To prove that we operate in >> a conscientious manner we need to start documenting our processes on how we >> do things. > > Well, I have looked into this somewhat, years ago, and > it's my understanding that any risk to "piercing the > corporate veil" comes from the officers/directors knowingly > and willfully screwing up. This includes doing things > contrary to our articles of incorporation, bylaws, or > state law. The fact that we're sitting here worrying about > this stuff tells me that we're already pretty much on the > straight and narrow. > >> We need to do a safety inspection on everything that we do and come up >> with ways to improve things. > > So much the better... This may not be overkill, but it sure > looks to me that we're do'n OK. > >> As I have stated to Jim, pretend that the club has gotten into a lawsuit >> and you are on the witness stand. What evidence would you like to have to >> defend yourself? > > It really depends on the nature of the suit. > > Chances are it would be someone twisted their foot in the > dark stepping over one of those parking bumpers (I forget > what they're called) near where we set up at Houge. I, > for one, would have plenty to say about that. > > But then, on the other hand, MacDonnald's got sued for > having hot coffee. (tsk!) So... ? :/ > >> You can defend your actions by saying we followed the procedure approved by >> the board of directors which has an annual safety audit. Currently, we have >> nothing but to say but "this is the way we have always done it and we have >> never had a problem". In one case we take the problem on and try to solve >> it to the best of our abilities, looking for constant improvement. In the >> other, we are just putting our heads into the sand, and ignoring the >> problem. Which do you want to do? >> >> d) Even more articles to read and consider as part of our procedures: >> Sound Advice for Functions and Events: > > This is all well and good, and I don't mean to discourage > any of these concerns and efforts, but at the same time, > there is such a thing as being overly paranoid too. I'm > certainly not arguing against having a safety review. > In fact, that's probably a good idea. But let's not get > too carried away with it either. > > I'm not sure what we could do at star parties much beyond > what we already do (ask people to not run, don't grab the > scope, but do lean on the step ladder, etc.) This is a > pretty passive activity, it sure doesn't compare to using > playground equipment, for example. > > Gary > > _______________________________________________ > SJAABoard mailing list > SJAABoard@sjaa.net > http://www.sjaa.net/mailman/listinfo/sjaaboard > From koopm at koopm.best.vwh.net Sat Aug 20 07:51:17 2005 From: koopm at koopm.best.vwh.net (Michael Koop) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Raffle Stuff at my house Message-ID: <20050820084454.N41251@koopm.best.vwh.net> Sorry, I ment to get the raffle stuff to Jim before I left but ran out of time. We will have over 100 names on the list, so someone will need to bring a random number generator. (laptop palm, over 100 chits, or 10 chits picked 4 times for a seed) I bought A traveler's guide to mars as the gift http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0761126066/103-8907290-0426245?v=glance Bill O. lives fairly close to me. Maybe he can pick it up. Call the house at 408-446-0310. Someone is usually home. I live at 1037 Wunderlich Dr. San Jose, CA 95129 I asked my brother to drop it off but he has not confirmed yet. Mike From wb6yru at aenet.net Sat Aug 20 16:55:45 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Insurance for the SJAA Board In-Reply-To: <20050820083320.M41251@koopm.best.vwh.net> References: <7b25840105072914572049dca0@mail.gmail.com> <20050729161958.E17621@koopm.best.vwh.net> <4306C5B2.3000200@aenet.net> <20050820083320.M41251@koopm.best.vwh.net> Message-ID: <4307C301.2040904@aenet.net> Michael Koop wrote: > > > On Fri, 19 Aug 2005, Gary Mitchell wrote: > >> Michael Koop wrote: >> >>> I just called the our insurance broker for a quick quote. >>> The cost will be around $1400. >> >> >> Did they say anything about sending us a renewal bill? >> They're supposed to send us one. >> > > > We got the bill at the end of July...... > http://www.sjaa.net/pipermail/sjaaboard/2005-July/002564.html That was not the renewal bill, that was an info packet from the underwriter. Among other things, it said we'll be billed by the Nonprofit Insurance Alliance. Gary From robhawley at earthlink.net Sat Aug 20 17:03:43 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Insurance for the SJAA Board In-Reply-To: <4307C301.2040904@aenet.net> Message-ID: Again I have the bill. We can send them a check. Rob Hawley From craigus at rocketmail.com Tue Aug 23 18:56:14 2005 From: craigus at rocketmail.com (Craig Scull) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] August 20 mtg notes In-Reply-To: <20050820083320.M41251@koopm.best.vwh.net> Message-ID: <20050824015614.56096.qmail@web53809.mail.yahoo.com> Here are the notes, while the discussion is still recent in our minds... I'll process any necessary edits upon my return from Mexico on September 1st. Happy trails, Craig ============================================== Aug 20, 2005 - SJAA Board Meeting Minutes - Craig Scull ============================================== --------------------- Board Members Present --------------------- Jim Van Nuland Gary Mitchell Craig Scull Rob Hawley Bill O?Schaughnessy Gordon Reade David Smith Mike Koop not present, but excused Dana Crom not present, but excused --------------- Meeting minutes --------------- Minutes were approved from the last meeting. Rob passed a motion to approve the minutes, the motion was seconded. ---------------------- Treasury Report (Gary) ---------------------- 1st General fund of $5,000 is in a 6 month CD (3.05% APR) 2nd General fund of $5,000 is in a 12 month CD (3.35% APR) Observatory fund of $3,000 is in a 12 month CD (3.35% APR) $4,446.74 currently showing in the checkbook $ 401.16 was in the last savings statement (.15% APR) The annual financial report from last year was emailed to the board ---------------------------------------------- Membership Report (Rob) + Membership Reduction ---------------------------------------------- ? Insert from Rob?s email Rob has created a flyer that he will put up on Starbucks? bulletin boards. Craig will offer some feedback how to improve the readability of the flyer. ---------------------------------- Loaner Scope Program Report (Mike) ---------------------------------- Mike not present, no updates ------------------------------------------- Observational Astronomy Class Report (Mike) ------------------------------------------- Mike not present, no updates ---------------- ATM Class (Mike) ---------------- Gary was given materials and a key from Mike. There was some discussion around the frequency of the classes, either being once a week (as suggested by Gordon) or once every two weeks. A once a week schedule seems like it would give people more momentum. Gordon mentions that he could volunteer to run a once a week schedule for 3 months. Gordon will talk about this with Mike to see how it could be organized, logistics, etc. John Dobson could be brought down from San Francisco, but it seems overkill given the current number of attendees. On the other hand John would draw more people in. It was noted that Chabot might be a place where our ATM?ers could take their mirrors to check their figures, since this is currently a gap in expertise for this at our classes. It was suggested that John might be a good speaker though for one of our regular meetings. Paul Zorokowski has been approached about coming to one of our regular meetings to give a talk about testing mirrors. ------------------------------- General Meeting Programs (Dave) ------------------------------- Programs are scheduled through November. December is still open. December would be a good time for a Mars talk. Dave received some ideas for a Mars speaker that he will pursue. --------------------------- Observatory Committee (Rob) --------------------------- No updates. ---------------------------- Star Party Updates ---------------------------- Yosemite Park Star Party -Record numbers of people showed up at Yosemite. The skies partially cleared after midnight, but observing was difficult. It is a known fact that there is a first come first serve algorithm for deciding which club gets their choice of dates, and our club will continue to try to get our reply in ASAP to get the best date that we can. Coyote Park Star Party -Need someone to show up for Saturday the 30th of this month. Gary says he can show up, but he will not be setting up a barbeque. Calero County Park -Meteor observing at this park was very good. The conditions were excellent given the short distance from San Jose (much better than Houge park), and we want to explore the idea of having 3rd quarter summer star parties there. There may be too many restrictions if we need to do a roll call for each event. Houge Park Star Party -Public attendance has been alternating between very high and very low. ------------------------------ School Star Party Report (Jim) ------------------------------ The first star party has already occurred. -------------- Calendar (Jim) -------------- Progress continues on 2006 calendar. No notes to report on the 2005 calendar. --------------------- AANC Meeting --------------------- Next meeting is August 21st. Craig to attend. -------------------- Astrocon 2005 (Mike) -------------------- Mike not present, no updates --------- Club Logo --------- No updates from Rhea. ------------- Calstar (Rob) ------------- Rob seeks reimbursement for a one time expense for Secure Telnet software for $99 that Mojo recommended to use for connecting to the whiteoaks server. Bill put a motion on the table that Rob should be reimbursed, and the motion was seconded and approved. 1 person recused and 1 abstained. ------------------- Liability Insurance ------------------- Gary has the bill, and it will be paid shortly. There was a discussion about the degree of risk that the club events may pose to the public. A discussion ensued to identify these risk areas, assess the degree of risk that each presented, and to brainstorm some specific actions that could be taken to reduce risk. Initially we have identified ?tripping? as the largest risk -such as gopher holes at Coyote park -the curbs at Houge park Also, the question was raised, do we have enough teacher oversight at school star parties? As we understand the possible risks better, we may create a set of operating procedures to be given to all new members and existing members. The need to ?educate? the membership on these procedures would be the main focus as ?enforcement? of these procedures is not an activity that we see the club as having the resources to operationalize on. It was noted that we should all ?Google? the web for star party procedures to see what we can learn. Craig to look into indemnification wording. --------------------- Membership Book (Rob) --------------------- Copy costs were reported as follows: black and white 2-sided copies are 7 cents a page, or 49 cents a page in color. Bill put forth a motion that new members will be sent a link to the PDF version of the membership book so they can experience the membership book in living color and that a printed copy in black and white be made available to new members; and that the new member will have the option of picking it up at the next meeting (our preferred choice) or receiving it in the mail. The motion was seconded and approved. Rob to talk to Craig about how to maintain the SJAA web site in the #1 organic position in Google for the keywords: astronomy san jose. From wb6yru at aenet.net Wed Aug 24 22:45:32 2005 From: wb6yru at aenet.net (Gary Mitchell) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] August 20 mtg notes In-Reply-To: <20050824015614.56096.qmail@web53809.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20050824015614.56096.qmail@web53809.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <430D5AFC.4040407@aenet.net> Craig Scull wrote: > Here are the notes, while the discussion is still recent > in our minds... I'll process any necessary edits upon my > return from Mexico on September 1st. Happy trails, Craig > > > ============================================== > Aug 20, 2005 - SJAA Board Meeting Minutes - Craig Scull > ============================================== [snip] > Coyote Park Star Party > -Need someone to show up for Saturday the 30th of this > month. Gary says he can show up, but he will not be > setting up a barbeque. That should be Aug. 27. The 30th is the following Tuesday. Gary From robhawley at earthlink.net Thu Aug 25 20:22:57 2005 From: robhawley at earthlink.net (Rob Hawley) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] Finally a success with the Merc Message-ID: We are on page 20 of this morning's TheGuide. It will be interesting to see if it affects turnout. Unfortunately I spaced and the Craig's list advert just when in. Rob Hawley From areopagus125 at yahoo.com Fri Aug 26 16:23:52 2005 From: areopagus125 at yahoo.com (David Smith) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] August 20 mtg notes In-Reply-To: <20050824015614.56096.qmail@web53809.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20050826232352.85165.qmail@web31713.mail.mud.yahoo.com> --- Craig Scull wrote: > Paul Zorokowski has been approached about coming to > one > of our regular meetings to give a talk about testing > mirrors. That's Paul Zurakowski. -- David __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From pkohlmil at best.com Wed Aug 31 23:02:34 2005 From: pkohlmil at best.com (Paul Kohlmiller) Date: Sat Sep 30 03:57:29 2006 Subject: [SJAABoard] September Ephemeris Now Available Online Message-ID: <001601c5aeba$bf6fea60$0300a8c0@eclipsys.lan> The September issue of the SJAA Ephemeris is now available online. See http://ephemeris.sjaa.net. Paul and Mary Kohlmiller -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.sjaa.net/pipermail/sjaaboard/attachments/20050831/25dc08c2/attachment.html