March 2013

President's Letter, March 2013

Since Dave Huestis was president February has been a time for the Skyscrapers president to be seeing $tars as the annual budgeting gets underway. Before you turn the page I promise that I am not going to review the budget in this message, but the process did cause me to reflect on the importance of one item that may not have been noticed by many of you.

Two Members mentioned to a Board member this year that they did not understand why we have so many star parties and they thought we should do less of that and devote those volunteer hours to something else. Those are reasonable questions and the answers may be a surprise to some of you.

Star Party Donations in the first ten and a half months of the fiscal year about to close amount to one dollar in seven of our income for that period. This is forty four percent of the amount raised as Dues. Since star parties do not have a direct cost to the Society this is a net number and would require a sizable increase in Dues if we were to discontinue the activity.

While we do not keep statistics on how many new members are first attracted to Skyscrapers by attendance at a star party we know that a fair proportion of new members learn of us that way. We do know from attendees' comments and from the size of donations received that the public is impressed by these opportunities to see the heavens and to have their questions answered by our members.

These public outreach activities are the primary reason the Town of Scituate is willing to abate our real property taxes to the benefit of the Society amounting to nearly as much as the entire income from Dues. In purely financial terms the two quantifiable impacts of star parties makes it possible for us not to have to increase dues to about two hundred and forty percent of their present levels.

There are, of course, other benefits to public observing sessions, not the least of which is the fellowship enjoyed by the members who give their spare time to share the joys of observing with each other as well as the public. Astronomy, by its very nature is a solitary pursuit. Star parties, Open House night, and member observing sessions all provide an opportunity to be less a hermit about our hobby.

After looking more broadly at the line item for Star Party Donations and seeing the nuances not immediately connected thereto I will be taking the same approach in examining the other budget categories as well. Who knows what other hidden gems may lie there in those dry numbers.

This is plainly a good time to thank Bob Forgiel, our outreach coordinator, and the host of Members who volunteer their time and telescopes to make these observing sessions happen for so many hundreds of our fellow citizens each year.

Thanks to all of you for all you do for the Society.