President's Message October 2013
by Ed Haskell
Members may recall that I mentioned in a previous President's Letter the importance to Skyscrapers, Inc., of our outreach programs (aka star parties). These activities not only fulfill our statutory obligation as an educational corporation, but they are a major source of income to the Society. They are also a major drain on volunteer efforts.
Recently we suffered a very visible embarrassment at canceling a major star party for lack of available volunteers and telescopes. While this alone might stimulate this month's Letter it is just the most recent evidence of a growing problem that needs to be addressed.
The only thing we are all shorter of than money is time. For any of us to participate in a star party incurs one or both of these shortages. While we have been very fortunate in almost always finding a way to accommodate all requests from the public I have sensed that we are approaching the breaking point in our ability to continue as usual. Accordingly, the Board will take up the subject of how and when we provide access to the heavens to non-members. I put it that way because the subject is not limited to just star parties away from Seagrave but also Open Nights at the Observatory.
Let me raise some possible approaches to the solution of this problem and then I am going to ask for your help.
Bearing in mind that Members have finite resources to devote to this important activity perhaps we should do one or more of the following:
- Ration the number of public events we can “fund” and steer groups into combined star parties instead of private events.
- Set a lower limit on the size of attendance we will service.
- Insist that school districts combine requests to a single date involving multiple schools in one of their locations.
- Set a price on events rather than asking for a per capita donation.
- Formalize the process to include a set of guidelines which include timelines and expectations.
- Insist that smaller groups come to an Open Night at Seagrave rather than going to them.
- Devise ways to use technology to lower the “cost” (in time, effort, and number of Members) of putting on a Star Party.
I warned you that I was going to ask for your help. In the aggregate the Society must have several hundred years experience in interfacing with the public. Some of that experience certainly resides in the Board but surely more is in the readers of this Letter. Please take the time to write me with suggestions on how we can continue to meet all requests for outreach within the bounds of what we can manage to do. No idea is out of order. Even if what you suggest doesn't gain traction it might well stimulate another idea that would be a winner. My email address is haskell.ed@gmail.com. Please help.
Thanks for all you do for Skyscrapers.
