I hate to use Utah Astronomy for SLAS since it is not a "SLAS" site but
here are my two bits for the 500 or so that showed up last night. I have a
feeling this will be an email I may regret sending also but I will do it
anyway.
I heard driving around the valley this week the ads on KUER 90.1 for
the Star Party and I read a couple of articles tying that in with the event
at SPOC on Saturday. Could that even, the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter
have driven numbers up so high? Just a thought though I am sure the
marketing is helping also.
Second will that mean more people at other SPOC events like the
General Meeting? I am skeptical. Why? Going to an outreach event is one
thing. Going to a meeting is entirely different thing. IF you have on
average 40 people show up to a monthly meeting (not sure on the number) and
you have 302 members listed on the roll right now, that is a 13.5% turn out
by the current membership. You may, MAY is the key word, get another 5 out
but I do not hear or see the General Meeting being advertised like the
outreach event at SPOC and Harmons.
IF the question is how to grow the club, besides traditional outreach
I am a strong proponent of getting some volunteers in the club, and I'll
offer myself and use the XT10 I have for it, to teach a family of 4 or 5
(kids over 12) how to use a star atlas or sky safarri, how to set up,
collimate, and then use a RACI and Telrad to find objects and put an object
in the eyepiece. THAT I BELIEVE will over time, grow the membership because
young people and younger parents in their 20's and early 30's want to DO
things, not just look. You get them doing and you have them. It is a
transition that is occurring in education as that field adapts to changes
in society among children and adults. Promote via a sign up to spend an
evening learning to use a telescope (I'll even bring my Explore Scientific
AR102 for them to use for a refractor) and if someone or a group of no more
than 4 signs up, I'll show up with the XT10 and the AR102 and we'll have a
great evening where I teach, they learn and do. Oh, I won't go through to
an outreach event though when done on the two weekends (1 before and 1 of)
new moon. I'm at a dark site then doing the hobby for me.
So kudos on a huge turnout! I almost came and then didn't. Wish I had
now. Brings up the last point. How to get more people out. What keeps me
away is to be frank, I am not at the outreach point yet. I love going to
dark sites and observing and doing my thing there. I enjoy the club, some
of the best people I've ever met are in the club. However, of late (last 2
years or so), I only have time for so much astronomy in a month, and I
admit, I'm selfish, I am going to go to the dark site if I can only fit one
thing in. That's easier for me. I guess for others it is something
similar. They may have other commitments they feel take priority which is
fine. Like it or not I would question if having SPOC always on a Saturday
is as productive as having it on a Friday and doing Harmon's on a Saturday
if the goal is to get more members to take telescopes to SPOC. Why? Like
it or not the demographic is that you have a lot of LDS people in this area
and Sunday is a huge day in terms of their commitments. If you have to be
up and at Church for meetings at 7:00a.m., then taking a telescope out to
show the public at SPOC the night before when you live in the SLC Valley,
on a Saturday night is not going to be the priority. So if you switch a
couple of the SPOC events to a Friday, and a Harmon's to a Saturday I am
curious if you would have more members come out with scopes to a SPOC
event? Please no bashing of personal beliefs here, I am just trying to
bring up some possible solutions that are free, and can be easily
dis-guarded and forgotten.
Last, for a new member, the core club members can be intimidating with
their knowledge and how they go about doing things. There has to be a way
for these newer members to integrate into the club and that is by probably
branching out what the club does. Some are like me, are in it to observe at
a dark site. Some are in it to do outreach. Some both. Some are solar, some
are refaractor, some are reflector. We could go on but the more the club
appeals to a broader branch of people, the more those people make
relationships within the club, the more likely are they to show up to a
club event with their equipment.
Last thing. I believe the club has some of the Astronomical Society of the
Pacific Outreach kits. Why not have a couple of those set up at SPOC to
give those in the lines something to do? Modify them so that a few people
can walk around and share some of the activities with those in line so they
don't lose their place? Print out and make a few Uncle Al's Star Wheels and
have a few walk around and show people how to use those or better yet, how
to access Google Sky or Sky Saffari or some of the other free programs on
their Smart Phone so they can search for constellations in the sky and do a
Constellation Scavenger hunt? Okay, I'll stop but hopefully those are some
ideas that can be used. Sorry to make this so long but I ask one thing.
EVEN if you DISAGREE, DISLIKE what I suggested, don't dish it unless you
have a suggestion to replace it. Too much dishing going on and if you want
the club to really grow long term, it's time for all involved to seek first
to understand, and then be understood. Just some thoughts.
--
Thanks!
Jay
