It seems SLAS has hovered around 200 + or - 10, for the last decade. It does seem like a dozen or so would join for one year only. The list of people who have ever joined SLAS is at least twice the current membership. I would think public star parties do more for attracting new members than school star parties. Perhaps OAS could hold public events at more places, assuming you only hold them at a few locations. SLAS holds them at about a dozen sites.
Personally, I think the anti-science voice is a loud minority. Erik
Hi, Ron Vanderhule of OAS here. I am doing a survey of the local astro clubs in regards to their membership over the last ten years. Primarily in conjunction with their out reach efforts. OAS has been maintaining the same pace of public and school star parties ever since I joined the club 18 years ago. When I was first president in '99 and '00 we had peak membership of 63. We have since dwindled to about 35 or so. Initially I assumed it was a problem germaine to our club but an article in Astronomy last year, and a few other sources, seem to indicate the problem is with peoples attitude toward science nowdays. Actually our culture as a whole has changed so much in the last 10 to 15 years. Anyway, feel free to express your thoughts and theories in regards to this.
Ron Vanderhule
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