Hello All. I've been following the various threads with regard to Bryce Astronomy Festival. Here's come clarification / feedback. Our actual "contacts" were 6364. This means # of times we provided a specific experience / message to # of visitors. For example a family might attend the planet walk, the rocket workshop, my nocturnal ecology powerpoint, stargazing with the telescopes, and a constellation tour (or two) all in the same day. Thus they would get quadruple or quintuple counted. We are okay with this because all 4-5 of those activities are distinct. BUT the big question is how many distinct "people" over the entire 4 days, attended the event? My best guess is 2000-2500 because: 1) stargazing turned in the biggest #s (except with Story's program) with 670 per night. This means that we had to have had a minimum of 670 people each night. Multiply by 3 and add the 310 for Story on Wednesday and you get 2010. However from anecdotal evidence some attended 2 and 3 nights of the event so again double counting. Yet in Panguitch more than 1/2 did not stay for stargazing so the estimate would be closer to 2500. Speaking of the Panguitch event, my staff and I gave out over 1000 free tickets "good for the whole family" including free Saturday admission to Bryce (normally $25 value) across Southern Utah. We put up over 250 posters (50 on the Wasatch Front). I can tell you that 1/2 of 600ish people in attendance to Story's program were locals and that only 4 family groups came into the park on Saturday using their "Free Day" pass. 4 passes in not very good. This is why we will continue to hold 1 night of future festivals in Panguitch at the Triple-C arena to promote increased local awareness of our astronomy endeavors. I can't make a serious move on promoting local lighting ordinances without much stronger local support. THIS ALSO MEANS that contrary to what it says in the purple brochure and currently on our website WE WILL NOT be doing 2009 on July 22-25 because the Triple-C arena is not available. I'll hammer out dates for 2009 early this week. Thanks to Bob Moore's prioritization we will probably go around the new moon in June since he volunteered to postpone SLAS in Hawaii if we at Bryce needed you guys in June -- which of course we very much do. Currently we are being slammed by monsoon (not clearing until too late thunderstorms) so anything in July or August is really flying in the face of Global Climate Change. Used to be 10 years ago that most storms would blow through by dark but now many linger past midnight! My point is we pretty much have to stay in June to beat the weather. However it might not be exactly the new moon in June, because June also has other big events in Garfield County (motorcycle and balloon rally, etc) and we've been asked to plan around those so that we don't overflow the motels. Pretty cool huh?! We are now such a huge event that it matters to the town fathers when we go? Anybody besides Patrick and Don Colton remember the good old days when we only get 200 hundred people out to the scopes -- like the first and second Bryce Astronomy festivals? As for more advertising? Yes, we can always do more advertising. Problem is, it takes time and $ and results are never immediate. We got media attention like never before for this year's event and as long as we keep up the pace more and more will come to us. Articles like Rodger's will go a long way toward that. I'll also be starting a special group of VIPs (Volunteers in Parks) this winter that I'm tentatively calling "Poster Children." These folks, 2-4 per community, will be able to volunteer for Bryce Canyon from the comfort of their own neighborhoods with their primary duty being putting up posters and brochures for events like the Astronomy Festival when I send such materials to them by mail. Other events include our 1/2 marathon, Geology Festival, Winter Carnival, etc. as well as all of the public meeting we are required to host when big land management issues come up. The idea came about as my staff and I logged over 1300 miles and 54 staff hours in putting up posters and passing out brochures. Too much time and money says the big cheeses so we are gong to try this "Poster Children" approach. "Poster Children" will also be granted free entrance to Bryce anytime they and the same car load of friends or family want to visit. IF YOU FROM SLAS or anybody else you know would like to become "Poster Children" send a VERY brief resume to our VIP coordinator Jan Stock (also my wife) at her email address jan_stock@nps.gov. Selection (2-4 individuals per zip code) will be made based on. #1. Community Involvement -- circles of influence #2. Year-round Availability -- not wintering in Florida or summering in Alaska, etc. #3. Familiarity with Bryce Canyon and the National Park Service #4. Experience in event promotion The idea is that if we can get 100-200 people in the Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico area on a gigantic mailing list we can reach huge #s of people with the more direct and higher quality word-of-mouth approach and not be as dependent on the whims of mass media. P.S. thanks for inviting me to participate in these discussions!