Eric: I don't think there is a problem either. Plenty of non-club star gazing going on. I'm sorry that some of our points are delayed and overlapping, I only get the library version of the board posts not the individual postings. My choice for the last few years has to support activities and not be on the board or an officer, again due to professional commitments. I've noticed the drop in participation at that level and while we are still getting good people to serve on the board it would be nice to see more people in the process. I think we both came to the same conclusion (you probably long before me) about what types of star parties suffer from low participation, the next question is there anything that can be done about it? +++++++ Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 08:13:55 -0700 From: <zaurak@digis.net> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Natural Bridges Saturday Night To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Message-ID: <20080904081355.256C49CD@resin18.mta.everyone.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" I do not believe there is a problem, you can Star Gaze where and when you want. As an Astronomy Club it is bad when we advertise an event and no one or only a few show up. Willingness to participate is a factor, fortunately we have enough to support a robust schedule. We have had angry public when an event is scheduled and no one shows up. Rodger Fry has done an outstanding job with Special Star Parties and has accommodated most request. I hope next years board has someone as enthusiastic. Willingness to participate does seem to becoming a problem. We used to have a lot of people running for the SLAS Board with several people running for every office. Now we struggle to get one per office. SLAS members have a long history of National Park Star Parties., I see no reason why this can't continue. I even ran into John Dobson near Capital Reef in his RV asking for directions. Yes ladies, men do ask for directions. All I am saying is that SLAS has to be careful about having support for an event before scheduling. Members input is welcome, when deciding the schedule. I remember one year when I did 1-2 per week, most went well, but some I was the only person and I would end up with lines of 500 people. We would look at one thing for 3 hours, it was not enjoyable for anyone. Erik