Guys If you know anyone that would be a good speaker for SLAS or if you have a subject you are well versed enough on and there is enough material to be an interesting talk for SLAS Let me know! Bob Bob Moore Commerce CRG - Salt Lake City office 175 East 400 South, Suite 700 Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 Direct: 801-303-5418 Main: 801-322-2000 Fax: 801-322-2040 BMoore@commercecrg.com www.commercecrg.com -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+bmoore=commercecrg.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+bmoore=commercecrg.com@mailman.xmission.c om] On Behalf Of erikhansen@TheBlueZone.net Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 11:17 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Joanne's talk
Hi Guys,
The speakers we have is mostly a function of who is the president. With Lowell's conections we have been very heavy on the professionals. Bob has utilized these connections as well. As I remember being president in the 90's you took who you could get and had to be prepared to do presentation yourself. I had 2 cancelations 2hrs prior to the meeting during my "reign". I think I can safely speak and say volunteers are always welcome, just contact the president if you would like to speak. I am sure we will have some meetings dedicated to teaching members some topics. Any suggestions? The Show and Tell we used to have was a favorite of mine, as well as the annual Riverside Report we had. In the works is a History of SLAS presentation, contact Ann Blanchard if you have info relating to our clubs history. We may need a volunteer to present this. I am sure, say somebody like, Kurt would do an excellent presentation on a variety of topics. We did certainly have a good turn out at last nights meeting. I think that Universities' construction hassles all but being over had something to do with that, but traditionally we have had good turnouts when club members do a presentation. Especially well known club members. Erik Chuck wrote:
Historically, the majority of SLAS meetings featured presentations by members. . . . I would encourage any member with something to offer, to contact the club president and offer to give a presentation.
To an extent, these have been replaced by the 15 minute presentations made at the start of star parties which more informal.
The justification for fostering such presentations, regardless of their forum, is to develop the memberships' speaking and presentation skills.
One of the missions of SLAS is public education. There is considerable expertise within SLAS, but if it cannot be communicated to the public, the mission fails. Many members are not in a working position where they exercise their public speaking skills. Presentations have a way of forcing one to organize one thoughts in a written manner and practice the anxiety inducing skill of public speaking.
This in turn improves SLASs star parties by improving the ability of members to explain types of objects to the public in a coherent manner.
The downside is that the presentations at general memberships can fail because the speaker is unprepared or, due to the pressures of daily life, prepares at the last minute. The remedy for that would be to require member presentations to be reduced to a Powerpoint that is sent to a SLAS review panel at least one month before a general meeting. WIth a few drafted presentations in hand, the officers could set schedule one or two of the general meetings out of the year for member presentations.
- Kurt
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