Last night's speaker was Dr. John Pratt, a scientist/astronomer who has pursued a personal interest in astronomical calendars and archaeoastronomy. He discussed the purported connections between the Mesoamerican god, Quetzalcoatl, the cycles of Venus and other celestial phenomena, and Jesus Christ. If anyone is interested, you can find much of what he discussed at http://johnpratt.com/. President Ken Harris acknowledged the presence of Scott Crosby, who is recovering from a recent stroke. Ken also reported that the Board had elected Kim Hyatt to fill the vacant position of Vice President. During the business portion of the meeting, Kim Hyatt reported on the Clifford Holmes Grant of $1,500 recently awarded to SLAS for a handicap-accessible telescope. Kim also made a motion to authorize the expenditure of up to $2,000 from the SLAS General Fund to match the grant and allow SLAS to acquire a medium-aperture (12"-14") SCT for use on the mount already constructed by Bruce Grim. Initially, Kim suggested using money from the "Dark Site Fund," but when strong objections were voiced by DeLoy Pierce, Kim amended his motion to simply use uncommitted monies from the General Fund. The motion was seconded and carried. More discussion about the Dark Site Fund followed, with a motion to allow those interested in the Dark Site Fund until the end of June to present an acceptable proposal to the Board. Much of the reason for this was due to Scott Crosby's recent health problems. The motion was seconded and approved. Don Colton reported on the locations for future public star parties, including this coming weekend's Messier Marathon at SPOC; information should be posted soon on the SLAS website. After some miscellaneous business, the meeting adjourned about 9:30, followed by the usual "Advanced Training" at Village Inn. -----Original Message----- From: Patrick Wiggins [mailto:paw@trilobyte.net] Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 12:58 AM To: utah astronomy listserve Subject: [Utah-astronomy] SLAS meeting? Anyone care to post an overview of what went on at the SLAS board and general meetings last night? Patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy