The Mayor of Astronomy

[ballaratdragons]

For the launch of our 'Snake Valley Astronomical Association' I submitted an article to our Shire Newsletter last week.

Now, having written many articles in the past, I am used to editors cutting things to the bare bones and shoving my story in a spare spot on page 20. It is to be expected!

Our Newsletter came out today and I got the shock of my life.

My article, in it's entirety, is the front cover of this months issue!!!!!! Nothing else is there. The whole cover is my article.

Mind you, it does help when our Mayor is an Amateur Astronomer, the editor of the newsletter, and going to be a part of our association.

In the article I mention such things as incorrect street-lighting, my wish that our district remain dark (hint hint), recent discoveries, and obviously our Astronomical Association.

I might just have to call our Mayor 'The Mayor of Astronomy' :thumbsup:

[janoskiss]

That's great news, Ken! Well done too both you and the mayor!

[wavelandscott]

Congratulations...Well Done!

[acropolite]

Well done Ken, things are certainly looking up. :D

[matt]

Well done Ken.

Influence the men at the top ... and the rest will follow!!!!:lol:

[janoskiss]

... and/or women, right Ken?

[matt]

Whatever...:rolleyes:

The point being ... you've done a great thing there... Kenny boy!!!

[danielsun]

He sounds like a good bloke Ken! ;)
I look forward to meeting him and i'm hoping to try and get there on the 8th. ;)

[janoskiss]

My point being that the mayor is a woman, IIRC.
:P

[danielsun]

Doh!!!...... My apologies. :D
She seems like a fine woman indeed!!!;)

[RAJAH235]

Onwards & upwards Ken. Nice to have the Lady Mayor 'in the club'. :P
Great job with the article too. :D L.

[davidpretorius]

well done,

have you a scan of the newsletter?? or a copy of your submission??

[jjjnettie]

It's good to have friends in high places!
Congratulations on the article.

[gaa_ian]

Good on you Ken
We could start a new movement "Mayors for Dark Skies" :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

Thanks all!

Daniel, it would be great to have you along.

Davo, here is a link to the article reproduced in our SVAA website. http://snake-valley-astro.homelinux.org/snake_valley_astro_association

and yep, Steve is correct. Mrs Mayor!

Latest news already is that we may have a permanent very very very very very dark viewing area with clubroom. Not shared either, all ours. It's been offered, all we have to do is decide if we want it.

[Starkler]

I feel for you Ken, life is full of tough decisions :lol:

Well done :)

[ballaratdragons]

Geoff,

We have to look at all the Pros and Cons.

Pros:
Damn Dark, all ours, very local, very large viewing area, huge kitchen, excellent condition building, totaly surrounded by wind-breaking dense pine trees which don't cut out much more than a few degrees above the horizon, highest point in the area,

Cons:
Weekly rent . . .and . . ummm . . no, that's all. Just the weekly rent.

[iceman]

Sounds like a great spot! Snap it up!

Sounds like the SVAA is coming along full speed! Congrats!

[Starkler]

Oh they want money for it :doh:
Well that throws a new light on the situation :confuse3:

[johnno]

Couldn't go wrong IF,the rent is cheap,
Sounds like an ideal site to me.

Regards.
John

[ballaratdragons]

Yep John,

it is cheap, but gotta make sure we can always cover it from week to week without asking the members to dip into their pockets all the time.

We will either come up with a sloution or an alternative :thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

One thing that I must mention is that putting a Club/Society/Association together is never an easy thing to do but one part was made extremely easy.

And that was the Members Liability Insurance, and thanks for that has to go to the hard work of Laurie (RAJAH235), Brett McMillan & Nick Lomb.

Laurie and the others spent ages investigating all avenues to make a national Astro Club Member Insurance possible and I thank them for making it possible for any member of any Astro Club to be covered at extremely low rates.

I contacted the Insurance company and was suprised at the simplicity and cheap rates.

It covers members at any Club observing event, public open nights, Camps etc. All Clubs should investigate this. All the hard work has already been done for us, all we have to do is use it.

Thanks Laurie for putting me onto them :thumbsup:

Go here and ask for Tracey Pearce. She looks after the Astro Clubs: http://www.whhib.com.au/

[RAJAH235]

Thanks very much Ken. All I really did was point them in the right direction, + a bit of ground work. :poke: :poke:
:D L.
ps. It is really cheap 'Public Liability Insurance' tho... Glad to help...
pps. There were a few others involved as well.