How to revive an Astronomical Society?

If you go the Brighton Astronomical Society's web page at

http://www.bhas.fsnet.co.uk

you will see the the Society has suspended meetings until further
notice. There have now been 2 successive AGMs with no volunteers to
be on the Committee and so the Society is effectively dormant
but not yet officially dead.

So we now have a city with population 250,000 with no Astronomical
Society. Any ideas on how to revive it? Would it be best to close
down completely and wait a few years until a new Society emerges or
should we hope that some new members will join & get things going again?
But that's unlikely as its very discouraging for a newcomer to join a
moribund society.

Anyone with suggestions?

Thanks,

Philip Taylor

Philip Taylor wrote in message ...
If you go the Brighton Astronomical Society's web page at

http://www.bhas.fsnet.co.uk

you will see the the Society has suspended meetings until further
notice. There have now been 2 successive AGMs with no volunteers to
be on the Committee and so the Society is effectively dormant
but not yet officially dead.

So we now have a city with population 250,000 with no Astronomical
Society. Any ideas on how to revive it? Would it be best to close
down completely and wait a few years until a new Society emerges or
should we hope that some new members will join & get things going again?
But that's unlikely as its very discouraging for a newcomer to join a
moribund society.

Anyone with suggestions?

Thanks,

Philip Taylor

1) How does anyone remotely interested find out about the existence of
your astro society?
2) Do you have a confident, extroverted publicity officer?
3a) Regular bulletins in the local papers? Eclipses, bright planets or
comets in view with contact phone no. website and e-mail address at
the bottom?
3) Is there a reasonably accessible, reasonably dark site anywhere in
the region for public star parties?
4) Is there a small collection of keen telescope owners who will share
their time showing (vetted) innocents the undersides of orange clouds?

Chris.B

On Sat, 06 Nov 2004, Philip Taylor wrote:
If you go the Brighton Astronomical Society's web page at
http://www.bhas.fsnet.co.uk
you will see the the Society has suspended meetings until further
notice.

That's sad to hear. I noticed only a couple of days ago that Wadhurst AS
(http://www.wadhurst.info/was/was2004/2004oct.htm) seems also to be
having difficulty recruiting committee members... :/

On Sun 07 Nov Chris.B wrote:
2) Do you have a confident, extroverted publicity officer?

The two most vital functions are meetings and observing officers. If you
don't have a decent programme of events and activities then there's
nothing for a publicity officer to advertise.

3a) Regular bulletins in the local papers? Eclipses, bright planets or
comets in view with contact phone no. website and e-mail address at
the bottom?

These days, having a reasonably fast-loading and informative website
that will work with "any browser", with plenty of local content for the
search-engines to index on is a good idea. That way, if someone types
(say) "Brighton Astronomy" into a search-engine they'll find your
website first. It probably helps if the domain name also includes the
crucial keywords...

--
...Rick Hewett http://www.chocky.demon.co.uk/
"Worlds only harmonica-playing dog. Tuppence."
-- Gaspode the wonder dog
(Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures)

Hi Rick,

Rick Hewett wrote:
On Sat, 06 Nov 2004, Philip Taylor wrote:

If you go the Brighton Astronomical Society's web page at
http://www.bhas.fsnet.co.uk
you will see the the Society has suspended meetings until further
notice.

Incidentally, this is a problem affecting all types of societies all
over the place. Why this should be the case, I am not sure, but I
suspect that the internet has a fair bit to answer for in this.



That's sad to hear. I noticed only a couple of days ago that Wadhurst AS
(http://www.wadhurst.info/was/was2004/2004oct.htm) seems also to be
having difficulty recruiting committee members... :/

Indeed, although the problems at Wadhurst may have been alleviated, for
the time being at least. We'll have to wait until the November meeting
to be sure.

One problem which has been noted at some AS meetings is the marked
reduction in the frequency of observation evenings. As a relative
newcomer to astronomy, I'd like to see regular practical observing
sessions but they seem to be quite infrequent, even when the weather is
favourable.

Well, we'll have to see what we can all do when (if) we club together to
kick-start the hobby and try to get more people interested!

Regards

JasonG

Rick Hewett wrote in message ...

That's sad to hear. I noticed only a couple of days ago that Wadhurst AS
(http://www.wadhurst.info/was/was2004/2004oct.htm) seems also to be
having difficulty recruiting committee members... :/

On Sun 07 Nov Chris.B wrote:
2) Do you have a confident, extroverted publicity officer?

The two most vital functions are meetings and observing officers. If you
don't have a decent programme of events and activities then there's
nothing for a publicity officer to advertise.

And with no members they will have nothing to do except play with
their own toys and exchange depressing e-mails about the cloud cover
and local light pollution.

3a) Regular bulletins in the local papers? Eclipses, bright planets or
comets in view with contact phone no. website and e-mail address at
the bottom?

These days, having a reasonably fast-loading and informative website
that will work with "any browser", with plenty of local content for the
search-engines to index on is a good idea. That way, if someone types
(say) "Brighton Astronomy" into a search-engine they'll find your
website first. It probably helps if the domain name also includes the
crucial keywords...

Really? Isn't that a rather élitist view of the general availablility
of internet access, even today? It is also possible that personal
searches do no include the terms that throw up a local astro society.
Even then the contact system may not work for some reason. Spam
filter, failed connections, lost e-mails within the scum of a
storm-tossed sea of spam. The idea is to make it easy. Not set
initiation tests for joining. One failed contact and the word goes
round at school and place of work that "they" don't care. See Martin's
post!

It might also be that a someone with a closet interest in the subject
matter notices an article in the local paper that finally triggers an
active response. It might simply not occur to someone to do an
internet search until that point.

Your points do have some validity. But this is an emergency situation.
The patient is lying semi-comatose and still undiscovered. They badly
need rescuscitation. Not polite discussion over the funeral
arrangements. :-)

Regards
Chris.B

"Chris.B" wrote in message
m...
Rick Hewett wrote in message
...

That's sad to hear. I noticed only a couple of days ago that Wadhurst AS
(http://www.wadhurst.info/was/was2004/2004oct.htm) seems also to be
having difficulty recruiting committee members... :/

This problem seems endemic from what I have seen when talking to friends and
colleagues.
Plenty of members but few that have either the inclination or time to do it.
To be fair the latter seems to be the prime culprit of late, with folk that
are suitable for the jobs being the ones that have a fairly onerous work
schedule.

This doesn't affect just astronomy either, my brother has the same problem
in the scouts.

Kev

This doesn't affect just astronomy either, my brother has the same problem
in the scouts.


This is very true, all you have to mention is CRB checks, and people run a mile.

I think "being too busy" is just an excuse - commitment is the real problem.

If you want something done, ask a busy man...

Callum

Some thoughts, Philip:

You have to start with a committee. If there are not two people who are
interested, then you don't have any reason to re-start the society. If there
are two people, you have a secretary and a chairman/lady. The world needs to
know of your existence, so you send a communication to the local paper when
you are next ready to observe a specific event. The paper is likely to
interview you and so you get free publicity. This leads to enquiries.....

There are many ways to proceed. In Plymouth, we started with just a few
interested students in 1965; the event was the eclipse of the moon. during
the following years, membership rose to 40 and then stabilised.

If you cannot get more than two people interested, then why fight? Wait 6
months and think again.

Good luck.

Lawrence Harris


On Sat, 06 Nov 2004 19:51:25 GMT, Philip Taylor
wrote:

If you go the Brighton Astronomical Society's web page at

http://www.bhas.fsnet.co.uk

you will see the the Society has suspended meetings until further
notice. There have now been 2 successive AGMs with no volunteers to
be on the Committee and so the Society is effectively dormant
but not yet officially dead.

So we now have a city with population 250,000 with no Astronomical
Society. Any ideas on how to revive it? Would it be best to close
down completely and wait a few years until a new Society emerges or
should we hope that some new members will join & get things going again?
But that's unlikely as its very discouraging for a newcomer to join a
moribund society.

Anyone with suggestions?

Thanks,

Philip Taylor

hi,

how about a few of the more committed members forming a small, informal
'club', rather than a full blown society, then see if anything takes off
from there during the course of time?
I'd guess new members would be more discouraged by a joining an all but dead
society that appears to be shrinking in size, rather than a small
enthusiatic club whose membership is growing.

Gaz

"Philip Taylor" wrote in message
...
If you go the Brighton Astronomical Society's web page at

http://www.bhas.fsnet.co.uk

you will see the the Society has suspended meetings until further notice.
There have now been 2 successive AGMs with no volunteers to
be on the Committee and so the Society is effectively dormant
but not yet officially dead.

So we now have a city with population 250,000 with no Astronomical
Society. Any ideas on how to revive it? Would it be best to close
down completely and wait a few years until a new Society emerges or should
we hope that some new members will join & get things going again? But
that's unlikely as its very discouraging for a newcomer to join a moribund
society.

Anyone with suggestions?

Have you considered a stripper?
Grim