Hertford Astronomy Group
Minutes of a Meeting of the Committee
Tuesday 6th June 2017
Held at 40 Reddings, Welwyn Garden City at 8.00pm
In attendance; Alan Willison Chairman, Jerry Stone, Anthony Challoner, Martin Weston, Simon Poley, Anne Godwin, Denis O’Shea, Danny Emmett, Frank Ferguson, Steve Heliczer, Terry Creasey, Leon Gevertz
1. Apologies for absence
None.
2. Minutes of the meeting held on 21st March 2017.
· AC said that in section 9, he thought it was JS rather than himself who was to organise the competition for juniors and JS said this would be fine.
· The minutes were otherwise approved.
3. Matters arising from the Minutes
· There were no matters arising.
4. Minutes of the AGM
· Draft minutes had been circulated in advance. They were approved except JS requested a small amendment to clarify in 4.15 that it is an event that is to take place in Stevenage in August 2017 rather than a public meeting.
· SP will make the amendment and then forward the revised minutes to AW who will put them on the website. DO’S asked if putting the minutes on the website raised any privacy concerns but after a short discussion it was agreed this was not an issue.
5. Matters Arising from the AGM Minutes
· There were no matters arising.
6. Programme Secretary
· JS reported that the solar observing session on 4th June had been a great success. About 25 people had attended. JS said thank you to all those who had helped. The only issue with the day had been a lack of sun!
· The June speaker meeting is of course regarding this year’s USA solar eclipse. It was agreed that weather permitting we will have our solar telescope available for people to look through prior to the meeting from about 7pm onwards.
· JS said that 8 out of 10 speakers are confirmed for next year.
· JS reported that he has spoken to Stevenage town centre management & they have agreed we can organise a public event on 26th August to demonstrate what is the armillary sphere in the town centre. He would like us to have a gazebo set up on the day. MW said we could use his pop-up awning, which is a good size.
7. Treasurer’s Report.
· AG reported we have paid for the venue hire for next year to the Fairway Tavern and as a result our funds held have reduced to £500.
8. HAGAS
· MW said the plans for the coming year were as mentioned at the AGM although there are some details of the programme still to finalise.
· MW intends to ask Rupert Smith of Astrograph to come to do a problem solving session with the group. If it is a clear night then he will concentrate on setting up issues; if it is cloudy then he will look at processing photos on computers.
· Wheathampstead Memorial Hall that was used for the solar observing session on 4th June was very cheap at £17 for two hours. There is a big field at the back. It is a good location for solar observing but not as good as the cricket club for night time observing as it is not quite so dark a site.
· AW said our member, Jack Martin, is very keen on spectrography and wondered if he could do something for HAGAS. MW replied he will give this some thought & contact him.
9. Membership
· AC reported that he has the lanyards but not the database.
· DO’S said he normally sent out an email in early August to encourage prompt renewal payment of subscriptions.
· We then had a discussion about whether subs could be paid directly into the bank rather than by cheque. It was agreed that AC & AG will discuss but AW stressed this should only be introduced if it will not cause inconvenience to them.
· AG said that since she could not attend the September meeting it would be useful to have one or two extra people to help on the door to help with the collection of subscriptions. SH & MW volunteered.
10. Equipment
· SH said the Celestron mount did not have a charger and that the power pack that was used instead now needs replacing. The cost for something basic would be about £60. MW suggested it might be worth paying a bit more, say £100-200, to get something better that would last longer. LG said he had a golf trolley charger that we can use and it was agreed this generous offer should be accepted.
11. Publicity & Advertising
· TC has met with AC and is reviewing what needs doing but no more to report at the moment.
12. Discussion re Recording of Monthly Speaker Meetings
· The discussion arose out of the recording of the speaker at our November meeting. JS said he recorded some meetings only after discussion with the speaker. The recordings were with a view one day to putting together a promotional recording using short extracts of several meetings.
· DO’S said he had been unable to attend the November meeting so had subsequently asked JS if he could see the recording but JS had said that was not possible, partly because it wasn’t in the right format and partly because he wasn’t sure it would be permissible.
· AW said he had sent an email to the speaker who said that, yes, he was aware the meeting had been recorded and that he had no objection to the recording being used by individual members or to it being shown to the members as a group but he did not want the recording to be put on the internet in any form.
· AW said he was worried that if we gave a recording to a member to view then we could never be sure that he or she hadn’t then passed it on to someone else or put it on Facebook or You Tube or similar. If it did get put on the internet in this way then the speaker could complain.
· AG pointed out we needed to be careful because data protection legislation was about to get tougher. She thought we should be careful making & keeping recordings as it could leave us vulnerable.
· JS said that often the quality of the recordings was not very good, particularly when lights were out so he recorded plenty of meetings in order to have a sufficient sample for the proposed promotional recording.
· AG wondered if we needed a promotional video? If not then there was no need to record.
· DO’S wondered why the recording was carried out by JS rather than the publicity officer?
· JS said that the question of a promotional recording had been discussed and agreed at a previous committee meeting and he had volunteered to prepare it. This led to a discussion as to who owned the recording. SH said that JS owned the mechanical copyright since it was recorded on his equipment but that the speakers owned the actual talk.
· It was felt the speakers should agree in writing if we are going to record them. SH said this would cause too much trouble & was not worth pursuing.
· SP suggested that perhaps we should destroy the recordings we had made except that as the November speaker had said that members could watch the recording of his talk, then perhaps it should be fine to give it to DO’S or others who would like to look at it.
· JS said he will speak to his son to see if it can be put on DVD as at present it is not in a suitable format to watch easily.
· AW & AG though were not happy with this since it would be hard to control once the DVD had been given out.
· AW’s inclination was that the recordings should be destroyed.
· In conclusion it was agreed we should reflect on this and nothing should be done with the recordings in the meantime.
· DO’S said he would still like to see the recording and would prefer if it were not destroyed until we have come to a decision. It was agreed on reflection he could be given the recording to view it & would return to JS afterwards.
· JS finished the discussion by saying he apologised for any offence caused over this.
13. Any Other Business
· FF said thank you to Alan for hosting & hospitality.
14. Date of Next Meeting
· 17th October 2017 at 40 Reddings.