Minutes of NHAC Club Meeting, held at Kingwood College
7:30 PM – Friday 28th April, 2000
Members Attending: 54 (and 30 guests)
Alvin AlleyeneAnne AlleyeneTerry Angelich
Cheryl AngelichJill BowersRon Carman
Dave ClarkNoni ClarkBob Davis
David DockwillerCory DueckerGlenn Fisher
Scott FreileBlanca GonzalesAdriana Gonzales
Jessica GonzalesJeff HallLisa Hall
Karyn HallCody Hartgrove-Freile
Shane Hartgrove-FreileRichard Horn
Donna HounihanKevin HounihanJohn Hounihan
Olin JoyntonKen JusticeDavid Kent
John LaneSandra LloydBobby Lloyd
George MarsdenAlan MaupinRobert McMillan
Ahmed MohammadBill Murphey
Marg NunezChuck OberholzerAllen Otto
Lorrie PatelDon PearceJuan Carlos Reina
Mike ShelbySori ShelbyJack Shilt
Joe ThirolfPatty ThirolfLauren Thirolf
Kenneth ThirolfAnn WargetzJean Whileyman
Kendra WoodsLinda XieBill Leach
New Members Signed up:
Tobias Gros
Irma Gros
Rick Raines
Welcome to NHAC! Total Membership: 114
Agenda:
- Welcome
President Bill Leach called the meeting to order at 7:41 PM. He expressed his appreciation of the huge crowd and welcomed everybody to the 12th meeting and first anniversary of NHAC. All new members since the beginning of the year were recognized. The guests were next recognized. Third, the founding members present at the April 23, 1999 initial meeting were recognized.
- Recognitions
President Bill Leach gave special thanks to the contributors of the North Star newsletter recognizing Lori Patel, Jay McNeil, Paul Downing and Cody Hartgrove-Freile.
Mike Shelby was recognized for his orchestration of a very successful meeting last month at North Harris College.
Don Pearce, President of the Houston Astronomical Society and member of the North Houston Astronomy Club was recognized.
Dr. Kendra Woods, Dean of Sciences … at Kingwood College and NHAC club member, addressed the meeting with some well thought out words of philosophical wisdom and expressed her appreciation of the 22 club members that have helped out on Thursday nights with the college’s astronomy students.
- Announcements
Amendments to the bylaws were passed without dissent.
The May meeting, to be held at Kingwood College, will feature Jay McNeil and his report from the Texas Star Party 2000.
The first beginners meeting held at 6:45 PM by Dr. Juan Carlos Reina, had an attendance of 12. The group is temporarily called “From The Beginning”.
Steve Sartor, member of the Houston Astronomical Society, solicited volunteers for a star party in Cut’n Shoot Saturday night.
A clipboard was passed around soliciting reporters for the North Star newsletter. Members signing were:
JC ReinaLori PatelAnnie WargetzSandra Lloyd
Alvin AlleyeneJohn LaneCody Hartgrove-Freile
A clipboard was passed around soliciting members for the membership committee. Members signing were:
Mike ShelbySori ShelbyBill Leach
Blanca GonzalesLinda XieJohn Lane
President Bill announced plans to use the Randall’s and Kroger cards as a source of income for the club and solicited feedback from the membership.
A clipboard was passed around for T-shirt orders and 26 new orders were collected.
A membership list was passed around.
It was announced that dues were half price and signing up was encouraged through a listing of club benefits. An update on the search for a dark-sky site was presented.
IV Program
Dr. Juan Carlos Reina introduced the speaker for the evening, Dr. Lawrence Pinsky, chairman of the department of physics at the University of Houston. His topic was “Measurements of the Expansion (of the universe) Using Type I Supernovae”. The presentation was enticing and well received. Dr. Pinsky was informative and humorous. After the presentation Dr. Pinsky was given a pen and pencil set and a large star map for his office. The presentation started at 7:55 PM and ended at 9:00 PM after a short question and answer session.
President Bill encouraged all to sign up for the door prizes and announced a 15-minute break.
V Final Business
Officer’s reports:
Vice President Ron Carman
Ron updated the Club on future meeting presentations:
May – Jay McNeil, Texas Star Party report
June – JC Reina, Women in Astronomy
July – Telescope Eyepieces, Land Sea & Sky
Ron next solicited participation in the June field trip and
announced a new fall field trip
Editor JC Reina – thanked contributors to the North Star
newsletter and discussed deadlines for submissions.
Co Editor Lori Patel – welcomed everybody
Webmaster Jill Bowers – welcomed everybody
Membership Committee Chairman Mike Shelby – Asked to
meet with membership committee volunteers after the meeting.
Terry Angelich gave an update to the members as to the
progress in the building of the 13 inch telescope and solicited
feedback from the members as to the placement of the Telrad finderscope and announced that “wood cutting” would soon begin on the rocker box. He showed the club how well balanced the scope was. He announced that the scope had seen first light and that the results were excellent.
Bill Leach, having misplaced his power cord again discussed the upcoming Grand Millennium Planetary Alignment on May 5, 2000.
Member Karyn Hall assisted in the drawing for door prizes.
Kingwood College provided a 1st Anniversary cake which
attendees enjoyed after the meeting was adjourned at 9:50 PM
A smashing success!
Bill Leach
Temporary Secretary