[This is not the sort of email we normally send to our mailing list but I thought I would share it with you once off. More 'astronomical' coming soon, what with the I.S.S. due next week and that naked eye comet that is featuring at the Star-B-Q! - David Moore, Chairman A.I.] ----- Original Message ----- From: "John O Sullivan" <mercuryboy@hotmail.com> To: <info@astronomy.ie> Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2006 11:36 AM Subject: Astronomy Dublin
Why do you call your organisation Astronomy Ireland when in fact it should be called Astronomy Dublin. I joined in January, but since I don't live in the capital I don't get to enjoy any of the lectures, open events, etc.
I won't be joining again next year.
John O Sullivan
Hi John, Thank you for your letter which raises an issue that I always tell our large volunteer force is one of the most important aspects of the society, and one that we can never address sufficiently. It is an ongoing problem for us, but we address the 'national' issue in the following ways, and I want you to know that we take it very seriously. I often think we should tell the members these 'internal issues' more often: The main 'cost' of membership is producing and posting the magazine - everyone in Ireland gets this at the same time. We have about a dozen branches around Ireland (you should have got a list when you joined?). The Dublin branch (having over 1 million people in its catchment area) is obviously the largest and so organises regular MONTHLY meetings. Cork is next, the next meeting there in June. We also ask any members in Ireland to start up a Branch in their area and we will assist them. As AI grows in size we are planning to put much more money in to this venture. Every time we run a 'viewing event' in Dublin's Phoenix Park we ask all of our Branches to run an event in their area in conjunction with the Dublin Branch, and most do, so we had dozens of such events last year all around Ireland for instance (see our website for details and reports in the magazine). All the Dublin events raise funds (admission charges etc) and this reduces the full cost of membership (estimated to be approx 100euro a year) to the 40euro we charge. And, not all events run in Dublin. Our last big event was in Turkey! (eclipse trip - some people even came in from the UK for that one!) Our next big event is in county Wicklow (again I know of 1 person flying in from UK for this). People come from all around Ireland for Star-B-Q each year. As for the Dublin lectures, several (Dublin) volunteers go to the effort of video taping and producing DVDs of the lectures, at roughly the same cost of admission (but of course u then have a permanent copy of the DVD which the 'dubs' do not). A lot of work we do is promoting interest in astronomy. I must do 500 interviews with the media each year about astronomical events, and most of these are for local radio stations and the national media i.e. not Dublin specific. Our weekly radio show can be heard on the internet live anywhere in the world, and we have go to a lot of trouble to put the show recordings online on our website (the online archive goes back over a year now) so every member nationwide can get a huge amount of very up to date information every week. Of course, our emailing list goes out to everyone in Ireland. I give lectures all around Ireland and welcome the opportunity to do so as I enjoy travelling this island. I think that's a reasonably impressive list, especially for the relatively small budget that Astronomy Ireland has to work with. It's just off the top of my head. There's much more. We always stress at planning meetings that we need to keep in mind the 70% of our members that do NOT live in Dublin and keep thinking of what more we can do for them. We are open, and I mean VERY open, to further suggestions that you may have? Your own personal circumstances may not allow you to give much time to organising things, but if you would like to organise a local Branch in your area then we would like to help you do this. In the meantime I hope you enjoy the magazine each month, it is, after all, the main 'product' that your membership is paying for. Thank you for writing, I will be passing on your letter to everyone involved in the running of Astronomy Ireland so we can expand our activities even further. It is not an easy issue to address as Ireland has the lowest population density of any E.U. country, and most of them are in the Dublin area, meaning the rest of our members are very scattered making it harder to organise events in everyone's home town, but we will still try our hardest to do this rest assured. In the meantime, we really do need your support if we are to make a difference nationwide, so I hope you will re-consider and stay with us next year, helping in any way that you can. We always need more members so please send people (be they new members or lapsed members) to www.astronomy.ie/sub or call (01) 847 0777. Regards and clear skies, ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, Chairman, Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 5. Editor, "Astronomy & Space" magazine. ASTRONOMY SHOP: open Mon.-Sat. and late nite Thu&Fri til 9pm Tel (01) 847 0777. Fax (01) 847 0771. www.astronomy.ie (Subscribe to AI's FREE emailing list) info@astronomy.ie