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RASC St. John's Centre Monthly Meeting
October 18, 2006
Location: Chemistry/Physics Building, MUN
Time: 8:00 pm
Present: 18
Chris noted that Doug Grouchy and Robert Babb will not be able to attend.
Calendars are for sale at $15 each.
The notice of motion from last month proposed that we adopt the National
Society's "Sample Centre By-Laws", with some amendments. These amendments are
almost entirely "fill in the blank" in character. See the notice of motion
from last month for a list of amendments.
Amendment to 1.1.1: none opposed.
Amendment to 2.1.1: none opposed.
Amendment to 7.2.3:
- The amendment should be changed to "7 days" from 15.
- Motion: Randy Dodge
- Second: Mike Crawford
- CARRIED
Amendment to 7.2.5:
- The amendment should be changed to "30 days" from 60. ("3 voting members" is acceptable.)
- Motion: Clyde Wells
- Second: Robert Babb
- CARRIED
Motion to defer:
- The Centre should forget about the National Sample By-Laws and Clyde Wells will draft a shorter set of By-Laws, more suitable to our needs.
- Motion: Garry Dymond
- Second: Mike Crawford
- CARRIED
Notice of Motion:
- The Centre should adopt new By-Laws, drafted by Clyde Wells.
- Motion: Garry Dymond
Notice of special meeting:
- The November meeting will be a special meeting, in order to consider the notice of motion to adopt By-Laws for our Centre.
- Motion: Garry Dymond
- Second: Mike Crawford
- CARRIED
The Secretary will pass on the needed materials to Mr. Wells.
- Garry Dymond: apparently, GOTO scopes are no good without any batteries. Garry watched the September 22 shower and noticed 16 ZHR from Pisces, versus 2 ZHR from Auriga. This was later confirmed by NASA.
- Ben Llewellyn: Neptune
- Gary Case: comet SWAN
- Chris: new Rebel SLR camera. Various pictures, mainly of comet SWAN.
- Mike Crawford: Iridium flares
- David Caruk: tested his 8-inch refractor on Andromeda and the Perseus double cluster. It seems pretty good.
Gary Case presented this feature in place of Robert.
- Orionids: expect a ZHR of 20
- Taurids: early November: ZHR of 10-15
- Leonids: about November 17, only ZHR of 15 expected.
- Mercury transit: November 8, 2 minutes before sunset.
- Comet SWAN
Gary passed out a suggested observing list on a sheet, including objects of
various difficulties. New friends and old friends that are about to leave our
skies are also noted.
Gary concluded with some pictures from http://www.spaceflightnow.com: Rover
Opportunity from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Red Jr., and a novel,
beautiful backlit view of Saturn.
Randy Dodge was our Nominating Committee. Randy has secured a slate from our
current executive, all of whom are interested in reelection. Glyn George
presided over the actual election. Additional nominations from the floor will
be noted below.
The incumbents:
- President: Chris Stevenson
- Vice President: Gary Case
- Secretary: David Bourgeois
- Treasurer: Joe English
- Observing Chair: Robert Babb
- Webmaster: Craig Peterman
- N.C. Representative: Doug Grouchy
- Librarian: Fred Smith
- Equipment Officer: David Caruk
- Education Officer: Garry Dymond
- Past President: Randy Dodge (unelected position)
The elections:
- President
- Mike Crawford, nominated by Randy Dodge.
- Seconded: Fred Smith.
- Garry Dymond, nominated by David Caruk.
- Seconded by Tim Caruk.
- Garry Dymond was elected.
A question arose. Apparently, in the history of the Centre we have never had
more than two candidates for a position, never mind the current three (N.B.
Chris Stevenson as incumbent). After a straw vote it was agreed to continue
with the practice of a majority deciding an election, rather than a plurality,
as suggested by some. No motion was actually made.
- Vice President
- Mike Crawford, nominated by Randy Dodge.
- Seconded: Fred Smith.
- Chris Stevenson, nominated by Bill Noftall.
- Seconded: David Caruk.
- Mike Crawford was elected.
- Secretary
- David Bourgeois by acclamation.
- Treasurer
- Joe English by acclamation.
- Observing Chair
- Gary Case declines a nomination.
- Robert Babb by acclamation.
- Webmaster
- Craig Peterman by acclamation.
- National Council Representative
- Doug Grouchy by acclamation.
- Librarian
- Fred Smith by acclamation.
- Equipment Officer
- David Caruk by acclamation.
- Education Officer
- Gary Dymond declines previous nomination by the nominating committee.
- Gary Case, nominated by Garry Dymond.
- Seconded: David Caruk.
- Chris Stevenson declines a nomination.
- Gary Case elected by acclamation.
- Past President
- Chris Stevenson (unelected position).
The only report presented was by the Treasurer, Joe English. A copy is kept on
file with the physical minutes, or members can contact Joe or any executive
member. Joe noted our fiscal year runs from October 1, 2005 to September 30,
2006. As of the end of last month, we received monies for 49 regular members,
3 Life members, and 2 Youth members. As a Centre, we get 40% of the membership
fee, and in addition our $4 surcharge. There is an exception for Life members,
where we get a flat $22. One noticeable feature for our income consisted of a
donation to help run the Planetarium.
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David Bourgeois
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