Minutes.
1. Welcome by the President – John Price
John thanked the 30+ members for attending the AGM via Zoom.
He reminded the members that the society was originally formed in 1971, making 2021 its Golden Anniversary year. Obviously any form of celebration was not possible this year but maybe the society can celebrate in 2022.
He pointed out that during its 50 years the society has survived a number of crises, emerging with renewed vigour and is sure that with the combined efforts of the committee and its members the society is sure to survive for many years to come.
He also thanked the committee for its efforts to keep communications open between members with the monthly Zoom meetings, Facebook page, website and newsletter.
2. Committee Members’ Reports 2021
- Kevin Pretorius – Co-Chairman and Programme Secretary.
Hello everyone, I’m Kevin and I’m your programme secretary, responsible for booking and coordinating talks and speakers for your monthly interest, education and entertainment.
This year as for several years previously, I have also been job-sharing the role of club chairman with Danny. I also run the Zoom meetings, and I’m active on the Facebook Group, and I’m a regular speaker here myself.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s programme. I try to keep this diverse in subject matter and at a range of levels ranging from easily accessible to advanced. We had the chance to pick up some astrophotography tips from Nik Syzmanek, to learn about interacting galaxies and the mysteries of the Sun from regular presenters William Joyce and Colin Stuart, and we were taken aback at the prospect of tens of thousands of satellites soon to be littering our night skies following Paul Daniel’s talk on Starlink – even more that all the stones in the hundreds of UK stone circles from Graham Bryant’s stone circles talk. I’ve also taken the Zoom-provided opportunity to arrange talks from some of my more far-flung university friends and contacts – although they were probably responsible for some of the more brain-scratching talks of the year.
And of course, I’d like to express my personal appreciation for the talks given by members of the society this year from David Lewis, Chris Reed, and Mark Rumsby. I couldn’t put on a year’s schedule without your help.
Some of you may have noticed that I’m working to a shorter planning horizon than in previous years. This is of course because of the difficulty of knowing how the pandemic will evolve, and whether we’re asking for a speaker to attend virtually or in person. I now suspect the reality is that speakers will only be willing to attend virtually for some time to come. We all like working from home and guest speakers are no exception.
But I look forward to a time when we can all meet up again safely, as a society is about making friendships, being sociable, and doing things as a group. I’m hoping we can do that more confidently in the Spring, but we’ll just have to see.
If you’re happy to have me in post for another year, I’m happy to stand. If my role sounds like the one you’ve always wanted to have a go at, particularly if you have lots of academic connections, let’s talk ?.
- Danny Thomas – Co-Chairman and Webmaster.
New articles have been published to the website during the course of 2021, although at a slower rate than previously years there has been more posting about observations. My thanks to all those who continue to generate new articles and content while new posts are always welcome.
Outside of my duties as Webmaster, I manage the society’s contracts with the MOD and Grainger for the observatory and Alice Holt. During the Covid pandemic external events have been cancelled and so work related to these contracts has not been necessary. However Eric Grieve and I supported a theatre company that filmed at the Aldershot Observatory over the course of several days.
I have continued as the contact point for SAGAS (Southern Area Group Astronomy Societies) and I am now formally on the SAGAS committee in the post of Webmaster. The focus for SAGAS has been on how societies have coped during the pandemic and more recently restarting live meetings.
Like many societies we have started mixed reality meetings with attendance at the Cricket Club and online over Zoom. This has been a second learning curve and brought challenge in both establishing a data connection and finding an audio/video set up that is comfortable for the audience in the room and inclusive to those members that choose to stay on line..
We continue to implement GDPR obtaining consents to the usage of personal data when new members join and in maintaining the database to remove any lapsed memberships.
The Committee continues to place high importance in the way we store and use personal details, by using password protected databases and blind copy in emails. No member details are shared with third parties, although many requests are sent to the Committee to promote events, services and products. We are very selective in what we choose to pass on and our policy is generally not to endorse commercial ventures.
Unfortunately work commitments continue to impact the time I can spend on Committee duties and my attendance at meetings. However, much of the website and database maintenance can be done remotely and so I am happy to stand for re-election as webmaster in 2022.
- Andrew Collins – volunteer for Membership Secretary.
At the current time our membership stands at 85. As we did not ask for membership fees last year, we have not been able to make an accurate count of who might have lapsed.
Now that we are expecting the society to be swinging back into action, we hope that as many members as possible will renew this year and attend meetings in person when possible. We will not be providing a swipe card facility on the door so it will need to be cash or cheques only at meetings. However, if members would prefer to pay online, then bank details are available.
Steve Godber has volunteered to stand for the position of membership secretary.
- Eric Grieve – Librarian and Instrument Coordinator.
Librarian and Instrument Coordinator
Members may request the loan of books or telescopes between meetings on the FAS Website, which has a direct link to me. Contact details: At any time on: 01252 518256. OR email: (telescopes@farnham-as.co.uk)
FAS Loan Equipment
This year the Society was been kindly gifted two telescopes: An 8 inch Dobsonian and an excellent 6 inch Newtonian Reflector.
The Sun has, at last, become somewhat more active this autumn. Perhaps 2022 will see the SPT more regularly out on loan to members.
Remember, the Society has: Binoculars, Telescopes – both reflectors and refractors: ranging in size from 90mm to 250mm and the PST – all are available for loan by members.
Photographs and full details of all these instruments are on the Societies’ website.
Your committee is at present looking at its loan equipment holdings and the question of their storage needs.
FAS Library
The FAS Library now consists of some 160 titles.
Regrettably this library remains little used, with just a few books out on loan at anytime.
I ask members to look again at the Notice board, at the back of the meeting room, AND on the Societies website, to see if there is not something of interest to them.
The Alexander Observatory
Because of the present restrictions, the Observatory has remained closed to the general public this year.
A number of maintenance visits have taken place. We provided support for a couple of days in the summer, when the interior of the Observatory and its surrounding area, were used as the setting for a short film professional.
The update to the Alexander Observatory Guidebook and the User Manual will now take place in 2022.
In November I an giving a talk on ‘The Alexander Observatory in Aldershot’ to the Farnborough branch of U3a.
With John and Roberta Smyth moving recently to live in Spain, we are in urgent need for assistance in the Observatory. Anyone interested in supporting this lovely old Observatory, please speak to me.
Thanks
I wish to record my personal thanks to John & Roberta Smyth for all their assistance at the Alexander Observatory. With the many maintenance tasks and as valued visitor guides, over the past 8 years,
Finally, I offer myself for re-election as the Society’s ‘Librarian and Instrument Coordinator’ for 2022.
After 17 years in this joint post, I would however prefer a new Member to take on the Librarian role at some point in the future.
- Andrew Collins – Outreach Coordinator.
As reported last year activities stopped in March 2020 on account of the pandemic and lock down. This state continued for the 2021 as further lock downs ensued. Whilst we know that groups have begun to start up again the has been no pickup in requests for outreach. There is still some uncertainty how comfortable groups and members are with the reduced level of social distancing. The position is probably not going to change much until next summer.
The unusual circumstances of this year have meant little opportunity for a full outreach programme, and I do not see this changing until the autumn season next year at the earliest. To the extent that the society wishes to have outreach co-ordinator next year I put myself forward to serve again.
- Chris Reed – Secretary.
Good evening, I am Chris Reed. I have been the Society’s secretary since 2017, with much assistance from other committee members. The role doesn’t require any astronomy skills (fortunately), mainly involving preparing meeting agendas and then writing up minutes. This has been more time consuming over the last few months with monthly meetings instead of quarterly due to the changing restrictions on social gatherings.
Additionally, I have been producing the society’s newsletter. This has also been more time consuming over the last few months which have been produced monthly rather than quarterly in an attempt to maintain communication within the society. I usually get some impressive images from other members of the society and the odd article, items for sale or request for help. If anyone has any suggestions for improvements to the newsletters, hints and tips please let me know via secretary@farnham-as.co.uk or reed.chris@btinternet.com.
The newsletter, Facebook group “Farnham Astronomical Society” and our web site www.farnham-as.co.uk allow the Society and its members to share information, so if you have a stunning image, an interesting fact or a technical tip please share it via the newsletter or Facebook. Perhaps you have a question which can be posted on Facebook where someone will supply an answer.
I would welcome assistance with either the secretary’s role or especially with the newsletter, perhaps someone would like to prepare the Monthly Sky Notes or the Astronomy News section. If you feel you would like to help then let a committee member know or even volunteer for election on info@farnham-as.co.uk otherwise I am happy to continue in these roles.
- John Rees – Treasurer.
Headlines:
Membership fees to resume 2022. Guest rates unchanged.
3. Election of Committee Members.
Following the normal AGM procedures 37 members (11 online via Zoom Voting Form during the meeting and 26 via Google Voting Form before the meeting) voted to approve the election of the Committee.
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- Chairman(men) – Kevin Pretorius and Danny Thomas
- Program Secretary – Kevin Pretorius
- Webmaster – Danny Thomas
- Membership Secretary – Steve Godber
- Librarian and Telescope Coordinator – Eric Grieve
- Outreach Coordinator – Andrew Collins
- Observing Coordinator (vacant)
- Secretary – Chris Reed
- Treasurer – John Rees
4. Announcements
- Resumption of membership fees for 2022 – JR
It is intended to reinstate membership fees of £15 per member for 2022.
- Resumption of meetings at ACC in 2022 – KP
The society restarted monthly meetings at ACC in August with a limited attendance. In subsequent months the attendance dwindled to just a handful resulting in the return to Zoom only meetings for the AGM and the coming months. It is hoped that by March 2022 we may be able to restart meetings at ACC once again. Fingers crossed?
5. Proposals
A show of hands at the meeting approved the proposal to increase ACC meeting room fee to £65 once we start meeting again. This is in line with the £5 annual increase that we normally apply to the fees. To reserve the meeting room for future meetings we are currently paying a reduced monthly fee.