Comment by twilightmoons on 26/01/2025 at 15:37 UTC

2 upvotes, 0 direct replies (showing 0)

View submission: Astronomy club/activities for adults?

Where are you located? That determines a lot about what you can do.

What local or state parks are near you with dark skies? Talk to the superintendents and see about doing public observing nights there, usually either the first or last quarter. We partner with a local nature reserve for star parties in town on the first quarter, and a state park an hour away on the last quarter, March through November.

Find a place for local in-person meeting, or at least Zoom meetings, or both. We use a large classroom of a local college on Tuesday evenings once a month. once you have regular meetings, you can get speakers to talk about stuff.

I run our club's YT channel, and do livestreams for meetings and virtual star parties. The meetings have the in-person part, and I tie in the zoom meeting for club members who can't make the drive. This also lets us bring in remote presenters. Take a look at one of the live meeting videos for a general structure and idea about what happens.

https://www.youtube.com/fortworthastronomicalsociety[1][2]

1: https://www.youtube.com/fortworthastronomicalsociety

2: https://www.youtube.com/fortworthastronomicalsociety

I am also a sort-of member of the Hawai'i club, which used to meet in-person, but now just does zoom meetings. Some members are on the Big Island, some on Maui or Oahu, one in California, one in New England, and two in Texas. Those meetings are often "freestyle", sometimes with a guest speaker, sometimes with member showing off new images or new kit. Those are just one-times on Zoom that don't get recorded or broadcast, so if you miss a meeting, too bad.

Advice as part of management - if you start it and want to be president, that's OK... but step back. It's a lot of work, and someone else may want a shot at running it. Beware also that a lot of members just want the benefits and not the work in running an organization, and that's fine too. We had a president who was reelected six times. There was nothing in the bylaws that said he couldn't. He finally just yelled that he won't serve again, someone else needs to do it, and to change the bylaws to prevent this. I was president when the pandemic started, and I was able to transition to zoom and livestreams to keep the club going. I just kept doing it and expanded it since.

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