by Dawn Davies, secretary
The meeting was called to order promptly at 7:30 p.m. by President Ron Carman. A quorum was present. The minutes from the August General Assembly meeting, as published in the Sidereal Times, were approved by all but Jack Estes, filling in for the absent Bill Tschumy. There were 43 members in attendance.
Jim Linn introduced the society’s visitors; Akarsh Simha, Mark Summers, Sue Judeas and Gail. Also in attendance were new members; Ken Summers, Matt Melton and Randy Hagman.
Joyce Lynch reminded all of the upcoming Central Texas public star party weekend event October 1 and 2 at the Eagle Eye Observatory. Joyce also announced a star party at Lockhart State Park on November 5. In honor of next week's Observe the Moon Night on September 18 Joyce encouraged the GA to partake in some observing a-la John Dobson. Take your telescope to the streets and encourage passers-by to take a gander. Lastly, there another moonlighting night at the Wild Basin Nature Preserve scheduled for September 24, so mark those calendars.
Dave Clark presented to Ron a donation check of $200 to the AAS from the Texas Star Party for our volunteering efforts in TSP earlier this year. He also announced that the San Antonio Astronomy Society will be cosponsoring this year's El Dorado Star Party.
Linda Cartwright chimed in with news of the El Dorado Star Party taking place this year from November 1 to 7. She advised all that if you plan on attending register early as on October 10th the fee jumps from $35 to $100 per person. And if that is not incentive enough, it is a gosh darn good time too!
Jim Spigelmire presented the current progress on the AAS's new website. Though still in construction and needing some beta testing it currently sports an archive of past Sidereal Times issues, the new bylaws, information on the society and the observatory, as well as a space for selling and trading equipment. This will also be the new platform for the Sidereal Times. With much more to come, Jim is making sure that the society's goals are met and that the result is both easy to navigate and maintain as well as appealing to the public. The new format will allow for distributing maintenance responsibilities and allow uploading up-to-date information as it becomes available.
Ron announced some changes within the Executive Committee, including Jim Linn taking on the new role of Member Services Chair, thus freeing up his Member at Large position, which Mike Krzywonski has graciously taken over.
There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 8 p.m. for a presentation on orbital radar imaging of Europa's subsurface properties and processes by Dr. Donald Blankenship of The University of Texas at Austin.
