Minutes of NHAC Club Meeting, held at Kingwood College
7:30 PM – Friday 28th April, 2000
Members Attending: 54 (and 30 guests)
Alvin Alleyene
Anne Alleyene
Terry Angelich
Cheryl Angelich Jill Bowers
Ron Carman
Dave Clark
Noni Clark
Bob Davis
David Dockwiller Cory Duecker
Glenn Fisher
Scott Freile
Blanca Gonzales Adriana Gonzales
Jessica Gonzales Jeff Hall
Lisa Hall
Karyn Hall
Cody Hartgrove-Freile
Shane Hartgrove-Freile
Richard Horn
Donna Hounihan Kevin Hounihan John Hounihan
Olin Joynton
Ken Justice
David Kent
John Lane
Sandra Lloyd
Bobby Lloyd
George Marsden Alan Maupin
Robert McMillan
Ahmed Mohammad
Bill Murphey
Marg Nunez
Chuck Oberholzer Allen Otto
Lorrie Patel
Don Pearce
Juan Carlos Reina
Mike Shelby
Sori Shelby
Jack Shilt
Joe Thirolf
Patty Thirolf
Lauren Thirolf
Kenneth Thirolf Ann Wargetz
Jean Whileyman
Kendra Woods
Linda Xie
Bill Leach
New Members Signed up:
Tobias Gros
Irma Gros
Rick Raines
Welcome to NHAC!
Total Membership: 114
Agenda:
I.
Welcome
President Bill Leach called the meeting to order at 7:41 PM. He
expressed his appreciation of the huge crowd and welcomed
everybody to the 12th meeting and first anniversary of NHAC. All
new members since the beginning of the year were recognized.
The guests were next recognized. Third, the founding members
present at the April 23, 1999 initial meeting were recognized.
II.
Recognitions
President Bill Leach gave special thanks to the contributors of the
North Star newsletter recognizing Lori Patel, Jay McNeil, Paul
Downing and Cody Hartgrove-Freile.
Mike Shelby was recognized for his orchestration of a very
successful meeting last month at North Harris College.
Don Pearce, President of the Houston Astronomical Society and
member of the North Houston Astronomy Club was recognized.
Dr. Kendra Woods, Dean of Sciences … at Kingwood College and
NHAC club member, addressed the meeting with some well
thought out words of philosophical wisdom and expressed her
appreciation of the 22 club members that have helped out on
Thursday nights with the college’s astronomy students.
III.
Announcements
Amendments to the bylaws were passed without dissent.
The May meeting, to be held at Kingwood College, will feature
Jay McNeil and his report from the Texas Star Party 2000.
The first beginners meeting held at 6:45 PM by Dr. Juan Carlos
Reina, had an attendance of 12. The group is temporarily called
“From The Beginning”.
Steve Sartor, member of the Houston Astronomical Society,
solicited volunteers for a star party in Cut’n Shoot Saturday night.
A clipboard was passed around soliciting reporters for the North
Star newsletter. Members signing were:
JC Reina
Lori Patel Annie Wargetz
Sandra Lloyd
Alvin Alleyene John Lane Cody Hartgrove-Freile
A clipboard was passed around soliciting members for the
membership committee. Members signing were:
Mike Shelby Sori Shelby
Bill Leach
Blanca Gonzales
Linda Xie John Lane
President Bill announced plans to use the Randall’s and Kroger
cards as a source of income for the club and solicited feedback
from the membership.
A clipboard was passed around for T-shirt orders and 26 new
orders were collected.
A membership list was passed around.
It was announced that dues were half price and signing up was
encouraged through a listing of club benefits. An update on the
search for a dark-sky site was presented.
IV
Program
Dr. Juan Carlos Reina introduced the speaker for the evening,
Dr. Lawrence Pinsky, chairman of the department of physics at
the University of Houston. His topic was “Measurements of the
Expansion (of the universe) Using Type I Supernovae”. The
presentation was enticing and well received. Dr. Pinsky was
informative and humorous. After the presentation Dr. Pinsky
was given a pen and pencil set and a large star map for his
office. The presentation started at 7:55 PM and ended at 9:00
PM after a short question and answer session.
President Bill encouraged all to sign up for the door prizes and
announced a 15-minute break.
V
Final Business
Officer’s reports:
Vice President Ron Carman
Ron updated the Club on future meeting presentations:
May – Jay McNeil, Texas Star Party report
June – JC Reina, Women in Astronomy
July – Telescope Eyepieces, Land Sea & Sky
Ron next solicited participation in the June field trip and
announced a new fall field trip
Editor JC Reina – thanked contributors to the North Star
newsletter and discussed deadlines for submissions.
Co Editor Lori Patel – welcomed everybody
Webmaster Jill Bowers – welcomed everybody
Membership Committee Chairman Mike Shelby – Asked to
meet with membership committee volunteers after the meeting.
Terry Angelich gave an update to the members as to the
progress in the building of the 13 inch telescope and solicited
feedback from the members as to the placement of the Telrad
finderscope and announced that “wood cutting” would soon
begin on the rocker box. He showed the club how well balanced
the scope was. He announced that the scope had seen first light
and that the results were excellent.
Bill Leach, having misplaced his power cord again discussed
the upcoming Grand Millennium Planetary Alignment on May
5, 2000.
Member Karyn Hall assisted in the drawing for door prizes.
Kingwood College provided a 1st Anniversary cake which
attendees enjoyed after the meeting was adjourned at 9:50 PM
A smashing success!
Bill Leach
Temporary Secretary