14 June 2011

Lecturers, Speakers and Guests

The San Jose Astronomical Association has a long history of inviting guest speakers to come and give astronomy themed talks at the monthly general meetings.  The list of guest speakers have ranged from fellow SJAA members discussing their experiences with certain aspects of amateur astronomy to NASA research scientists working on never-been-done-or-seen before work.  We keep a table of the lecturers that we have had the honor of hosting over the past several years.  You can see just from the titles of the talks the wide range of areas that we bring to the membership.

I would like to talk this opportunity to recognize the amazing amount of behind the scenes work that goes on to bring these speakers to the meetings, month after month.  For several years, longtime club member Dave Smith worked tirelessly to source, track down, make contact, schedule and coordinate an entire host of speakers.  We really do appreciate his efforts in making the monthly meetings and speaker series really top notch.

Several months ago, Dave decided he needed a break and so handed the reins over to the SJAA board of directors.  Though we have been able to keep the program going with the same high caliber of speakers, it's time that we asked for some help.

Going forward, we'd like to open this up to everyone.  Here's how we envision it working.

Anyone, and I mean that literally, can contact a potential speaker to determine their interest in giving a presentation to the SJAA. But there cannot be a commitment made on behalf of SJAA before first getting approval from the president and vice president (Mark Wagner and Greg Claytor).

On the SJAA's Google Calendar Mark will maintain the General Meeting schedule, which anyone will be able to peruse, containing confirmed speakers. This will allow us all to see what dates are open.

Our goal is be to have firm speaker commitments for six months minimum, more if possible.

If there are any interesting individuals you'd like to see come and speak at the SJAA, please feel free to reach out to them!  If you need any help or support, or just have questions, please feel free to contact me, Rob Jaworski (rob <dot> jaworski <at> sjaa <dot> net) or any of the SJAA board members.

On behalf of the SJAA board and the entire member community, Thank You!

Rob Jaworski
San Jose Astronomical Association

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