RTE & the Astronomy voice of Ireland

Hi,

Never been on the IAS committee, but from what I've been told Seanie is right, its an insurance thing. However the IAS in the past had held several Sidewalk Astronomy events at Sandymount which were open to anyone for free. Just a perception, but I think the lack of events from the IAS over the past year has been due partly at least to insurance. I know people there were very worried about the insurance cover if someone damaged their eyesight at the transit.

A&S have one thing sorted there, being a Limited company when organising events has its advantages!

Last bit of unsubstantiated comment on the IAS, as far as I know they did not sign up for IFAS insurance last time since their own policy was still active for many months. Next time round they may sign up and hopefully run more events.

Being an IFAS club has its advantages too

Cheers,
~Al (who just rememberd he hasnt baid his IAS membership yet)

Well, we are only a modest club... but can I use that quote Gordon?? Seanie.

Only if I get those pints you promised!

Gordon

Well, we are only a modest club... but can I use that quote Gordon?? Seanie.

Only if I get those pints you promised!

Gordon

Deal!



Seanie.

Hi,

[It is probably hard to try and invite non-members to a club event if they are not covered by insurance.

Seanie,

I can't quite see the validity of insurance being the reason. Club members can sue a club committee or other members for an accident in the same way as members of the public can. Yes, club members may be more reluctant to take an action but relying on their good nature in the absence of liability insurance could prove disastrous should an incident arise.

AFAIK the IAS has always had insurance. The cost of it I imagine was quite high, and may have stated that only members be present at events. I dont know just speculating.

What I can say is that insurance is a very significant worry for clubs in the country. While working on the vt-2004 project, the main reason given by groups for a reluctance (or simply not running an event) was insurance. Daytime solar observing is a particularly dangerous activity from an insurers point of view. Professional astronomers involved in running public events for the transit also had concerns about insurance cover.

Cheers,
~Al

Just an idea that some of the 'less well off' clubs (financially) should consider. I remember back in the early days of AI we used to often 'get invited' to things like open days and summer fete's etc. The benefit of that was that whoever was running the event had to fork out for PLI. So get on to the local macra na feirme etc and see will they have you at their shows/fetes etc.

Dave

I've been following this thread, and the associated "politics" thread in the suggest a forum board, with great interest but for various reasons I haven't been able to stir the muck until now. I got an AI mailshot this morning which had the below as it's heading;

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ASTRONOMY IRELAND MAILING LIST - www.astronomy.ie
(Ireland's National Astronomy Club, Magazine and Shop)

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3,000 members paid-up

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Interesting isn't it? Especially since we've recently been told that there are 10,000 members. There is, of course, a world of difference between saying "we have 10,000 members" and "We have had 10,000 members" and the past tense is never used to qualify the membership numbers. The question that immediately springs to my mind is, why have 7,000 people decided that they no longer wish to be associated with your organisation? Either way, this confusion sums up what is problematic about AI to me. There is no transparency. It is not obvious and clear what is going on. Despite what was written here the division between club and shop is not clear. David Moore himself even wrote that. There is a conflict of interests that is unhealthy to the proper promotion of astronomy in Ireland.

Maybe I'm coming at this from an "active astronomers" point of view. Perhaps AI is the best organisation for an absolute newbie to get involved in. It was certainly my entry vehicle into the hobby (obsession). Like Al though I found my desire to get more active and involved to be stifled. There was a huge degree of clannishness in this organisation. If you disagree then please explain how a committee is formed from the 3 (10) thousand members without an AGM or an election process. It must be by selection. Who makes the selection? The leader (or to use the German I studied up to Inter-Cert, Der Fuhrer, or the Irish I had force-fed to me through 14 years, An Taoiseach). That selection process, by it's very nature, is clannish.

David is very good at promoting his company through the media. He is not very good at promoting astronomy. He flogs the phoneline for ISS information but fails to mention the free website. If heavens-above is good enough for a link from the astronomy.ie site, then it should be good enough to mention. I do believe David is good at getting arses out of couches, but he fails at keeping those arses out of the couches. I disagree with Seanie to a certain extent about the local media. DM is right to get as much coverage for himself as possible. The fault here lies with Midlands Radio 3.