Poor Club Coverage Despite Recent Events - Can IFAS Help?

Thanks for the feedback so far folks.

Michael, I do like your point - IFAS's role should be clarified. I know we are not here to topple AI (as such); its more to promote the extraordinary wealth of all the other amateur clubs and societies in Ireland. This has not been acheived yet.
Regarding free prizes etc for publicity, the main problem I have down here is these feckin' organisations in question even acknowledging my post and emails for crying out loud! How unprofessional is that on Radio 3's part???

Stephen, I appreciate the fact that we all work, and at different times, but in my opinion, its not a good enough reason to say "oh I can't, I've work to do..." If someone is on a committee of a club or society, its for a reason - make time!!!

Connor, I plan to submit some pictures and an article, though I don't anticipate a quick print of same.
BUT, bombarding them would be more effective - in a nice way! For my part in TAS, I plan to submit almost an article a week, and see if aything progresses from it.

Dave, instad of asking David Bell to undertake the responsibility of contacting the media about IFAS et al, what about if each club has a committee member acting as a node to the media, and all the nodes from all the clubs acting under IFAS?

I don't believe for a second that we constantly loose out because of Astronomy Ireland. They've hardly featured in the Irish media this year as they used to, their membership is not so good, and people ARE taking more notice of local clubs. We nearly all have websites, public lectures, events, and the astronomical events happenng in the Universe are adding fuel to OUR fire - but we're not just burning bright enough!


Thats why I put forward this post. No one person is to blame, we're just not all as active as personally I think we could be.

So perhaps each club should have a Press Officer???
Each Press Officer could present the public face of the local astronomy club. The position could be an appointed one and be held by someone already with a post in the club - not necessarily the head person but perhaps the one who's good at communicating with the media or have connections thereof.
All Press Officers could meet at each IFAS meeting where a joint media program could be organised based on the astronomcial events expected until the next meeting. This would ensure a consistent approach by all clubs right across the country. It would also get several heads together to discuss successes and failures therein.

Does this sound plausible??

Michael

Thanks for the feedback so far folks.

Michael, I do like your point - IFAS's role should be clarified. I know we are not here to topple AI (as such); its more to promote the extraordinary wealth of all the other amateur clubs and societies in Ireland. This has not been acheived yet.
Regarding free prizes etc for publicity, the main problem I have down here is these feckin' organisations in question even acknowledging my post and emails for crying out loud! How unprofessional is that on Radio 3's part???

Stephen, I appreciate the fact that we all work, and at different times, but in my opinion, its not a good enough reason to say "oh I can't, I've work to do..." If someone is on a committee of a club or society, its for a reason - make time!!!

Connor, I plan to submit some pictures and an article, though I don't anticipate a quick print of same.
BUT, bombarding them would be more effective - in a nice way! For my part in TAS, I plan to submit almost an article a week, and see if aything progresses from it.

Dave, instad of asking David Bell to undertake the responsibility of contacting the media about IFAS et al, what about if each club has a committee member acting as a node to the media, and all the nodes from all the clubs acting under IFAS?

I don't believe for a second that we constantly loose out because of Astronomy Ireland. They've hardly featured in the Irish media this year as they used to, their membership is not so good, and people ARE taking more notice of local clubs. We nearly all have websites, public lectures, events, and the astronomical events happenng in the Universe are adding fuel to OUR fire - but we're not just burning bright enough!


Thats why I put forward this post. No one person is to blame, we're just not all as active as personally I think we could be.

just a suggestion put forward before but how about a national astronomy day?. it could be say the weekend before everyone has the first meeting of the season. if this was held every year as a co-ordinated event it would be a good way to build up media coverage.
stephen.

Good idea Michael,
I suppose in some peoples' view, the secretary is th best person, and then the PRO, which in my opinion, should be the person to carry out media tasks. At AGM's, if clubs decided to take this responsibility on board, the PRO (or even Communications Officer??) should be given, say, a charter, aims, solutions (like your previous mention of prizes etc) and so forth.

Stephen, you're right - an idea for Astronomy Day was put forward before, but like the previous attempt at awarding certificates for observing, it faded somewhat into oblivion. Maybe this is something to start up? OR, what about incorporating it INTO Whirlpool? SAC can almost have any coverage they want with WSP, IF they can get the media on their side! (you reading this Mr. Lillis?? ). Sir Patrick Moore among many MANY other notable names have attended WSP in the last decade - use that to SAC's advantage! (Actually, I think the last time Sir PM was in Ireland was for that very same WSP, in about 1995??)

Is there anybody else who can add their opinions too to this thread???

Seanie.

Seanie,
When I said I'd ask Dave Bell about it, I didn' mean that I'd ask him to take on any work/responsibility for it, I meant I'd ask him about his experiances in the past on this subject, and I did.
Apparently the media were asked before to come to the WSP, and they weren't interested. He's usually a very good persuader, but even when they were told that Mr Levy (of the Jupiter collision fame) was coming, they still weren't interested !.

As far as I know, no one in the whirlpool commitee has asked the media to come this year (again as fas as I know), if they come on their own accords, great.

Lets be honest here, if your going to have a national astronomy day, it really needs to be based in the Dublin area where most of the population is, and why not base it around an astronomical event (like the lunar eclipse later on in the year for example).??

If you want to persue this (I'm not), I'd suggest that you make a phone call to Dave B himself.

BTW, these are not the views of the SAC/WSP committe, just making comments based on what I know.

Just FYI, the IFAS constitution, including article 2 "aims" is located on this site. There is a link to it on ever page on the boards in the "Navigate" section on the left of the page.

The stated aims are:

The aim of the Federation shall be to promote the interests and development of amateur astronomical societies in Ireland.