Astronomy Club for North County Dublin

Hi all.

I have been thinking of opening an Astronomy club in Balbriggan and surrounding areas for some time now. I know a few people in the Balbriggan Co council I can’t see much of a problem getting a classroom if I approach the council with a plan. what I need to know is what kind expenses are involved setting this all up and the right way to go about it. I want to have monthly lectures loads of observing sessions and all things Astronomy. any advice would be great

Hi Carl,

I'm working on a similar project here in Larne and I am also a past Treasurer of an AS so I'll share what I know.

In terms of the kit you'll need then Laptop, Projector and Screen about covers it. Using a school lecture theatre as your venue is a good idea because it will probably have the Projector and screen built in and you may also be able to use a computer too, although you may already have a laptop.

If your group is small enough you will probably not need any amplification.

So once you have the equipment in place your running costs will boil down to the rental of the venue, provision of refreshments, speaker expenses, some stationery and stamps, whatever you want to spend on publicity and the running costs of a website if you want one.

In terms of raising money to cover this there are several ways you can go about it.

You can charge visitors on the door. This is simple but it's an uncertain revenue stream and will involve you banking cash every month which may become a pain.

You can set up a membership scheme charging say €20 for a year's membership. This is IMV better as you will get committed members who will come to all the talks to get their money's worth and you have your money up front at the start of the season.

You may want to have a bit of a promotion on membership - eg the first visit is free, or meetings are free, but we expect you to join if you want to keep coming - in the nicest possible way of course.

You may want to apply for funding from elsewhere - I've applied for IYA2009 funding though the deadline was last Friday - but I believe there are other opportunities for getting funding from this source.

You obviously have the key ingredient which is enthusiasm!

Please feel free to ask me any more questions - I am learning my way through this too!

Hi all.

I have been thinking of opening an Astronomy club in Balbriggan and surrounding areas for some time now. I know a few people in the Balbriggan Co council I can’t see much of a problem getting a classroom if I approach the council with a plan. what I need to know is what kind expenses are involved setting this all up and the right way to go about it. I want to have monthly lectures loads of observing sessions and all things Astronomy. any advice would be great

carl,
from my time being secretary of the IAS, i would say your biggest expenses will be renting a lecture hall and insurance. the second item you should not overlook, i am not sure what is paid out for insurance at the moment but i think we were paying about £300 (punts) in 1995. our next biggest expense after that was producing our magazine orbit but that is something you are not likely to encounter for a while. as for location i think you should cast your net about, balbriggan that's like out in the sticks, bud !! :lol: .

Yes, sorry, forgot that one! Insurance - you need Public Liability Insurance in case anything happens. It should be the case that your venue carries insurance which covers you while you're there - this is something you'll need to check - but for any observing events etc you'll need PLI. Here in the North we get ours via membership of FAS who run a group scheme - I think IFAS may have a similar arrangement in Ireland but I remember we couldn't join it as it doesn't apply to us. We were paying something like £80/yr.

Thanks Lads,

I never thought about Insurance. Seems like a bit of a headache but once I get a bit of momentum it should move pretty fast. I am hoping to got most of the money from the council and sponsorship from business in the area. What I want the club to do is attract groups of all ages from the community. and get people looking up.

IFAS has a policy that covers its clubs in the Republic; FAS used to cover clubs in the republic but then their insurer stopped covering the republic due to the high claims I think. FAS Still cover clubs in NI though.

But its something you need to sort out. A sign with 'at your own risk' does not cover you and getting it on your own will be expensive.

I'd be surprised if you have expenses for a room. Approaching a school and pitching this as an extra cirrucular thing whereby the kids could get involved might get you that for free. Though they also want an insurance cert from you if you use their premesis.