10 years of IFAS

Happy birthday IFAS !
10 years down and many more to go !

PARTY!! :laugh:

michaeloconnell wrote:

You have been assimilated...

Love it! :laugh:

So lads was there actually a birthday?

from googling:- www.arm.ac.uk/annrep/annrep99/node33.html
it looks like david asher gave a talk on october the 10th at WSP. the meeeting was after WSP, so that is as good a date as any.

After Dave Lillis' talk on Saturday, we celebrated 10 years of IFAS with a birthday cake (hopefully some of you will have a few pics!). Many thanks to IFAS Treasurer Bernie Foley for organising the lovely cake. It looked fantastic and tasted delicious!

For those who are involved in running an astronomy club, it can be a difficult and challenging role at times. We don't have the best of weather for the hobby and we live in a small country with many clubs based in low-density population areas. With all of the astronomy clubs I had the pleasure of dealing with, it is the hard work and dedication of a handful of volunteers which keeps the club going. Your passion for the hobby never ceases to amaze me and it is on occasions like these that we salute you!

The purpose of IFAS is to bring amateur astronomy clubs together to share their knowledge & resources. One of the ways we work together is through this website. Over the last 10 years, we have grown from a small yahoo group with a couple of dozen members to an incredibly active online community of over 1,600 people. The last year in particular has been a tremendous success coinciding with IYA2009 with outreach events organised across the island of Ireland, north and south.

The IFAS AGM at the Burren Star party also brought to an end my role of IFAS Chairperson. I would like to thank the IFAS Council for their work in that time and wish the new committee all the best in the new year. I am sure they will lead IFAS to bigger and better things in the coming years. Dave McDonald will be taking over as IFAS Chairperson, Deirdre kelleghan as IFAS Vice-Chair and Outreach Co-ordinator while Seanie Morris and Bernie Foley will remain on as Secretary and Treasurer respectively. I would also like to thank IFAS for the presentation of a framed picture of my recent success in the astrophotography competition. It is always nice to have ones efforts recognised by ones colleagues.

Regards, thanks and best wishes to the new team,

Michael.