Whirlpool Star Party 2010 - Oct 8th to 10th

I can't ever see it coming back to life to be honest.

Michael.

It's bad news I'm afraid.
When we were up there last week we all took a walk down to the scope and
Ross filled us in as to the state of affairs with it.
Long story short, it's in the hands of the government
and there is no plan now or in the future to get it working.
It's a disgrace but there you go, what's new.

I have to say also, it was great to finally get the chance to personally speak to
Ross (at length) as to why SAC had no other option but to pull out of
running the Whirlpool up there.
(EG the average cost of 10K and the fact that numbers were
steadly going down with prices going up each year)

Obviously he didn't have a notion as to the costs..
He also seemed a little bemused that the now organizers of WSP left SAC going on
three years ago and could not be contacted by any of the then committee...
At one stage we thought one of them had been involved in an accident abroad
- seriously! :laugh:
(if any of ye that are going can find out why I'd love to hear it!)
For months we were without meetings - the club very nearly disbanded because of it.
Only for a small core group of people working hard was it brought back to life.
Ross was delighted to hear this and also to hear that the new committee
has no issues whatsoever with someone else outsie of SAC taking the WSP over and running it...
More power to 'em!


I can't make it myself, cost of the weekend would be just too much
for me to justify it plus I'm more into being outside observing anyway
and the grounds suffer from terrable light pollution as we all know.
There are almost too many events on in this country sometimes and it's hard
to get to some of them not to mind all.
I missed every other starparty this year due to work or costs.
Ho well, sign of the times eh?

All that aside,
It's nice to see the Whirlpool back in action, it's a pity it had
to come about the way it did but at least now the people that seemed to
want to run it on thier own have got the opportunity to do so.
Best of luck!

Frank_Ryan_jr wrote:

(EG the average cost of 10K and the fact that numbers were
steadly going down with prices going up each year)

Obviously he didn't have a notion as to the costs..
He also seemed a little bemused that the now organizers of WSP left SAC going on
three years ago and could not be contacted by any of the then committee...
At one stage we thought one of them had been involved in an accident abroad
- seriously! :laugh:

ya know, in hind sight, after alot of thinking about it (cos we still dont know what the hell happened, all he had to do was answer/return the chairmans/secretary/treasurers/other committee members phonecalls/email), I think it was the very notion of questioning the WSP that caused it as SAC was facing a serious financial blackhole for WSP2009 (that starparty wasnt called off until well into 2009) , we were down over a grand after the 2008 WSP in September and he had dissapeared by Nov 2008, it wasnt until march/april that we finally guessed what was happening,
ya know, people come and go, John went to Australia, Mikkel back to Denmark, we gave them a good fairwell send off, the amount of serious crap that could have been avoid by a simple phone call....
Anyway, after nearly causing the collapse of an IFAS club, all I can say is good luck to him with the WSP, SAC funds are not going to be there to bail him out if it makes a loss (since 1999, its made a profit twice, and I think it was in 1992 it completely drained the club account so there had to be a whip around the club members).

michaeloconnell wrote:

Perhaps this would be a good slot for the IFAS AGM?

Not knowing anything about the IFAS constitution but it would seem to me
that it does not matter where or when the IFAS AGM is held - just as long
as there are the required amount of attendees.
Although it's odd to hold it at a non IFAS club event.
Though as I say,
this seems not to matter.

I plan to head down for at least one of the days.

Seanie.

Anyone heading to Birr tonight? or Observing if clear?

Ronan Newman