IFAS Calander

This is a great idea.

We'll list them on our shop website if you want, no problem at all

What are people's thoughts about it being an IFAS fundraiser? After all, there's no other source of income apart from club membership fees, and the profits go back into the organisation to fund future projects.

Some people have contacted me to say they would be in favour of this over charity. After all, it begins at home...


Seanie.

Need to be transparent on this Seanie or we end up looking like another famous Astronomy Club.
What exactly are the funds being used for?
I don't ever remember IFAS publishing accounts or seeing minutes from an AGM.

Have no problem with the idea, but need transparency.

Yea, I have to say I was thinking of the funds heading to ifas also.

manic_dave wrote: What exactly are the funds being used for?
I don't ever remember IFAS publishing accounts or seeing minutes from an AGM.

Transparency is not an issue. There are minutes of all previous AGMs available to the committee members, or (like all organisations) available privately upon request. As are IFAS's balance sheets and income+expenditure accounts (committee/IFAS Reps only). Rest assured, IFAS has operated above and beyond what is needed, should it ever need to apply for funding, charitable status, tax clearance certificates, trusteeships, and so on.

For IYA 2009, IFAS received a generous contribution from Discover Science and Engineering Ireland, which was distributed among the member clubs back then to use as they see fit. Since then, there is no funding available, but there is support from e.g. DIAS when SolarFest comes around. Apart from this, all IFAS earns is the membership of participating clubs upon January's renewals.

If more funds were available, then IFAS can pursue more avenues of publicity for every club, from promotional items like flyers, magnets, stickers, and more for outreach events, to even contributing to an IFAS event where there's an astrophotography workshop, guest speakers, and more. The latter two are already in the pipeline by the way, but funding issues limit what can be done.

A quirk of whether to increase membership has always been 'what will the increased funds be used for?', and so beings the going in circles for a time til a proper plan is conceived. To begin with a souvenir calendar, offered worldwide, is a good start to alleviate any pressure on clubs to cough up more on membership fees, especially since the likes of South Dublin AS, which had no membership fee for its own members and therefore no cashflow, its IFAS membership was paid for out of John Flannery's own pocket.

More funds for IFAS means more contributions back to members clubs. It's a win-win situation.

Seanie.

Roy Stewart wrote: will ye be
setting up a PayPal payment option also ye're gonna have to include a P&P option.

PayPal Minicarts can be used for option-enabled purchasing. I use it on many client websites I have created, and it is customisable (no need for an online shop). The committee would be the judge of what to charge any publication and how to cover postage fees. Postage would have to come with the source of print I reckon, and therefore can be done with once-off quantities as desired, at any time.

Seanie.