Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society Champaign, IL. 61820 Minutes of Officers meeting held on January 5th, 2011, 7pm Village Inn Pizza Parlor, Champaign, Illinois taken by Phil Wall, Acting Secretary The officers' meeting was preceded by food and beverage. Actual discussions started around 7:15PM. Attending: Dave Leake, President Chris Smith, Vice President Willard Brinegar, Treasurer Mike Conron, Fifth Director Phil Wall, webmaster, Acting Secretary - It was decided that the board would meet every three months. - Observatory needs were discussed, including the need to scrape paint and get rid of the desk. A table that could be stood on was suggested as a replacement for the desk. Also mentioned were that the shed is fixed and that the tree is still standing, albeit held up with cables. Dave wants to plan work days and prioritize ideas for work on the dome fork. - Willard mentioned that, as of the board meeting, 8 members have renewed for 2011. Current membership is believed to be around 40. We also briefly discussed why we stopped going to Taste of Champaign (the steep fee the park district charges: $50). - Dave went over the official CUAS by-laws and brought up several amendments, which we discussed. This was prompted by Phil's observation that our actual practice does not completely conform to the existing by-laws, and that if we are going to have by-laws, we should either conform to them, or change them so they reflect current practice. Dave intends to bring them up at the January general meeting and have them voted on the following meeting. Specifics will be published in the newsletter and on the website. - Dave mentioned that he will send the Night Sky Network login to all members, since NSN could be useful to us. - He also mentioned that he intends to have all meetings planned ahead of time and encourages members to come up with presentations, even short ones. - We also discussed whether to do more than the monthly openhouses (Family Skywatches) and the Middlefork skywatch this year. One possibility that Dave brought up is doing one at Homer Lake on May 28th, since we can now get permission to stay there after dark. He intends to bring it up at the January general meeting. There was more discussed than this, but I believe I got most of it. I apologize for any omissions or miss-statements. -- P.J.W.