The meeting was held at the new Boxford Community Center at 10 Elm Street in Boxford, as well as via Zoom. There were 25 participants (23 in-person and 2 on Zoom). A quorum of members was present, and the Business Meeting was official.

Guests and new club members were asked to introduce themselves:

Stephanie, new member from Hamilton
Peter from Lowell, who loves his telescope and brought his wife Nicky (who allegedly also loves Peter’s telescope), daughter Cindy, and grandson George

Officer Reports:

President – Kathi Freeman:

Kathi called for approval of the April Business Meeting Minutes, which were approved by acclamation.

Vice President – Justin Murray:

Justin reported no updates.

Treasurer – Ron Sampson:

Ron was unable to attend.

Secretary – Tolga Yazicioglu:

Tolga reported the exciting news that the Club’s Zoom Subscription was just renewed.

Membership Director – John Gall:

John reported that we currently have 116 active members, 8 of whom are honorary. We have 6 new members since our last meeting. There are currently 57 members who have not yet renewed. John will be following up with an email to entice them to rejoin.

At Large Board Members – Rob Braczyk & Rob Vincent:

Rob and Rob were unable to attend.

Collins Observatory at Salem State – Dennis Gudzevich:

Dennis provided an update on the Collins Observatory, which has a Meade LX200 12” ACF. The observatory is typically open on clear Mondays 7pm-10pm when school is in session.

Back on 12/1 the main gear on the winch for the observatory broke (again!). Dennis reported that the Observatory is still closed, and will remain closed until the repairs can be made. Trying to work through a solution; the school has no budget for repairs. Dennis has permission to pull the winch off and take home for further assessment; hoping to get back up and operational in September.

Star Parties – Brewster LaMacchia:

Brewster was unable to attend, but Justin noted that spring calendar for Star Parties has been posted on the website. There’s additionally a Lynn STEM night on May 21 530-730. Please sign up to volunteer if you can, either to bring a scope or just attend.

Julian noted the well attended recent event at Marblehead.

Scope Clinic – Bryan Stone & Ron Sampson:

If you have anything on your telescope that you need help with, or if you need help with your telescope, Bryan & Ron can assess your scope, making recommendations, and performing some minor repairs.

Bryan gave an overview of the scope clinic, noting that no job is too simple or too difficult unless they can’t do it. Bryan also noted that Ron is one of the world’s leading experts of SCTs. He also noted that the Scope Clinic has long been known as the ‘pride and joy’ of the club.

Old Business:

Lifetime Honorary Memberships

In February, a Motion was made, seconded, and Approved to provide honorary memberships for anyone who has been an NSAAC member for 30+ years (not required to be continuous). Let Kathi know if you qualify and would like to take advantage of the offer.

Active Committees

Let Kathi, any BoD member, or Member at Large know if you’d like to join any of the current Club Committees:

Telescope Sales Committee
No updates to report.
Young Astronomer’s Program
Justin provided an update on needing to work with the board to determine a budget for the program
Some discussion followed on the previous instantiation of YAP awarding 6” Dobsonians, and current manufacturers of similar telescopes
Marketing & Social Media Committee
Jon Freeman noted that the committee is getting warmed up, and the social media platforms are moving to a consistent email address
The committee is looking at Instagram and other social media platforms beyond just Facebook.
Stephanie (from Hamilton) noted that she’s interested in helping the committee

New Business:

May Board of Directors Meeting

Next Board Meeting is tentatively scheduled for Friday 08 April 8PM via Zoom. Reach out to Kathi if you’d like to attend.

Business Meeting was Adjourned by President Kathi Freeman at 7:48PM

Following the Business Meeting, we were joined by Dr. Rob Zellem for a presentation on life on exoplanets. Dr. Zellem is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. His research focuses on the characterization of the atmospheres of exoplanets using both the transit and direct imaging methods. He is a member of the Project Science Team for NASA’s Nancy grace roman Space Telescope, and is also a member of the Roman Coronagraph Project Science team where he led the development of the science calibration plan.

Respectfully Submitted,

Tolga Yazicioglu, Secretary

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