Minutes of SETI League 2002 Annual Membership Meeting

Membership Services Department

Minutes of the Eighth Annual Membership Meeting
28 April 2002, The College of New Jersey

Call to Order
The meeting was convened at 1010 hours EST, at The College of New Jersey, Ewing NJ, by Executive Director Dr. H. Paul Shuch. Eighteen SETI League members in good standing present, out of a total membership of 1314. Our Bylaws requiring one percent of the current membership to be in attendance for the conduct of SETI League business, the above represents a quorum.
Minutes of 2001 Membership Meeting
The Minutes of the 2001 Membership Meeting were read by Secretary A. Heather Wood, having been previously posted to The SETI League's World Wide Web site. A motion was passed to accept the minutes as published.
Treasurer's Report
Presented by the Executive Director on behalf of Trustee Marty Schreiber, CPA (not present), covering the calendar year 2001 - not audited.
1. An unanticipated contribution of $40,000 was received from a charitable foundation. This gift has bolstered The SETI League's financial position. The bulk of this contribution was placed in short-term certificates of deposit.
2. An AAS Small Research Grant of $2,000 was received, and applied toward the VSA project.
3. A membership solicitation of funds to implement Array2k has yielded $10,000 in contributions.
4. End of 2001, SETI League account balances equalled $87,424. End of 2000 balance was $128,003. With total revenues of $187,233 and total expenses of $227,812, we finished the year with a $40,579 deficit.
5. The SETI League's 2000 Financial Statement has not yet been audited.
6. This report was accepted by those present.
Committee Reports
1. Hardware Committee
  No report.
2. Software Committee
  No report.
3. Legal Services Committee
  Report presented by chairman Steve Carver. The patent application previously filed for Array2k is pending. Some trademarks have been issued and are being serviced as the law requires. The Executive Director moved for a vote of thanks to Steve.
4. Membership Services Committee
  No report.
5. Awards Committee
  Report received from chairman David Ocame, read by the Executive Director. Twelve websites received SETI SuperStar awards. A Bruno award and the first Orville N. Greene Service Award were presented this year. Two new operating awards, the Extra-Terrestrial QSL Card and the Extra-Terrestrial Century Club, have been implemented.
6. Strategic Planning Committee
  Report delivered by chairman Allen Tough. The whole Committee met on Friday night, 26 April 2002. The following initiatives were discussed:
  1. Efforts to attract more papers from leading thinkers and scientists
  2. Attracting more readers to the website and other publications by covering news from the entire SETI field
  3. Development of a peer-reviewed web journal (Rob Lodder is working on the journal, provisionally called Contact In Context. Submission of papers for the first issue is encouraged by 1 July 2002.)
  4. Seeking commercial sponsors for conferences, newsletters, and website
  5. Launching a major fundraising campaign (It was agreed that Heather Wood would look into finding a fundraiser, possibly one who would work on percentage only. A Google search has brought up some possibilities.)
7. Internet Services Committee
  dormant.
8. Archives Committee
  Report delivered by the Executive Director:
  Chairman Steve Zarkos has reactivated email list archives on his new server. . We do not change the archived emails, as they constitute an historical record. The archives of our closed email lists are password-controlled.
9. Financial Committee
  We are still in need of a chairperson.
10. EME Committee
  Report delivered by chairman Dr. Allen Katz:
  The SETI League's 1296 MHz EME Beacon is in need of a more efficient antenna system. Allen is working with Richard Factor on this. The 2002 EME Conference (one of the largest ever held) will be in Prague in October. Allen will talk about SETI. Dr. Shuch will also attend, and will discuss the W2ETI EME beacon.
11. Optical SETI Committee
  No report.
12. Regional Coordinators
  Paul reported that we now have 62 active Volunteer Coordinators and several vacancies. He summarized their annual reports: they are writing papers, giving talks, translating SETI League material, maintaining regional websites, doing press interviews, and advising would-be Project Argus participants. Coordinators are now authorized to appoint their own Deputy Coordinators; volunteers were solicited.
  Three VolCors presented their reports in person:
  - Rob Lodder, reporting as VolCor for North Central US:
    He has been making SETI presentations at professional (educational and scientific) meetings, and needs to add our URL to his slides. He encourages others who give presentations to do the same. Although many scientific conferences forbid advertising, research sources are permitted. There was a front page article in his local paper.
  - Steve Carver, reporting as VolCor for South Central US:
    Has been demonstrating his Project Argus station to interested parties. Most ask UFO-related questions. Little local activity. It would be nice to get more people on the ham nets. The April QSO party coincided with terrible propagation conditions. For next year, maybe run different frequencies at different times. Thanks to Tom Sanders, Steve Carver, Richard Factor for taking part. It was noted that when the club callsign W2ETI is used, Richard should say "Operated by WA2IKL."
  - Allen Tough, reporting as VolCor for Central Canada:
    Little activity since the 2000 Canadian Regional Meeting.
13. Old Business
  1. A $2,000 small equipment grant was received from AAS. Paul has applied for $5,000 for Very Small Array front-end electronics. From the discretioinary budget, $10,000 has been allocated for the VSA.
  2. E-commerce: still using PayPal and Helping.org. Heather Wood noted that we are getting smaller checks from iGive and similar organizations.
  3. Paul Shuch has requested the Trustees to extend his appointment for another year, i.e., through 15 August 2004.
  4. SETICon02: 34 attended, up from 27 last year. We gained 11 new members. A promotional mailing to ARRL affiliates and others cost around $4,000 but produced little to no results. Allen Katz suggested that personal approaches to local ham clubs might help. Muriel Hykes pointed out that SETI is a rarefied interest. New member Joe Sesson suggested doing workshops at ham fests. Paul noted that we had had a booth at Tropical Hamboree and the return was negligible. Allen Katz suggested sharing a booth at AMSAT conferences.
14. New Business
  1. A Database Committee was formed, with Harry Kimball as Chairman. Harry will investigate making it possible to email renewals to lapsing members that contain all their information.
  2. There was discussion about sending the newsletter via email. The consensus seemed to be that people liked paper, but an email with the URL of the newsletter in .pdf format on the web would be a good idea.
  3. Allen Katz pointed out that conferences can be real moneymakers.
  4. Several committees are dormant or vacant: Paul solicited volunteers.
  5. SETICon03 - Same time and place next year. Inquiries will be made into having hands-on workshops (Allen Katz will know in January whether lab space will be available).
  6. Paul requested volunteers to fill the posts of Proceedings Editor, Publicity Chair, Prize Acquisition Chair, etc.
  7. Several people suggested that funding could be obtained from NSF for educational initiatives. Heather Wood pointed out that there was a problem in asking for funding for a project we might not be able to staff. She also said that we do not fit into most corporations' corporate giving guidelines (they want either educational or social service initiatives).
15. Good and Welfare
  Al Katz was thanked for his help in securing the Symposium's use of the TCNJ facilities. Members were thanked for their attendance and participation.
16. Adjournment
  The Annual Membership Meeting was adjourned by the Executive Director at 1151 hours EST on 28 April 2002. The annual Board of Trustees meeting followed at 1200 hours.

Respectfully submitted, A. Heather Wood, Secretary

See 2002 Annual Meeting Photos