BAA Radio Astronomy Group: Circular Volume 1 Number 4 published

Hello again - I hope that you have had a pleasant and relaxing summer break.

I am very pleased to announce that the RAG Circular 'Baseline' Volume 1 Number 4 is published on the web, in the usual place http://www.britastro.org/radio/

Once again I am very sorry for the long delay. Many excuses, it has been quite difficult this time to gather the necessary material on schedule, probably owing to the summer holidays. Some articles have not arrived, others have been deferred until the next issue as a result of unscheduled last-minute changes to the layout.

I have tried very hard to keep to the quarterly timetable, but this seems to be almost impossible! Anyway, I do hope that you enjoy the latest issue, which also contains the latest details of our forthcoming meeting at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge on September 23. I fully expect the paper copy to be on sale at the meeting (also the previous issues), and postal subscriptions will be fulfilled at about that time.

Group Officers
Karen Holland's business Xcam has taken much more of her time lately than expected because of increased orders (well done Karen!), and she has asked us to try to find an new Group Secretary. I am very grateful for the support which Karen has given to the Group from the first days nearly two years ago.

Without her unfailing administrative and VLF receiver efforts, we would not be so successful, well-organised and stable! So, I am asking if you would like to volunteer for this important role, and take over from Karen in the next couple of months.

This means, of course, that we URGENTLY need someone to write up the Cambridge meeting for the next Circular and BAA Journal.

In Karen's own words, these have been her duties:

Secretarial Duties
Dealing with membership enquiries, and adding new members' details to (MySQL) database
Posting out postal circulars, receiving postal subscriptions, and updating database accordingly.
Sending Circulars to the British Library and BAA Library (requirement of
ISSN registration)
Posting out paper versions of the electronic updates to paper subscribers
Organising the annual meeting (for 2005): hire of facilities, publicity, speaker booking, scheduling and travel arrangements and expenses, encouraging members' poster display etc etc
Writing up annual meeting reports and submitting to BAA journal and circular
Organising/hosting officers and technical meetings
Writing up minutes of technical meetings and summary for circular
Maintaining and improving a RAG group speaker list
Supporting group leader at BAA meetings on the stand (Winchester, MK, Exhibition), bringing and picking up demo kit
Giving talks to promote work of RAG group (3 given this year, 3 more booked)
Support of other projects (VLF production specifically, 151MHz summaries generated for circular and technical proposal)

In addition to her role as Secretary, Karen has been the Group Treasurer. So, we probably need another person to fill this role. It could be the same person as the Secretary, but in view of the increased activity of the Group, it may be wise if this were a separate person.

Treasurer Duties
Maintaining the Radio Astronomy Group bank accounts: deposits, withdrawals,
checking bank statements correct etc
Providing regular summaries of the accounts for group leader
Generating a financial report for the circular, and anyone who requests it

Before you dash off that email to volunteer, a slightly serious note if I may. Voluntary service is a commendable activity that only a few are prepared to undertake.

Volunteering is however not the end of the story, it is just the beginning. The people who benefit from such voluntary activity (our members) have come to expect a high standard of service, where the voluntary nature of the role becomes secondary.

The Group is developing a good reputation, and delivers quality wherever possible. Its officers behave in a professional manner, and having accepted the voluntary tasks then accept the responsibilities, deadlines and criticism when it is due. I suppose I am trying to say that if you wish to be involved, please make sure that you really do have enough time available to do a professional quality job which will be a credit to the Group. In return, we hope that this would be a long term commitment which you would find very rewarding.

As I have said before when publishing Circulars, we really do value your feedback. We now have nearly 200 people on the mailing list, but I have no way of knowing if you download the Circular and read it, since in reality I hear from maybe only 3% of the membership in each quarter.

We would like to know, so that we can be sure we are delivering the kind of material you like to read. A lot of effort goes into writing each issue, and the authors would like to know if they are 'hitting the mark'!  So please, just take a moment to drop me an email letting me know your thoughts.

Best wishes, and I hope to see you at the meeting on September 23.

Laurence Newell
RAG Coordinator

I will endeavour to reply to RAG emails within three days of receipt. This is not always possible, owing to considerable amounts of correspondence - please be patient!

Email: radiogroup@<nospam>btinternet.com

Latest news stories..

• Get our news headlines for your website • Submit your news story