Annual Reports
Annual Report 2011Support Our Work
Achievements and Performance - Part 5
Community Access Programme
Our Community Access Programme of events at the J.A. Jones Hoober Observatory between September and March attracted 402 visitors and a total income of £1008; whilst this is very good it should be noted that bookings for the same period were 540 - with full attendance nearly £300 more would have been received.
The Community Access Programme is a vital component in providing public benefit and is especially important in IYA2009, 327 of our visitors are from just 11 events between February and March. Forty of these were from a local cub group and forty from a St Thomas' C of E Junior & Infant's school. We have also had a customer celebrate her partner's birthday by booking the observatory for the evening to give him some quality observing time on our telescope together with our presentation.
The public enjoying our Community Access Programme
An article, in conjunction with a Society Press Release, in the local "Advertiser" newspaper generated a considerable interest in the words of our Chairman, "my phone never stopped ringing. We were over subscribed by about 50% of our capacity". The response to that one article brought in £448, a reminder that timely publicity is essential if we are to achieve the full potential of the events and services we provide.
Meeting Programme
The Society's Weekly meeting programme is a further major contributor to delivering public benefit and maintaining an enthusiastic and committed membership. The latest available data, for the calendar year 2008 shows average weekly attendance of 25 or a total for the year of 1,296 - both public visitors and members.
The programme consists of guest speakers with both amateur and professional backgrounds in astronomy and its associated sciences and our own member speakers who give presentations on their own topics of interest. The programme also incorporates video nights, quizzes and the increasingly popular annual Imaging Contest. Meetings also offer opportunities for members to socialise and exchange knowledge and ideas informally.
A selection of images from our meetings
The meeting programme consists of invited guest speakers who often charge only expenses or very modest fees; in the year ended March 31st 2009 speaker expenses totalled £345. The Society would like to record its gratitude to our guests in the previous year: Su Cartwright, Professor David Allan, Dr Simon Goodwin, Dr Alan Chapman, Paul Money, Lee Thompson, Thijs Kouwenhoven, Dr Ed Daw, and Rod Hine.
The Society also extends its thanks to our own member speakers including: Mark Benton, Vince Boulter, Andy Devey, Paul D'Silva, Gary Gawthrope, Rob Green, Mike Hall, Barry Jackson, Glenn Marsden, Les Marsden, Tony Morris, Phil Muffett, Mick Nicholls, and Phil Turner.
Website Development
The Society's new website (www.msas.org.uk) went live on December 1st 2008. The site was built using the Joomla! Content Management System (CMS); this has enabled the workload of maintaining and enhancing the website to be shared between several members and reduced the technical skill required of those editing online content. The new CMS allows for photographic and video content to be more readily incorporated in to the pages which allows us to provide a richer window on our work and services.
A booking system for our Community Access Programme events which integrates with Joomla! CMS is being developed; this will include on-line payment options using the PayPal payments system. It is hoped encouraging pre-payment will reduced lost revenue from visitors who cancel at short notice or simply fail to attend. It is expected that this system will be in place for the winter Community Access Programme events in September.
Accommodation
Our meeting room at Swinton Working Men's Club is rented at an annual cost of £600. In January 2009 the SWMC Committee informed us that they were seeking to double this to £1,200 per annum; this would have a serious impact on our running costs. Our signed rent agreement with SWMC limits rent increases to the rate of inflation however SWMC seem determined to ignore the agreement they freely entered in to. The trustees are urgently reviewing the Society's accommodation with a view to keeping operating costs at acceptable levels.
The J.A. Jones Hoober Observatory is built on land rented form Yorkshire Water Services Ltd. at a cost of £50 per annum; on March 27th 2009 Yorkshire Water Services Ltd. initiated a rent review which increased this to £75 per annum, this was agreed by the Executive Committee on March 30th 2009.
Strategic Aims and Future Plans
The primary aim of the Society in the short to medium term is to secure the necessary funding to implement the New Horizons project. In addition to the on-going fundraising initiatives further grant making programmes will be investigated and pursued.
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