Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Someone did actually make this suggestion before the proposals were put together. The problem is a gradually changing membership fee would be complex to implement.
Another factor behind this and other changes is the complexity of the existing BAA membership structure. There are currently 16 categories of membership, that split into 26 categories for administration purposes with the overseas rates. The configurations of these different membership types leads to a lot of behind the scenes complexity, both for staff and the IT systems. We get them working, but it has led to a variety of mistakes and complaints, as well as expense to get things fixed. This is not the primary reason behind this and other proposed changes, but the complexity of running the BAA is a consideration.
The proposed change to how Affiliated Societies work would potentially open this up to more Societies. The ‘free’ items will be things like being able to include an affiliated to the BAA logo, articles about the Societies in the Journal, and possibly a discount on events and the shop.
In the year to 31st March 2023, the BAA spent £259,467, with an income of £132,632. The net reduction to the BAA cash and investments was £140,976, while I expect other years will see increases as long as we continue to receive legacies.
I see every indication the BAA takes great care of its finances. The reason the BAA spends so much is because it is a very busy Association. There are the Journal and Handbook, meetings and events of various kinds, the website, archives and a lot of smaller items on the accounts.
I should emphasize, the ending of new Honorary members is part of a proposal to rebalance how the subscription income is paid over time, not to change the total subscription revenue, which is reviewed by the Treasurer each year.
This is intended as a discussion, so maybe retaining Honorary members is the right thing. However, my opinion is it is a good idea to rebalance the membership structure. Related to this, only around 5% of BAA members are under 50.
These are from the total figures in the accounts available on the website.
https://britastro.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/BAA-2023-Financial-Statements.pdf
My point was we cannot entirely rely on the reserves. Some years they will go up and other years they go down.
The underlying goal here is to try to reach a fairer subscription level across the age groups.Hi Tony,
The point of the consultation is to ask member opinions before a final decision is made.
While the BAA has good reserves, the annual expenditure is a bit over twice the income received in subscription revenue. The shortfall is made up from legacies and taking money out of the BAA’s investments and bank accounts. The value of the investments and bank reserves fell by just under 10% from 2022 to 2023, a little over the amount that was removed to cover the shortfall in operating costs.
To reach a target revenue from the membership subscriptions, the non-Honorary members have to pay a higher membership price. Around 10% of the membership are Honorary members.
The idea is to send members a certificate to commemorate the achievement of reaching 50 years of membership. Any existing Honorary members will remain as Honorary.
Best wishes,
AndyWe have received another query about how to purchase the calendar on the website. It is available in the BAA online shop:
Publications -> Buy
You can get to it directly from this link:
https://britishastro.square.site/product/baa-2024-astronomical-calendar/23
Andy
Hi Phil,
You are very welcome to them.
I have not used them in several years and that is a waste. I am happy for them to go to anyone who can make use of them.
I will try sending you a personal message via the website.
AndyHi Roy,
Pauline is talking about the physical calendar for sale in the BAA shop, not the online calendar.
https://britishastro.square.site/product/baa-2024-astronomical-calendar/23
I have noted your comment about the online calendar for the website developer to investigate.
AndyHi Ayesha,
As per my above post, anyone with a missing Journal should contact the BAA Office at:
https://britastro.org/home/about-us/contact-us
Best wishes,
AndyHi Maxim,
You should contact the BAA Office.
https://britastro.org/home/about-us/contact-us
I would add that there are ongoing investigations to ensure we fully understand what has gone wrong so that it can be avoided in future.
Best wishes,
AndyHi Kevin,
Another couple of other free options are:
MuniPack – https://c-munipack.sourceforge.net/
MetroPSF – https://github.com/blackhaz/MetroPSFThe advantage of these is they can produce output files of the photometry ready for uploading to the BAA Photometry Database. If you ultimately wish to submit to the BAA database then that is a distinct advantage. You can also do this with AstroImageJ and AIP4Win, though you have to use these in combination with the BAA Photometry Spreadsheet and that requires an Excel license.
Cheers,
AndyI believe there are differing opinions on the entire purpose of the ballot. While ideally there would be multiple candidates for each position, the vote could be considered an affirmation of the candidates to their positions by the membership, even when there are no other candidates.
There are also issues with the BAA being a charity where the Trustees take ultimate responsibility for the governance. There needs to be a formal process for appointing Trustees. A ballot is an excellent and transparent way to accomplish this.
There is the separate question of whether to hold a postal ballot or just digital. The postal ballot accounts for around half the cost but only around 2% of eligible members vote this way.
On a side topic. While the turn out is low, I am not convinced it is shockingly low for a membership organisation. A little over 22% of eligible members voted this year. This compares to 67% in the 2019 UK general election and 36% in the 2021 English local elections.
I have now added the link to Ian Sharp’s talk (PCEB Variables and a Medley of Software Tools). He kindly made a fresh recording of his talk after it did not work on the day.
https://britastro.org/event/variable-star-section-meeting-2
Andy
Hi Patrick,
We don’t have a way to offer gift subscriptions via the online form. However, if you contact the BAA Office at the below link they can probably help you with this.
The problem is the membership is linked to the email address used to join. That means we cannot easily do this as a future dated surprise. As soon as the Office create the membership, the person will receive the welcome email. That is also why they cannot be easily done online, as you create a membership associated with the email address you use to create the account when you join.
https://britastro.org/home/about-us/contact-us
Best wishes,
AndyI am pleased to report that we were able to record most of the presentations. We did not announce this in advance as we were trying something new and we were not sure it would work. There are problems with at least a couple of the recordings but it appears to have worked for the majority.
I will be uploading them to the BAA YouTube channel, but due to other commitments I won’t be able to complete the editing and make them live until the last week in September.
AndyI am travelling to the meeting by coach. National Express have a drop off point in the town centre.
Best wishes,
AndyPublishing interim lists of nominees is an interesting idea. I have my doubts it would encourage many additional people to stand, but you never know.
As pointed out by James, the cost of the election is likely to be the same whether there is one or many more candidates than positions to be filled. If we find ourselves in a position where the number of nominees matches the number of positions for each role, then it would be sensible to consider whether an election should be held.
Looking back over recent ballots, only one person has stood for each of the key Officer roles. However, until the last couple of years there have been more members standing than there were positions to fill for both the Trustees and Council. In 2021 there were 6 members standing for the 5 Trustee positions. Going back to 2018 there were 10 candidates for the 5 Trustee positions and 14 for the 5 Council positions.
Combined with a lack of a volunteer to stand as the Meetings Secretary, this is a concerning decline in members standing for Council, Trustee and Officer positions. I wonder if this could be related to the lack of opportunities for informal chats at events during the pandemic, or if this is due to other factors that will continue the trend.
A final thought. It would be great to include any suggestions and concerns in the latest BAA survey. I have already used it to give some anonymous suggestions.
https://britastro.org/2023/help-shape-the-future-of-our-association
Andy
Thanks for the heads up Bill.
My plan is to travel up the day before. Fingers crossed there will be still be some trains running on Friday.
Andy
Hi Kevin,
A field flattener should work fine for photometry. There is a chance it might improve your photometry if it reduces any distortions in stars towards the edge of your field of view. Though the effect is probably going to be negligible.
If it is the one on the FLO website, then it also acts as a x0.8 focal reducer, so your focal length goes from 540mm (f/6) to 432mm (f/4.8). It would be a good idea to check the sky pixel size of this setup, though in all probability this will be about whether or not you bin the pixels.
Cheers,
AndyHi Kevin,
You are right to be wary of using a light pollution filter for photometry. These filters are designed to help imaging nebula.
Looking at the specification it has high transmission in the nebula emission lines and blocks common narrow band light pollution. In photometry, the magnitude you measure depends on which part of the spectrum you observe. So the magnitude measured through a filter like this could not be compared with other observers.
If you are just measuring the period of a variable target or looking for outbursts then this might be usable, but it may introduce problems.
Another point to consider, these filters are designed to boost contrast of targets that predominantly emit light in the nebula lines. This is unlikely to be much use for stars or asteroids as they tend to emit across the visible spectrum.
Best wishes,
Andy
