The meeting was well attended by Bill, Patrick, Jeff B., James, John,
Jonathan, Gerry, Tim, Groff, Shannon, Dave, and three guests. The guests/potential new members
included Kevin Johnson and his wife Christina, and Jim Brock. Kevin and Christina are from Long
Beach and came down to our meeting because he couldn't find an active chapter in the LA area.
Kevin took a membership sign-up sheet so he might become new member. Jim is local and already a
Mars Society member.
MISSION SUPPORT
The meeting started with a discussion of Mission Support. Some newer members were unclear on
the job descriptions for Mission Support so that was explained as was a further description
of how Mission Support works.
Patrick will be posting these descriptions and will be making some modifications to the
sign-up sheet.
We decided to do some practicing before our stint at Mission Support. First, this Monday night,
December 16th at 8 pm, we will all go online to the MOO and do a discussion. This is intended
to familiarize people with MOO and get the chapter using MOO together. We will pick a date for
a dry run for Mission Support during the chat that night. The dry run, to take place closer
to our stint as Mission Support will entail somebody acting as the MDRS and sending messages
to other chapter members, who will be online acting as Mission Support crew.
Shannon reported on the Biology back room. Not much activity with it at this time as MDRS is
not doing biology right now.
ANNUAL CHAPTER PARTY
The first annual chapter dinner party is being moved to February 22, 2003, a Saturday. The
original date conflicted with Mission Support. Look for more details as the time gets nearer.
OUTREACH AND PUBLICITY
We agreed to have pictures taken at the next meeting on January 9, 2003. The pictures will be
for the bios associated with our Mission Support PR effort.
We decided to get a PO Box for snail mail. Jeff B. is looking into a PO Box near his home in
La Jolla. The PO Box will be in the La Jolla Village Mall area, so it is easily accessible to
other members.
Jeff also reported on the status of the Mars Society Week proclamation. We are having to
approach other council members for sponsorship.
We decided to invite the representative from Project ASTRO to come to our January meeting to
give us his "sales pitch" about our chapter volunteering for this project. Project ASTRO is
an organized volunteer project that places space-minded individuals in local schools (grades
4-9) to assist teachers in instructing students about space. Since we've long been interested
in getting our message into the schools we believed this would be a good opportunity for us.
Jonathan agreed to contact the representative about the January meeting.
Jeff B. agreed to be our contact for CONDOR and let them know we are available to do a panel
like last year and have members be on other panels. CONDOR takes place on Friday Feb. 28,
2003 through Sunday Mar. 2, 2003.
John reported on the Star Trek Nemesis opening in Bonsall and organized the members who will
be attending the event.
There is no progress to report on getting plans for the Mars suits used by the society at the
habitats. Shannon agreed to follow up on contacting the appropriate person about that.
We also began our planning for the 2003 Comic-Con. Our intent is to do 3 panels this year.
The usual 2 panels we do, plus a panel somehow associated with the Mars-related comic "The
League of Extra-ordinary Gentlemen." The comic is produced locally. Shannon agreed to get the
ball rolling with this by contacting the Comic-con programming people.
We discussed affiliation with other space groups. We liked Andrew's e-mailed idea about
membership in those groups that don't have chapters. Essentially a chapter member would join
the group and act as a liaison between our chapter and the other space group. In addition,
Gerry agreed to follow up with the Space Frontier Foundation about forming a chapter. If they
have decided against having chapters, then one of our members will join as an individual, or
as a chapter liaison and keep us informed, and facilitate cooperation.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Finally, we discussed the proposed mission statement. The consensus among most members was
to approve it, but this approval was tabled after further discussion revealed some
dissatisfaction with the revised statement because of its uninspiring quality. Dave will be
posting the revised statement again for the core group, along with the original statement for
thechapter to consider. Comments will be welcome again, as will suggestions for revision, and
suggested alternatives.
UPCOMING
More information on these events can be obtained through our
website.
Tonight is our outreach at the Bonsall opening of Star Trek: Nemesis.
Monday, December 16th, at 8 pm is our online chat using MOO to discuss Mission Support.
Next Friday, December 20th, at 7 pm is our monthly Mars Movie Night. This month's movie is the
MST3K version of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians".
Wednesday, January 1, 2003, at 630 pm is the next Stars in the Park event.
Thursday, January 9, 2003, at 7 pm is the next meeting.
Saturday, January 18, 2003, is the beginning of Mission Support.
CONCLUSION
I hope that fairly and accurately relates what happened at last night's meeting. As usual, if
anybody has anything to add, feel free to post it to the yahoogroups email as an addendum to
the minutes.
Here's to the red planet everybody. Let's make it ours!
-Dave Rankin
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