On Sun, 4 Apr 2004 04:45:14 -0700, Paul Dickson wrote in SAC-Announce: > At the meeting last Friday night, the main speaker went first. This was > different for the club. I'm trying to gather what everyone thought about > this temporary change. > > Please vote only if you attended the meeting. > > > Vote YES, if you prefer having the speaker first (but kept to an hour). > Vote NO, if you prefer the old way of the main speaker going last. Here are the results of the poll: 11 No votes 4 Yes votes I put forward the question because the increase in attendance at the meeting. If SAC doesn't increase its membership in the next year or two, having the speaker first may be a more palatable alternative to the death spiral of raising dues. If members leave early, who cares. At least they're members. Also, the next time we do the meeting this way, the guest introduction and the guest book being mentioned should come before the speaker, so those guest leaving early will know about it when the break comes. Here are the comments: No: ---- ...except in special cases like this one. The main speaker is the marquee event, and the show-and-tell is a natural "warmup act" for it. EVAC tried this approach under Silvio's presidency, and the meetings fell flat as a result. ---- I prefer the old way, speaker last. ---- We did not stay for the meeting afterward, and I suspect that if you changed to a speaker-first scenario, we would be sending you our dues each year to come in to watch the show. That's fun, but it's not what a "club" is about. ---- Not that I am opposed to change, but I prefer having the speaker go last. When the speaker goes first the room clears out and then not many participate in club business. ---- If the main speaker goes first it encourages members to leave after the presentation instead of staying for the rest of the club itinerary. I think this would contribute to a decline in the club. Sometimes, though, maybe the normal club business, such as show and tell, is too long. Maybe this could be shortened up a bit or maybe have some of the club business before the speaker and the rest after the speaker. For example, announcements and the rest of the club business could be before the speaker, and show and tell after the speaker. ---- I think that club business should come first--witness the reduced crowd size after the break last Friday. If members and guests are to enjoy the main event, they should also participate in the no less important "local" portion of each meeting. By placing club business first, attendees are more likely to sit through the entire meeting instead of bailing at the break. I bet if we had the main speaker first as a rule, after-break head counts would always be lower. ---- I suppose my reason is sometimes the lecture goes for more than 1 hour. My secondary reason is people may just come to see the speaker and not stay for Show and Tell, etc. My third reason is that it's good to expose professional astronomers to what SAC is doing for astronomy-- i.e. it's good for the speaker to see what our amateur astronomers are doing in the way of photography etc., to realize the work we are doing in public astronomy, to hear what's going on on the non-work side of astronomy. And all of our speakers have really enjoyed our club meeting. Thanks for making an opportunity to vote on this--good idea. ---- I appreciate you doing this. I wasn't able to make the meeting at 7:30pm last night, but WOULD have come later if the speaker had started ~ 8:30pm - this is often the case for me. So I vote NO - keep club business first and the speaker 2nd. ---- NO, keep club business short, and club member presos FIRST! ---- Yes: ---- I vote yes........ We should have the speaker first. ---- Yes, it was enjoyable doing it that way, but I'm not sure about *every* meeting. ---- Comments of just yes or no are presented here. -Paul P.S. Rick, you can use this for the newsletter.