Thanks, Leah, for your advice. Hope to see you at the next Meeting of the
MInds. Sam
-----Original Message-----
From: Leah S <lphxaz@xxxxxxxxx>
To: pasmembers <pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wed, Jan 11, 2017 6:10 am
Subject: [pasmembers] Re: Minority membership-
Sam wrote: "We are the Phoenix Astronomical Society, and yet our minority
membership is very minimal. It would be great if we could attract more
minority amateur astronomers. Any ideas are welcome."
actually - PAS does a lot of outreach and public events, including
events that are attended by the wider public, such as the DBG events and
star parties at public schools - i.e. not just our events at PVCC. and at
all our events, we are friendly and welcoming to people of all races and
origins. I want to add, btw, that we have a lot more public events than
the other astronomy clubs in the area.
but as Paul pointed out, the low representation of "minorities" is
not just a problem of PAS, i.e. it is apparently common in all astronomy
clubs. so it's not as if there are a lot of "minority amateur
astronomers" out there that we are failing to attract. the question isn't
"why aren't the minority amateur astronomers joining PAS" but: why aren't
more "minority" people involved in astronomy to begin with, and what can
we as an astronomy club do about it?
I can think of several factors that affect this situation.
1. expense - it is quite possible that the smaller number of
"minority" amateur astronomers is influenced by the perceived expense of
the hobby, and the fact that in general this is a lower-income sector of
the population. one of the most frequent questions we get at the PAS
"astronomy questions" link is: "I/we/my kids are starting to become
interested in astronomy, so we want to know what kind of telescope to
buy." the point here is that people assume that if someone is interested
in astronomy, the first thing they need to do is to go out and buy a
telescope. and of course that's not the case. as the "answer person"
for PAS "astronomy questions", my advice to people is always: don't rush
to buy a telescope. you can come to our star parties and get a guided
tour through *our* telescopes for free. instead - get a good guidebook
like "Nightwatch" (available at the public library) and get to know the
night sky with the naked eye and any binoculars that you have around the
house. (eventually the person might want to get their own telescope, but
they don't need to do it as a *first* step.)
but, even coming to our star parties might be a problem for
low-income families, who might not own a car, or for whom the expense of
driving to PVCC might be difficult. so this is something that we should
also address.
2. level of enthusiasm - as you can see from the size of our club
compared to the size of the population of Phoenix, unfortunately not
everyone is enthusiastic about astronomy. (I see this in my own family -
all of whom are intelligent and educated, but they just aren't interested
in astronomy! go figure!)
if we want to encourage people to become interested in astronomy, I
think our efforts would be best focused on kids rather than grown-ups, for
several reasons -
a) the kids have more potential than grown-ups for becoming
enthusiastic about something,
b) the kids have more potential for the future - if we can get them
interested in astronomy, it can really influence their whole future - by
getting them to be interested in science, giving them motivation to
succeed in school, getting them to read more, etc.
c) the kids have more potential for getting their parents interested
in astronomy. (i.e. the parents might not bother on their own, but if
their kid wants to go to a star party - how can they refuse?)
d) the kids are more accessible - we can reach them via their
teachers, by offering to do more star parties in schools with a large
"minority" population. right now we do star parties for teachers who
request it, but if we want to reach more kids, we should reach out and
contact the schools ourselves.
but then the question is how to *maintain* that enthusiasm. for a
lot of people, after they've participated in a star party once, it's "been
there, done that". so we might want to partner with the teachers to find
ways to maintain the enthusiasm, e.g. to find projects that the kids can
do after the star party, and to mentor kids who want to continue
participating in astronomy.
this is an important point, so let me emphasize it - we are talking
about two facets. one is the exposure: doing a star party at a school
will expose the kids to the beauty of astronomy. still, for most of them
it will be a one-time event. however, there might be one or two kids in
each school who would welcome the opportunity to *continue* with astronomy
- but we've already done our star party and gone home. we need to be
available to encourage and mentor any kids who want to continue with the
hobby. this is something that can change a kid's life. he/she might not
become a professional astronomer, but this hobby can start a lifelong
interest in science that will improve their future career prospects.
Alex's idea of a lecture about minority scientists is a good idea,
and it might be well-attended, but I don't think it would have long
lasting effects. we need projects that kids can *continue* with, and we
need to help them continue.
just my 2 cents. :)
On 1/9/2017 5:12 AM, PAUL MALEY (Redacted sender pdmaley for DMARC) wrote:
All:
Minority membership was a topic I was going to suggest for the
"Meeting of the Minds" but had to cancel out at the last
minute. Having been in IOTA for more than 40 years we have
struggled with this same concern. In that period of time there have
been no Hispanic and just one African American female members. In
fact, the astronomy clubs I have been a member of has had virtually
nil to a tiny number of minority members most of whom as I recall
were temporary. As the US population demographics continues to move
in that direction I highly suggest that the traditional Caucasian
membership issue be seriously considered. This has also included a
small female demographic which should also be expanded but
the main issue is the lack of Hispanic, African American and Asian
constituency.
Having also worked at NASA for 4 decades starting with Apollo, I had
no idea about the minority women participation as was depicted
in "Hidden Figures". You can see that this long term problem
extends itself throughout society and it should be addressed. Only a
concerted outreach will begin to work at solving it.
Paul
Paul D. Maley email: pdmaley@xxxxxxxxx
From: "dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx"
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, January 8, 2017 8:14 PM
Subject: [pasmembers] 2 new astronomy movies
Dear PAS members, 2 weeks ago Mike, Paul Facuna, Vera,
Frank and I saw the movie "Passengers". It was a good Sci
Fi flick. I saw it again recently in 3D and it is even
better. At Camelview Harkins tonight they had the movie
prop of the suspended animation chamber used in the
actual movie, in the lobby.
Vera and I just saw the movie Hidden Figures. It
was excellent, showing the early successes and
failures of NASA over 50 years ago. The story of how
minority women played an important part in the trajectory
and reentry computing was incredible and something that
was new to me. We are the Phoenix Astronomical Society,
and yet our minority membership is very minimal. It would
be great if we could attract more minority amateur
astronomers. Any ideas are welcome. Have fun
seeing the above 2 movies if you get a chance. Sam Insana
PAS President.
