Just a couple of comments. First we should keep the calendar updated for
monthly star parties and the observing project including those that don't
have awards. Yes I would like for SAC to continue monthly star parties,
seems we have drifted away from this in the past and I'd like for us to get
back to this activity.
AJ Crayon
Phoenix, AZ..
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Poppre
Sent: Thursday, April 6, 2017 7:03 PM
To: sac-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [sac-board] Re: Greetings and Information
I was wondering if the website could have a web forum a la Cloudy Nights
but not so large. Maybe with members and non-members (visitors) posting
privileges. IMO that would be a better way to communicate and share
info/ideas than these freelists.
I also echo Tom¹s thanks for this effort.
Michael
On 4/5/17, 11:51 AM, "Tom Polakis" <sac-board-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on
behalf of tpolakis@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Bill Powell wrote:
Most of all I am interested in outdated material you want to see
removed and certainly any improvements you would like to see included on
the site.
Bill,
Thanks again for taking this on. I don't know how much feedback you have
received by private e-mail, but I prefer to communicate my thoughts
through
this forum. Maybe it will generate some discussion.
Just like I suggested that SAC should copy EVAC's electronic payment
method,
we should also benchmark from the sites of other clubs. Navigating EVAC's
site is easy, thanks to the pop-down menus at the top. Looking around at
other large club sites, most of them use that type of architecture.
Several
other large clubs to copy include:
Houston Astronomical Society - this club does everything well, including
their excellent Web site ( https://www.astronomyhouston.org/ ;).
Orange County Astronomers - L.A. area behemoth club with a pretty good
site
( https://www.ocastronomers.org/ ;).
Rose City Astronomers - Huge Portland club. Not such a wonderful site,
but
worth a look ( http://www.rosecityastronomers.net/ ;).
I'd like to see SAC's site prioritized in terms of what we do well: e.g.
monthly meetings, monthly club star parties*, public star parties. Other
high-priority items include observing programs and awards.
Back to navigation, "how to join" should be trivially easy to find in the
"About" pop-down.
I have a personal interest in the "club history" archive, since I put it
together, and it's currently buried at the end of the "Downloads" link. I
wonder if that entire Downloads link might be scrapped, with all of its
information better incorporated in a new "Observing Programs and Awards"
section.
On the front page: this year, we can take credit for "Over 40 Years of
Observing In Arizona."
What not to include: SAC is not very guilty of this, but some clubs pad
their sites and newsletters with generic astro news and images. There's
no
shortages of places to find this sort of content. Keep the SAC site and
newsletter as unique to SAC as possible. An excellent newsletter example
of
good content is Rick Rotramel's "Object of the Month," in which all of the
contributions are by club members.
Tom
*Separate discussion: does SAC want to continue having club star parties?
I
dropped the ball, and did not suggest dates for 2017.
