-- Start log: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 9:10:03 pm ASI Meeting Server time -- 
Strangelv hopes his backslash typo doesn't impact anything
Strangelv hoeps he doesn't run out of quota Strangelv leaves. Strangelv-3
says, "MAy require a programmer bit?" Lunadyne says, "First up: Membership
report. A check shows us with 176 members, which IIRC is 1 more than the
last meeting." bnault says, "rollcall, no?" Lunadyne says, "So right. Roll
call!" Lunadyne says, "Here" pjbanyai says, "Here" bnault says, "here"
AlanSteinberg says, "here" Lunadyne says, "In comaprison, while out
membership has grown from 141 to 176 over the last year or so, I've seen
numbers indicating that NSS membership has declined from 9000 to 8000. "
Lunadyne says, "So we're at least headed in the right direction." Lunadyne
says, "Comments on membership?" Scottyg says, "here." Strangelv-3 says,
"Anything we can practically do to keep the NSS from implosion?" pjbanyai
says, "I don't know about NSS but we have almost 4000 likes on Facebook"
pjbanyai says, "3950 to be exact" Strangelv-3 says, "Offer a Facebook
membership incentive?" Lunadyne says, "They have a few initiatives in the
works. I think they're having issues with a graying membership, and they
don't know how to appeal to the kids." Lunadyne says, "re: Facebook. Over
the same time period we" AlanSteinberg says, "I'm not sure if we do any
better with youth appeal ... but I agree that going up in members is good"
Lunadyne says, "'ve gone from 3114 to 3950 likes. Until recently NSS had
about 4300 likes, but that has recently jumped above 6000." Lunadyne says,
"Alan, we are certainly trying. A new website will be good. Some projects
to work on would also be good." AlanSteinberg says, "i agree... web site is
important" Lunadyne says, "What I see as the main issue with kids is that
they like to associate, but not join. " Strangelv-3 says, "What's a
non-joining qouasi-membership we might offer?" Lunadyne says, "a Like on
Facebook?" Strangelv-3 says, "Somethitg more than that" Strangelv-3 says,
"Something that gets what e want out of a member or close to it"
Strangelv-3 would be doing this brainstorm better if he wasn't almost
completely asleep Lunadyne says, "A chance to work on a project, maybe?"
AlanSteinberg says, "for now I don't think we need to worry about
membership too much... so much else on our plate at the moment" Strangelv-3
says, "That could help. I'd also want them entered into TeamDirector"
AlanSteinberg says, "lets get all that other stuff resoved like the
website, 990, guidestar, etc" pjbanyai says, "NSS largest group
18-24,Islamabad, Most Popular city-Pakistan,most popular week-November 11,
2012. Ours is 25-44 years old; London, England, United Kingdom; August 19,
2012." Lunadyne says, "Unfortunately our Treasurer isn't here. Scotty, can
you report on the Treasury situation and getting the books updated?"
Lunadyne says, " I know that our 990-Ns are up to date." Lunadyne says,
"Paul, you indicated that you submitted the GuideStar stuff for processing.
Any update?" Scottyg says, "Yes. Other than that I haven't gotten any
updates from Dana." Scottyg says, "Our bank balance continues to climb
slowly." Lunadyne says, "Good." AlanSteinberg says, "sounds like our
biggest focus is still that elephant of a website" Lunadyne says, "It looks
like Peter is having issues logging in. Can anyone help him?" Lunadyne
says, "Agreed Alan. I wish Phil were here so we could get an update."
Lunadyne says, "Interestingly, Rice University found our website and asked
if we could post a notice about their new Master of Space Studies program
there." pjbanyai says, "Our profile is now active and public. I am now
looking into seting up the other accounts." AlanSteinberg says, "i'm not
suprised since we publicised their masters on our FB" Lunadyne says, "I
think it would be helpful for the new website to have a "Scholarship" pager
where we highlight space study programs in the U.S. and around the world."
Lunadyne says, "Alan, I put that up after I heard from them." AlanSteinberg
says, "ah... gotcah" Lunadyne says, "We could also highlight funding
opportunities, internships like LPI and NASA Academy, and so on."
AlanSteinberg says, ""listing the academic space programs wouldn't hurt,
ideally we could start working on MOUs with them"" Lunadyne says,
"Essentially, showing the rich diversity of ways to study space stuff."
Lunadyne says, "What would the MOUs cover? We certainly don't need their
permission to link to them." pjbanyai says, "Amazon tax exampt requirements
are at https://www.amazon.com/gp/taxExemption/" Lunadyne says, "Scotty, do
we have a TX valid tax exemption certificate? I'm assuming that's with the
Treasury stuff." AlanSteinberg says, "at this point it would just be a way
to start a relationship, ask them to link to us, co-advertise, things like
that" Scottyg says, "Ken - yes." Lunadyne says, "I do want to get the
Amazon thing worked out quickly, as when I put a book up on our Facebook
page, I want the link to have our Amazon account # in it." Lunadyne says,
"Scotty, can you e-mail that to me?" Lunadyne says, "Also, when we get the
new website up, I want a page of Amazon links for Moon books." Lunadyne
says, "Another way to generate cash flows from Moon stuff. Plus, when we
get the Amazon account set up we can start selling theme MMMs for the
Kindle." Lunadyne says, "So we're most of the way there. " Lunadyne says,
"Anyone heard any scuttlebutt on Golden Spike?" Rose/Miros has arrived.
Lunadyne says, "Hi Rose!" Rose/Miros says, "hi" Lunadyne says, "We were
just discussing the website." Rose/Miros says, "sorry, phone" Chard arrives
in cloud of smoke. Chard says, "hi all, I'm still working but am here"
Lunadyne says, "Welcome Jason!" Lunadyne says, "Well, we seem to have hit a
stall, and frankly I'm a bit distracted this evening. I got a weird call
from SMU today. As y'all know, I'm a volunteer judge at the local Science
Fair. They called today to let me know that my former employer (and an
underwriter of the event) requested that I not be permitted to judge in
February." AlanSteinberg says, "did they say why? " Lunadyne says, "Nope.
The person who made the call wasn't given any information." AlanSteinberg
says, "oh well, one less commitment you have to worry about ;)" Lunadyne
says, "I'm, frankly, livid. I of course have to grin and bear it, as I
won't do anything that jeopardizes the Science Fair funding. But as a
private citizen I really, really do not like people I have no association
with dictating what I can and can't do." Lunadyne says, "I'll probably end
up judging over in Fort Worth instead." Strangelv-3 says, "Is someone at
your former employer actively seeking to sabotage you?" Lunadyne says, "If
so I have no idea who." Lunadyne says, "Or why." Lunadyne says,
"Interestingly, the folks at the Science Fair do like me, so I may end up
with a Science Outreach Coordinator position or something similar at SMU."
Lunadyne says, "It's just bizarre, and it has totally thrown me for a
loop." Lunadyne says, "Anyway, back to the meeting. When Rose gets back we
can talk more about the website. Anyone up for some brainstorming for the
2013 ISDC track - Lunar Lava Tubes?" Strangelv-3 has an ayirlock concept he
needs to get around to modellinfg one of these years; does that count?
Lunadyne says, "Can you have it ready by May?" Strangelv-3 says, "Tunnel
for a shallow grade in a U or parabolic shape with rail, possibly heap
rail, leading to the airlock" Strangelv-3 says, "I can make no such
gurantee" Lunadyne says, "GRAIL just released some interesting data, so we
may be able to get them to speak again." Strangelv-3 says, "Sorry" Lunadyne
says, "We may also be able to talk the ILRP folks in Hawai'i to do a talk."
pjbanyai says, "Is there any info about us becoming a more active
participant in ILRP." Lunadyne says, "I don't have any at this time. I know
we discussed this previously, but were having a hard time figuring out how
exactly to do so (other than by throwing money we don't have at them)."
Lunadyne says, "That being said, I think it was at the ILRP conference
earlier this year that the Golden Spike project was first hinted at."
pjbanyai says, "It is the closest thing to the old Artemis Project and if
we made it an official project we could possibly replace the old Artemis
Project posters with a new ILRP poster." Lunadyne says, "Ah yes, the
Artemis posters. Peter left a box of 500 with me once, and it took a couple
years to duistribute all of them. But I did!" bnault has disconnected.
Strangelv-3 says, "Need to geh you some more sometime" AlanSteinberg says,
"sorry, i've got to run... got a project I've got to get done tonight"
Strangelv-3 waves. Strangelv-3 says, "The main thingc I can think of that I
can contribute befole I stop pretending to be awake is that Roes and Dana
successfully tested a connection between Drupal and TeamDirector"
AlanSteinberg has disconnected. Lunadyne says, "Excellent James! That is
good news." Lunadyne says, "People do need to be working on their wish
lists for the new website." Strangelv-3 says, "Wishlist: works just fine
without Flash and with javascript disabled" Rose/Miros says, "no, we found
the framework for a drupal module that we are 90% certain can be made to
interface with team dir" Strangelv-3 says, "Works just finde with HTML 4
level browsers" Lunadyne says, "Close enough. What other updates do you
have?" Rose/Miros says, "if you go to moon.lunarpedia.org and "log in" with
an email addy and any password,it will create a newaccount" Rose/Miros
says, "warning,i will be deleting any "test" accounts of this type" The
housekeeper arrives to cart bnault off to bed. Scottyg says, "Ken, I'm
still looking for the tax-exempt notification letter from the state." The
housekeeper arrives to cart AlanSteinberg off to bed. Lunadyne says, "Rose,
have y'all started looking at the structure of the new website?" pjbanyai
says, "The Board team page has a copy of the letter requesting state
exemption but no reply." Rose/Miros says, "vaguely" Rose/Miros says, "your
framework makes sense, but what makes sense before you start often hits
snags while you're working on it" Rose/Miros says, "can i clarify
something?" Lunadyne says, "Please." Rose/Miros says, "we want a "pretty"
website, and that's what people will see when they go to moonsociety.org"
Rose/Miros says, "IF we decide to keep the busy cluttered "main page" it
will be somewhere in the "working" area of the site" Rose/Miros says, "so
far, the only reason isee to keep it isfor the rss readers" Rose/Miros
says, "people do read the rss feeds on it, but it doesn't need to be the
actual main page" Rose/Miros says, "they can just bookmark it" Rose/Miros
says, "cool with that?" Lunadyne says, "Suggestion? Would it be possible to
have a one or two line box somewhere unobtrusive on the front page that
would cycle through RSS feeds?" Rose/Miros says, "hm, will look into it"
Rose/Miros says, "might not be compatible with james' wishlist, but
depending on what kind of gadget i use, i can probably force it to leave
ablank space where the non-functional feed reader would be with a
higherlevel browser" Rose/Miros says, "i.e. it might need to be javascript
or flash or whatever" Lunadyne says, "Is there a rough timeline of what
should be done when?" Chard says, "cool with that" Rose/Miros says, "no
timeline" Rose/Miros says, "unfortunately, i have no heat and my mouse died
today, hope it's just batteries" Rose/Miros says, "so it's difficult to
concentrate to work on it" Lunadyne says, "Okay. Hopefully the 6/30/2013
launch date still WORKS?" Rose/Miros says, "it should" Lunadyne says,
"Sorry for the yelling." Rose/Miros says, "np" Rose/Miros says, "i've
looked a couple times and i can'tfind anrss readerfor drupal, i'll askmy
friend who's actually involved in drupal development" Lunadyne says, "That
would seem to be a curious omission." Rose/Miros says, "especially since
creating rss feeds is part of the base drupal install" Rose/Miros says,
"and one of the things that draws spammers; i turned both rss feed and
anonymous commenting off on my personal site because i kept getting the
almost not quite obvious spam about the rss feed" Lunadyne says, "My
favorite are the spam praising the site while linking to god-knows-what."
Rose/Miros says, "yeah, i had those too" pjbanyai says, "
http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/exempt/ --- Our info
http://aixtcp.cpa.state.tx.us/exemptorgs/address.php?tp_id=17528950144 ---
info on sales and purchases
http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx96_122.pdf" Rose/Miros
says, "i actually have one hanging in the approval queue because it's the
spammer type phrasing but no links, not even the ones with no text"
Lunadyne says, "Thanks Paul. I'm printing it out and will scan a pdf. I do
need to sign into Amazon with the TMS account rather than my Lunar Library
account." Lunadyne says, "Maybe we should add this to our corporate
documents section." pjbanyai says, "I think Amazon wants a copy of
http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/01-339.pdf filled out. That
is the certificate unless we have an official one sent by the State which
is already filled out with some of the info." bnault has arrived. bnault
says, "what happened? lost my connection...still had internet but no
MOO///" bnault says, "anyone here?" Lunadyne says, "Yes Ben" bnault says,
"ah!" Chard says, "mhm" bnault says, "did anyone else get quicked off MOO?"
Lunadyne says, "Not that I know of." Lunadyne says, "Paul, I don't think
that's the form they want. I'm going to go with
http://aixtcp.cpa.state.tx.us/exemptorgs/address.php?tp_id=17528950144,
which seems to have the appropriate language." bnault says, "well, sorry
about that." Lunadyne says, "I doubt it's your fault, Ben." bnault says,
"Peter sent an email saying he can't connect..." Lunadyne says, "We covered
a bit of the website, and were just discussing tax-exempt docs for Amazon."
Rose/Miros says, "we all get booted from time to time, you just "reconnect"
and it's fine" bnault says, "for a while I thought my entire network went
down, another computer here also had internet issues" Rose/Miros says, "if
i can't hit the internet and the tv has decompression errors, i just blame
time-warner" Lunadyne says, "Approaching the end of the meeting, are there
other issues folks would like to address?" Lunadyne says, "There being no
further business, let's call it a wrap." Lunadyne says, "Not sure if we
still have a quorum, but do we have a motion to adjourn?" bnault says,
"motion to adjourn" Lunadyne says, "Second. In favor?" pjbanyai says, "I
have been looking into the state law code and how it affects the bylaws."
bnault says, "aye" Lunadyne says, "Aye" Lunadyne says, "What are you
seeing, Paul?" pjbanyai says, "There was a complete overhaul in 2010"
pjbanyai says, "For exmple they now define directors as any member of the
board including exoficio." pjbanyai says, "A non voting exoficio director
is simply exempt from the state mandated duties and liabilities of a
director. They are still held to those attached to membership in the
board." Scottyg says, "aye" pjbanyai says, "So Scotty and Rose as exoficio
members of the Board are actually recognized as Non-voting Appointed
Directors." pjbanyai says, "So they do count as voting members of the
Management Committee." Lunadyne says, "Interesting. " pjbanyai says, "So
Scotty your "aye" is official even if you were not acting in place of Dana.
Since our Bylaws have a double definition of voting members of the MC.
Since it defines the voting members as all directors and all officers.
While all officers are also directors." Scottyg says, "I'm not sure aabout
all officers are also Directors. That is a default of the Texas BOC unless
otherwise provided by the Bylaws IIRC." Scottyg says, "And I think the
Bylaws say otherwise." Rose/Miros says, "so the texas changes actually fix
our bylaws,but we probably should rewrite anyhow to ensure everyt hing
agrees?" pjbanyai says, "The bylaws say all officers are exoficio members.
If they did not or said only certain officers were exofficio it would be
different." Scottyg says, "Well, in any case the Bylaws says all officers
and directors are voting members of the management committee. It doesn't
distinguish between elected and appointed officers." pjbanyai says, "State
law says that new officer positions can be added as needed so they do not
necessarily need to be mentioned in the bylaws. " Rose/Miros says,
"something spacerelated: did anyone see the composite night view of the
earth?" bnault has disconnected. Lunadyne says, "I did. Don't like it. What
a waste of electricity that we have to pay for." Rose/Miros says, "there's
also public safety issues" Rose/Miros says, "although i think some parking
lots are lit too brightly" Lunadyne says, "Safety issues can be addressed
with proper lighting (big fan of Int'l Dark-Skies). Paying money to shine
light into space is just stupid." The housekeeper arrives to cart bnault
off to bed. pjbanyai says, "
http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2012/satelliterev.jpg Egypt's
Nile River is a large solid bright spot of light." Lunadyne says, "Aren't
those fishing boats? Or am I thinking of Japan?" Rose/Miros says, "the
river is the only liveable area" pjbanyai says, "Ken I found the state
Certificate of Account Status at
https://ourcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/servlet/cpa.app.coa.CoaLetter" pjbanyai
says, "Correction https://ourcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/Index.html with Tax-ID
17528950144" Lunadyne says, "Got it. Thanks Paul." Scottyg says, "I think
there is a form we need to file with the state. Its a public information
form listing address, directors, officers, etc. Has to be filed at least
every 4 years and we last filed it in 2008. Its actually past due." Scottyg
says, "Ran across it while looking for the tax-exempt notification letter."
pjbanyai says, "We only have to file when the state sends a request for it.
However we can still file a voluntary one as well. We will just have to
file again when the state sends the oficial request." Lunadyne says, "Why
would they have not notified us if it was expiring? Huh." Scottyg says, "I
dunno Ken. Texas is usually pretty good about such things but I don't think
they are required to send notices." Chard has disconnected. pjbanyai says, "
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/nonprofitfaqs.shtml#NCPR" The housekeeper
arrives to cart Chard off to bed. PhilipC has arrived. PhilipC says, "looks
like I missed the meeting. " PhilipC goes South. pjbanyai says, "A
nonprofit corporation is required by law to file an informational report
not more than once every four years upon request by the secretary of state.
The report provides information regarding the corporations registered agent
and registered office, and the names and addresses of its current officers
and directors, and is required regardless of the corporations tax status.
Once requested, the report must be completed and filed with the secretary
of state to avoid involuntary termination of a domestic corporation or
revocation of the registration of a foreign corporation. Although a
nonprofit corporation is not required to notify the secretary of state of
changes to officer or director information at the time of the change, a
nonprofit corporation may file a periodic report even if the secretary of
state has not asked for one. However, filing a voluntary report does not
affect your duty to timely file a report when one is requested by the
secretary of state.! " PhilipC has arrived. PhilipC says, "recorder"
PhilipC says, "read recorder" Scottyg says, "Ok, bedtime for me. See ya'll
next time." pjbanyai says, "Hi Philip Type "play current on recorder""
Scottyg has disconnected. PhilipC says, "read back about 50 lines. the
recorder is still active" The housekeeper arrives to cart Scottyg off to
bed. PhilipC says, "had a rough week. both of my parents were admitted to a
hospital and are now in a nursing home. " PhilipC says, "been distracted "
Lunadyne says, "Yikes!" PhilipC says, "it's been a never ending drama since
before thanksgiving" Lunadyne says, "An understandable distraction."
Lunadyne says, "Nothing major covered tonite. We're getting close to having
everything we need for Amazon, Rose gave us an update on the website, and
we added one new member since the last meeting." PhilipC says, "that's
good. " PhilipC says, "the web committee needs to finish our assessment of
our capabilities and then the fun really starts" PhilipC says, "was there
anything in particular that we needed to accomplish (other than upgrade the
website)?" Rose/Miros says, "we clarified the "vision" for the website"
Rose/Miros says, "the front page will be a "pretty"website with supporting
pages" Rose/Miros says, "we MAY OR MAY NOT support thecurrentfrontpage as
aninterior page since people like to readthe rss feedsfrom there" Lunadyne
says, "Phil, I'm not authorized to control the recorder. I've tried."
Lunadyne says, "It should just be 'Stop Recorder'" 
Rose/Miros says,
"we have the framework for a drupal module that we can probably use to
connect to team dir"
-- End log: Thursday, December 6, 2012 12:28:25 am ASI Meeting Server time --