Astronomical society approval!

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

1 hour ago, Wanderers said:

Nasal hair resting on top lip - check

That is some seriously long nasal hair, why not plait it?

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

The only group requiring some kind of approval/test score I'm in is Mensa. 98% of people don't qualify for membership 

I failed the test, they suggested I try Densa. (98% bigger membership)

[vlaiv]

16 minutes ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

I failed the test, they suggested I try Densa. (98% bigger membership)

I also took their test once and "failed" (actually score was above maximum measured by their test). I decided to play "hard to get" and did not become a member (although they really wanted me to). True story.

[Franklin]

15 hours ago, Wanderers said:

then the committee decide on my suitability. 

Never heard of this before! Are you sure it's an astro club and not some kind of masonic order in disguise!

[Franklin]

The BEST astro club in the UK is right here on SGL.

[Franklin]

15 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Besides, I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member... 

LOL...... Groucho!

[Albir phil]

15 hours ago, Wanderers said:

My local society told me that if I want to attend I get 3 meetings and then the committee decide on my suitability. 

I'm 63 and well past that!

Is that normal? If so it's easy to see how people get put off. 

I would do the 3 meeting and then tell THEM they're not suitable 🤬

[wookie1965]

I went to my local society I had a EQ3-2 then with a 6" skywatcher Newtonian, I had a bit of trouble collimating the scope spoke to them and they said bring it up. So I turns up and one bloke looked and said collimation is spot on. A fella came up to me and said I have a EQ5 tripod you can buy I thought this is a great society.

Next time I went it was clear so I set up got Saturn in the FOV of my 8mm BST  couple of blokes looked through and were very impressed with the view asking what eyepiece I was using.

I paid to join didn't go for a couple of weeks as I was ill next time I went up it was raining so we sat in a big room 30 minutes not one person spoke to me I left.

Following week same again not one person said anything to me over 30 minutes I spent there they just sat in a huddle talking no video put on no talks so I walked out and I have never returned.

[iantaylor2uk]

I think to be fair, it seems as if you can attend 3 meetings, for free, without being a member and it is only if you want to attend any more meetings that you need to apply to be a member.

I would have thought that if any under 18s attend the meetings it is very sensible that the committee can decide whether to accept applications or not.

[Carbon Brush]

My 'local club member' story has some similarity to @wookie1965 experience.

I used to go to a society, having found them initially helpful. They identifed serious problems with my first reflector, a new OO scope.
They were not too far away, they had a good lecture every month and their own scope collection.
Sounds great, and initially it was good until...here are few examples.....

I turned up for a lecture evening to find the door locked, but the place obviously occupied. I rang the bell.
Someone came to let me in making some comment suggesting I was a lesser member due to not having a key.
This is a key issued after taking training to use their in house scope unsupervised. Something I had not bothered to do.

I failed to promptly renew membership. There was no email or postal reminder and I was a bit busy with house buy/sell/stress.
About 3 months later when the dust had settled I realised my omission and put a cheque in the post.
The secretary replied that membership was full and returned my cheque.
They were capping membership at the capacity of the lecture room. Does every membeer attend every lecture I wonder???
I was told that I was on the waiting list and would hear from them in due course. That was 2007 and I am still waiting. I still have the letter somewhere.

A little later I found there had been quite a few changes. Including electing a new chairman who didn't own a telescope and who had no interest in looking through one!
Over the next months/years I was told by my spy on the inside that they had admitted quite a few new members. Including the wife of the non-telescope owning chairman!
Where was my invitation I wondered? Lost in the post?

Needless to say I am not especially interested in pursuing this particular closed community.
These days I will talk about astronomy with anyone who will join in the conversation.
I lend out kit to newcomers, or others who wonder about that scope type/mount/eyepiece.
 

Edited February 20 by Carbon Brush

[iantaylor2uk]

That sounds more like the masons (sorry if I offend any masons on here but as it's a secret society no one is likely to admit to being a mason!).

[Gfamily]

1 hour ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

I failed the test, they suggested I try Densa. (98% bigger membership)

A mensa member would probably insist on telling you that it should be '4800% bigger membership'. 

A non member might have said 5000%

[Mr_Cat]

13 minutes ago, iantaylor2uk said:

That sounds more like the masons (sorry if I offend any masons on here but as it's a secret society no one is likely to admit to being a mason!).

Where I live the masons are a good bunch  - I've played at quite a few mason functions and quite often end up in the break or before we start chatting to some of the members and largely they seem quite normal..

We held at funeral for a good mate at the masonic hall last year and they re-arranged a lodge meeting as our mate had been a rock guitarist and we wanted to put live music on. 

On the flip side... When I was selling my POS Jessops scope on facebook one of the Astronomy club member took it upon them selves to message me telling me I that they weren't interested in the scope but I should come along to the astronomy society for advice..  Not a beer, not a chat, not to see the observatory etc - specifically to give me advice

So, the freemasons I can drink beer with, the astronomy society want to give me advice.. errr tough choice...

[Ouroboros]

1 hour ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

I failed the test, they suggested I try Densa. (98% bigger membership)

That is genuinely laugh out loud funny. Thanks! 😀

[Gfamily]

4 hours ago, JOC said:

I wasn't hugely enamoured with the astronomy club that I went along to for a couple of meetings.  The first one I went to in order to see what it was all about they didn't even have a telescope at and weren't that interested in the fact that I had taken my brand new scope and wanted to find out how to use it.  

It's a regret that our club (see my sig) isn't really able to offer chances to observe, and we're limited in the amount of 'hands on' advice we can give to new 'scope users.

But with the unpredictable nature of UK weather, we can only really see our meetings as being for sharing our interest generally, so we have talks on the subject and offer a chance to meet with like minded enthusiasts. I think we've only had 1 evening in the last 6 months when it's been clear enough on a club night to consider getting a telescope out.

That said, I'm going to try to get a 'ring round' or WhatsApp group for people who want to get started; so that if we have a good evening forecast we can let people know that we'll be meeting somewhere suitable for an impromptu observing session, primarily so that people can have someone take them through setting up, aligning, and finding the target objects. 

[Franklin]

People are generally sociable animals and clubs catering for all interests are popular, but ultimately astronomy is a loners pursuit, just you, the stars and some expensive glass. Any newbies looking for advice can get lots of it on forums like SGL.

[Tiny Clanger]

59 minutes ago, iantaylor2uk said:

I would have thought that if any under 18s attend the meetings it is very sensible that the committee can decide whether to accept applications or not.

I doubt many astronomy societies would accept any under 16's attendance without an accompanying parent, the safeguarding regulations, and requirement for DBS checks of volunteers working with children, or vulnerable adults, are rightly quite tough.

[iantaylor2uk]

6 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

I doubt many astronomy societies would accept any under 16's attendance without an accompanying parent, the safeguarding regulations, and requirement for DBS checks of volunteers working with children, or vulnerable adults, are rightly quite tough.

I think you make the good point that the regulations on what clubs can and can't do have become much more onerous over the last 10-20 years or so, and in my view, any well run club should have the ability to decide who can be a member, and also to have the ability to expel members for unacceptable behaviour. I doubt these powers are used that often but any people that say they shouldn't exist, have probably never served on the committee of a club (astronomy or other).  

Edited February 20 by iantaylor2uk
Typo

[glafnazur]

5 hours ago, JOC said:

I wasn't hugely enamoured with the astronomy club that I went along to for a couple of meetings.  The first one I went to in order to see what it was all about they didn't even have a telescope at and weren't that interested in the fact that I had taken my brand new scope and wanted to find out how to use it.  Then I went for a evening when they were supposed to be actively viewing and that turned out to be a couple of people with scopes in someone's back garden and I had to lug all my equipment down a narrow path into a back garden and still no-one was interested in helping me out with my kit and how to set it up and wanting to chat about what I was seeing and helping a newcomer get interested so I gave up on the notion that astronomy clubs were a good thing.  Their loss IMO considering the land I could have offered them away from the town they were in for overnight viewing possibilities.   I prefer membership of SGL - far more enthusiasm and advice than ever got in front of 'real astronomy club members'.  If I were the OP I don't think I'd bother with that attitude to club membership.  

 That's so poor. At our society we make a point of welcoming newcomers and positively encourage them to bring their scopes, ideally to our observing sessions but if they can't make those then to any of our other two monthly meetings. We introduced a second meeting to our monthly programme quite a few years back just for beginners so they could bring along scopes and so that they could ask any questions they may have. 

[Wanderers]

5 hours ago, Tomatobro said:

Astrology clubs can be a bit choosy as to who they admit. What sign were you born under?

I just quickly checked if I'd called it an astrology club and was very relieved to find I hadn't!

[glafnazur]

20 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

I doubt many astronomy societies would accept any under 16's attendance without an accompanying parent, the safeguarding regulations, and requirement for DBS checks of volunteers working with children, or vulnerable adults, are rightly quite tough.

Anyone under 18 who wants to attend our meetings has to be accompanied by a parent/guardian.

[Wanderers]

1 hour ago, iantaylor2uk said:

I think to be fair, it seems as if you can attend 3 meetings, for free, without being a member and it is only if you want to attend any more meetings that you need to apply to be a member.

I would have thought that if any under 18s attend the meetings it is very sensible that the committee can decide whether to accept applications or not.

What I object to is the fact that they want to assess my suitability over those 3 meetings. What are they assessing? Accent, school, skin colour, level of education? At 63 I'm well passed that kind of bs.

[Wanderers]

2 hours ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

That is some seriously long nasal hair, why not plait it?

It blends nicely with my ear hair!

[glafnazur]

1 hour ago, wookie1965 said:

I went to my local society I had a EQ3-2 then with a 6" skywatcher Newtonian, I had a bit of trouble collimating the scope spoke to them and they said bring it up. So I turns up and one bloke looked and said collimation is spot on. A fella came up to me and said I have a EQ5 tripod you can buy I thought this is a great society.

Next time I went it was clear so I set up got Saturn in the FOV of my 8mm BST  couple of blokes looked through and were very impressed with the view asking what eyepiece I was using.

I paid to join didn't go for a couple of weeks as I was ill next time I went up it was raining so we sat in a big room 30 minutes not one person spoke to me I left.

Following week same again not one person said anything to me over 30 minutes I spent there they just sat in a huddle talking no video put on no talks so I walked out and I have never returned.

When I first attended our Society it was a bit like that but I was fortunate that I went with m brother-in-law. After only a couple of months I was asked to join the committee at the AGM for some new blood and one of the first things I mentioned was that the society wasn't an inviting place to new people. I told them that I understood that they only met once a month so they all congregated into their little groups to catch up but if they wanted to build the membership up then they had to be more welcoming. I don't think they had even realised what they were doing but it has changed around and we are friendly welcoming bunch now.

Edited February 20 by glafnazur
missed word

[Tiny Clanger]

25 minutes ago, iantaylor2uk said:

I think you make the good point that the regulations on what clubs can and can't do have become much more onerous over the last 10-20 years or so, and in my view, any well run club should have the ability to decide who can be a member, and also to have the ability to expel members for unacceptable behaviour. I doubt these powers are used that often but any people that say they shouldn't exist, have probably never served on the committee of a club (astronomy or other).  

The problem is, who vets the committee ? Are they all DBS checked ? No-one, and I mean absolutely no-one, can spot a child abuser after a few hours of sitting in the same room. 

The regulations are as they are precisely because of what has gone on in far too many volunteer run sports clubs etc.