Executive Council Telecon Minutes
April 23, 1998

Time: 2:00pm EDT
Present: D. Goldstein, B. Roberts, M. Moreau

Summary of Meeting Actions

I. Plans for summer event with NASA Academy programs

• email message to staff sent, responses received from all three academies.
  • all are amenable to an alumni event, but the timing is TBD
  • scheduling for the video conference will have to be worked out between the staff, Brian will follow-up to set a firm date.
• mike has calls in to staff
  • we would like to be able to announce to the alumni that SOMETHING will happen, even if dates are still tentative.
  • will try to have some NAAA representative at the videoconference
  • run potential dates for these events by David.
• have plan/tentative dates in place by May 15

II. Contacting Dave Thompson

• Doug O'Handley contacted David regarding financial support for the Ames student from Michigan.
• Send David BOA notes so he can approach DT about that at the same time
• This is a top priority, so Mike needs to send the BOA stuff out today, and David needs to call DT tomorrow at the latest.

III. Interactions with Space Adventures, Inc.

• Eric is interested in helping the NAAA with future events through sponsorship by Space Adventures.
• Possible SA could provide some at-cost services for a trip or reunion.
• In the long term, it's possible NAAA could team with SA for a fundraising trip of some kind.

IV. Annual event

• David sent the message out to people who had previously volunteered, to help with the annual event, but hasn't heard anything back yet.
• Diana volunteered to lead the effort.
• Jane volunteered to lead it if no-one else stepped up.
• David will mention the plans for the telecon in the newsletter article, which should leave time for people to sign up.
• David will call Diana to discuss plans for telecon, etc, and announce telecon to email list prior to going on travel Wednesday night.
• Timeline for annual event:
  • Try to schedule telecon around May 5th
  • Have plans, costs, dates nailed down by June 1st

V. Dave's May newsletter article

• Send a shorter version of what he wrote up for the "Event" WG
• Mike will also do an article on the database, and the upcoming membership drive.
  • should mention void of membership after one year, need to fill out new form, other reasons for keeping membership updated.

VI. Dues structure?

• A fee, event just $5, might make the membership have more value to members
• This was the subject of much discussion at the founders meeting in Feb 97.
  • didn't want to charge formal membership dues at this time.
  • voluntary donations instead, which could actually yield more revenue b/c some people have donated a lot more than we could charge as dues.
  • Eventually, as services and membership grows, a formal dues structure may be more appropriate, but not yet...
  • for now, can have some incentives to encourage people to donate, and keep their memberships current
• Possible resolution:
  • events: one fee for members, one for non-members
  • something free as an enticement to fill out the form
  • free "flights" one Celestis s/c, free Space Adventures trip, etc for members
  • free ticket to summer event for members

VII. Timeline for membership drive

• 2 weeks for people to sign-up, fill out their forms,
• one week to track down people we haven't heard from
• try to start the drive by the beginning of May
• complete by the end of May, including getting new info into database
• membership drive will be coupled with effort to raise funds through annual membership donations.

VIII. Meeting Minutes

• mike should send out brief message to the list summarizing the EC telecon and referring to the minutes, posted on the website as discussed previously.

IX. Next Telecon