Executive Council Telecon Minutes
May 11, 1998

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

Summary of Meeting Actions

I. "Event" Telecon May 7

• Diana sent minutes around on Friday
• David reviewed the discussion of the telecon for Brian
• Two working groups were set up:
  • Follow-up re: NASA 40th Anniversary
  • develop ground rules for annual technical paper session

II. KIS Problems

• KIS project has come to a standstill because the money never became available from NASA.
• This is a concern to the NAAA because
  • This is a great project and the NAAA wants to see it succeed
  • This has obviously been a problem for some time now, but this is the first the Executive Council has heard of it. The EC needs to have updates from the KIS team much more often, and they should consider coming to us to help in situations like this.
• George Hunyadi is going to follow-up with Jeff/Mablelene regarding the problems allocating the funds.
• David is going to try to call Jeff to talk to him directly.

III. Follow-up with NA Staff re: summer 1998 activities

• Mike has spoken with Loretta from Ames and Ian from Goddard.
  • Both programs are planning 1-2 activities for the alumni.
  • Ames dates are still up in the air, GSFC will be July 4th weekend
  • Both programs will supply name, state, university for all of the RAs as well as highlights from their program schedules for the newsletter.
• Still need to talk with Kyle Snyder
• The end of summer videoconference date still needs to be scheduled between the academy staff. Brian will follow-up with Ian regarding the date for this.

IV. Space Grant funding

• Ian mentioned the Space Grant program will have a flat budget next year, due to some action from either the executive branch or congress.
• The NAAA might be able to make an effort through a newsletter article or by encouraging the members to voice their support for the Space Grant Program to members of congress.
• Not only is the future of SG important to the future of the Academy, this could be a great way to show the Space Grants some return for their investment in the academy program.

V. Newsletter

• The response to the call for help with the newsletter was not very good. Jane Thorpe has volunteered to help out, and Mike is going to talk to Dave K. about combining our efforts for the June 1 electronic magazine.
• Mike needs to talk to Dave and see what he is willing to do. He will then send a plan of action around to the EC for approval (by the Thursday)

VI. Membership Drive Update

• Mike has been bring Julia Plummer (new Membership Chair) up to speed on the database and formulating the plan for the membership drive.
• Waiting to send out the email announcement so Mike can confirm the process for uploading/downloading the database info with Chris.
• Mike will try to email, then call Chris ASAP.
• Hopefully email will be sent out this week.
• Brian needs to send Mike comments for the announcement.

VII. NAAA Scholarship

• David has tried to contact Dave Thompson, will keep trying.
• David is still going to use this opportunity to ask Mr. Thompson about being on the BOA.

VIII. Board of Advisors

• The EC needs to meet to have a discussion about how to proceed with BOA.
• David Thompson will be the first step. Come up with the first 3-4 advisors we want to ask and assemble the "sales package" specific to each person.

IX. General NAAA Fundraising

• One of the hang-ups for the fundraising plan is getting the BOA on line, since this is an area where we really need some advice.
• To date, the only major spending plans we can talk about are scholarships and summer project money.
• David will look back through emails RE fundraising actions to re-familiarize himself with what has been discussed to date.

X. Michelle M.'s NASA Academy Group project suggestion

• The Academy staff seems interested in setting up some sort of a teleconference to discuss the possibility.
• The EC is concerned about the implications of imposing this project on the entire academy. Yes, it is a great exercise for people interested in spacecraft systems engineering, but that specific interest field may exclude many of the RAs.
• If the Academy decides to make this part of the Group project, there isn't really much for the NAAA to do.
• It's possible if the Academy does not pursue this idea, the NAAA could help provide a field of potential participants (ie: the alumni) for the program. We should probably talk to Michelle about this some more.
• Mike will email the staff to prompt them about setting up a teleconference to discuss this further. The EC will participate in such a telecon.

XI. Next Telecon