Town Meeting Minutes
December 2, 1997

Time: 7:00pm EST
Participants: see bottom of minutes

I. Purpose of this telecon

• Present the major areas where the NAAA will focus it's efforts over the next year.
• Brainstorm new ideas for the next year and beyond
• Form working groups to pursue ideas in more detail and find volunteers to help with specific projects.

II. Proposed activities and areas of emphasis for 1998 (David Goldstein)

• Sponsor a "national" event
• Encourage regional activities, reunions, organized functions for NASA Academy alumni.
• 998 fundraising and a broader capital campaign
• Establish a Board of Advisors for the NAAA
• Develop and implement a strategy to reinstate the MSFC NASA Academy
• NAAA "Communications" or "services" to the alumni

III. Overview of the Kids in Space (KIS) Project (Jeff Nettles)

• Evolved out of the 1997 GSFC group project
• Students write an essay about space, and their names are flown on the space shuttle
• A selection of the best essays are published as a book to coincide with the 40th anniversary of NASA in late 1998.
• A separate campaign will collect names to be flown on a CD ROM on the Mars Surveyor Lander in 1998.
• NASA HQ is supporting KIS with a $50K grant.

IV. Comments on the plans of the NAAA (Dr. Doug O'Handley, Director of the Ames Academy)

• The MSFC Academy "Moratorium" is due in part to some fundamental problems with support for the program at the highest levels of MSFC. An effect way to help ensure the program will come back might be to work to encourage strong NASA Academy programs at KSC and JSC.
• The NAAA should find a way to get the "west coast" programs to interact more with the other Centers. The NAAA could campaign for NASA/HQ support to allow all academies to travel to the DC area for interaction with HQ (and with other Academies as well as the EC of the NAAA).
• Have representatives of the NAAA meet and interact with the new Academy students at each center early in the summer program.

V. Discussion and Brainstorming

A. National, Annual Event

• Ideas
  • Something related to the NASA 40th anniversary (October 1997)
  • Organize a national rocket launch for students
  • "Reunion" events for next summer
  • Reunion, other activities planned around a shuttle launch in Florida
    First ISS launch summer 1998
    Several AMES alumni attending launch in April
    KIS launch in November

    Have events at "centralized" locations to make it easier for alumni from around the country to attend.

    Rotate sites of National activities each year.

    Have regional events to coincide with national activities so everyone can participate.
• Working Group: Focus in on an event or events to plan for 1998
  • Jeff Munson
  • Heather Cohea
  • Dave Goldstein
  • Brian Roberts

B. Regional Events

• Geographical regions with large concentrations of alumni: Washington (GSFC), Boston, Denver, Southern California, Huntsville (MSFC), Houston
• Encourage groups of alumni (from all academies) to get together for informal events
• Encourage formal events for alumni, such as tours, dinners, speakers,etc.
• Utilize the web site and the email chat lists to get out information about regional events.

C. NAAA Communications - Services and information for Alumni

• Completed:
  • alumni "chat" and "news" email lists have been set up
  • web site has been reformatted
  • Ian Ruiz has volunteered to be the new webmaster
• In work:
  • updated, searchable, online database with contact info for all alumni will come on line in December.
  • permanent email addresses (reflector) for all alumni:
    FirstInitialofFirstNameLastName@nasa-academy.org
    (i.e., broberts@nasa-academy.org)
• Ideas for futures services, improvements
  • alumni resume database, "Academy Connections" job postings
  • newsletter (1-2 annually)
  • NASA, Industry updates
  • Events calendar with information on all upcoming national and regional events
  • Set up a chat-room for more real-time discussions similar to this telecon
  • Start a "digest" format message that will be sent to the "NEWS" list periodically that contains updates on NAAA activities, NASA news and events, and other information for the alumni.
  • Cheap bookstore: set up an agreement with a technical bookstore to provide reduced prices to NAAA members.
  • resources for students looking for graduate schools (alumni contact information searchable by university) or for alumni looking for jobs (alumni contact info searchable by company/employer.)
  • make online alumni database searchable by geographical region to allow alumni to figure out who lives/works/goes to school near them.
  • add a section to the database for people to input contact information for people they've met. Maybe their address, phone number, e-mail address, and a few keywords for searches later.
  • provide places on the web site for fun stuff, pictures from alumni events, etc.
• Working Group:
  • Mike Moreau (chair)
  • Grant Bromhal
  • Catherine Venturini
  • Jeff Nettles
  • Ian Ruiz
  • Chris Lewicki
• Other Communications Positions:
  • Web Master - Ian Ruiz
    In charge of maintenance and improvements to the NAAA web pages.

    Master of Electrons - Chris Lewicki

    Hosts NAAA web pages on SEDS machine at U of A,

    Membership Chair - Vacant

    In charge of keeping the current information on the membership. Keeps track of changes to alumni contact information over the yeat and supervises the registration of new alumni at the end of the summer.

    Newsletter Chair - Vacant

    "Editor" of the NAAA newsletter.

    Executive Secretary - Vacant

    Sits in on telecons and other meetings to officially document minutes and actions.

D. NAAA Finances, Capital Campaign

• Ideas
  • 1998 goals include:
    • sponsoring a "scholarship" for a student at each Center.
    • funding support for group projects at each center.
  • Need to develop a fundraising plan to meet the above goals in 1998, as well as covering normal operating expenses.
  • Need to develop a plan for a broader capital campaign, ideas for starting an NAAA endowment.
  • Brainstorm ideas for what sorts of projects/programs the NAAA should strive to take on in the future (what will an endowment support?)
• Working Group:
  • Andrew Gray
  • Zine Smith
  • Jennifer Probst
  • Brian Roberts
  • Jeff Munson
  • David Goldstein
  • Ian Ruiz
  • Jim Brice (advisor only)

E. MSFC Academy Support

• Ideas
  • NASA Academy is not the only summer education program at MSFC that has been put on hold for the summer.
  • Working group to develop a plan of attack within the next week for what the NAAA can do to support the reinstatement of the MSFC Academy.
  • Additionally consider how the NAAA can help support the start of new Academy programs (KSC, JSC)
• Working Group:
  • Catherine Venturini (Chair)
  • Nikki Mattson
  • Zine Smith
  • Lila Engle
  • Eric Vaughan
  • Grant Bromhal
  • Heather Cohea
  • Mike Moreau
  • David Goldstein

F. Board of Advisors

• Previous EC started the process of forming a BOA for the NAAA.
• Have a "long list" of potential advisors, some rough ideas about what role the BOA can serve in the NAAA.
• Goal: Have an initial BOA in place by March
• Need volunteers who would like to help:
  • further define the role of the BOA
  • develop the "sales strategy" for approaching potential advisors (need to work in conjuntion with the fundraising WG)
  • develop the "short list" of potential advisors
  • DO IT! (Letter writing, follow-up, first BOA meeting, etc)
• Working Group:
  • Jim Brice
  • Jeff Munson
  • Mike Moreau

G. Kids in Space Volunteers (from this meeting)