AAVSO: Volunteers Make it Work

Without volunteers, our Organization would cease functioning. It is nice to have sufficient funding to keep our HQ staff off of the streets, but that is only part of the needs of the AAVSO. We have a diverse membership, from high-school students to retirees, from mailmen to business CEOs. It is rare that we cannot find a task that is particularly suited to someone's expertise. Our volunteers do not get nearly as much praise as they should. Their contributions are invaluable. Thank you, each and every one! — AAVSO Director, Arne Henden

Some of the AAVSO's volunteers include:

Len Abbey

Len has been an AAVSO member since 1954. In 2000, he retired from his job as a computer scientist and offered to volunteer his skills to the AAVSO. This was a great match of supply and demand as the AAVSO was in need of a programmer who could write in Visual Basic. Many of the key software tools used by AAVSO staff are written in a language that only works in MS-DOS which will not currently on most machines at HQ. Len helped write three of these programs in Visual Basic.

In addition to aiding the staff, he has also written software for the general public. His most popular contribution is PCObs, a data entry program used to format observations to the AAVSO style. It is estimated that 15% of all observations sent to the AAVSO are formatted with PCObs. He has also written the programs MagPlot, PhasPlot, SolObs and is currently working on an O-C program. While working on all of these new programs, he is still actively maintining and upgrading all the other packages!

Louis Cohen

After Janet Mattei met Lou and convinced him of our need for a new Treasurer (then-Treasurer Wayne Lowder was ill and needed to step down), Lou joined the AAVSO in March of 2000 and volunteered first as Assistant Treasurer and then as Treasurer, the position he holds today. His extensive careers in software engineering and management consulting, his background in mathematics and statistics, knowledge of finances, and even his variable star observing (he is also a very gifted musician and composer - check out his web page) all have made him an enormous asset to the AAVSO over these past five tumultuous years. It would have been almost impossible to get through the past two years in particular without his guidance, advice, and support. His grace under incredible pressure and ongoing willingness to help the AAVSO leave us deep in his debt, and we are most grateful to him. We are especially happy Lou lives in Cambridge because that means we see him often at HQ, and that always brightens our day! Thank you, Lou!

Valerie Daum

Valerie volunteered at HQ for summer, 2005. She was a fast worker - it always seemed like she finished her task before we had come up with another to take its place! Valerie wrote an introductory variable star article for the website, and then using her Spanish skills, translated the Visual Observing Manual. She also wrote the rough draft of a Spanish translation of the AE Aqr campaign press release. Two research projects (finding coordinates for a set of variable stars, and obtaining archival images for a paper on SDSS cataclysmic variables) were completed with Valerie's help. She was always willing to step in wherever needed, from stuffing envelopes to technical issues. We hope to get her back in the future!

Carl Feehrer

Carl became involved with the AAVSO in 1998 when he retired from Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., where he was a Senior Scientist in its Information Sciences Division In the past, he has assisted with the Organization's efforts to review and validate observations used in the preparation of its series of monographs, and he has participated in the editing of a large set of preliminary star charts. Since 2000, he has served as Chair of the Solar Observing Program, analyzing data contributed each month by a group of approximately 100 sunspot observers and publishing AAVSO's Solar Bulletin. The job of Solar Chair is one that comes with numerous responsibilities, many of which have to be repeated every month. Carl's hard work and professional approach are what make the Solar Program the success that it is today.

Carl is aided in his efforts by two outstanding volunteers. Mike Hill, Chair of the AAVSO SID Group, who works hard every month processing the SID data and contributing to the SID section of the Solar Bulletin. And volunteer Arthur Ritchie, who helps Carl by doing monthly data entry work from solar reports sent to the AAVSO. Arthur also helps the HQ staff with various administrative needs.

Geir Klingenberg

Geir is relatively new to the AAVSO, coming to us in 2004. However, he didn't let that stop him from contributing some of the best software the AAVSO has to offer. WinWWZ is a Windows version of the WWZ MS-DOS program that the AAVSO developed about ten years ago to do period analysis on variable stars. Instead of merely creating a replica, Geir created a truly ingenious interface that makes it much easier to use WinWWZ. WWZ is a period change analysis routine that often requires trial and error effort that results in many runs of the program. Each run is math intensive and can take some time. Geir's interface makes it easy to store past runs and compare their results. This saves valuable time for the end user.

Geir answered a call on the AAVSO Discussion Group for volunteers to convert WWZ to a Windows platform. He went above and beyond the call of duty in that request. As data analysis becomes more and more important to the AAVSO his program will really shine.

Rick Merriman

Rick Merriman cheerfully performs the tedious work of compiling tables of contents, reference lists, and abstracts from the AAVSO Journal, and encodes these in a format for use by the Astrophysics Data System (ADS). By converting the Journal articles to the ADS format, Rick is a vital link in facilitating worldwide access to the JAAVSO. Rick is also helping in a project to post all of the past Journal articles to the eJAAVSO on the AAVSO's website.

Rick is a key member of the Comparison Star Database Working Group where he is responsible for checking entries in the database. His work with the Comp Star team is another example of how his excellent attention for detail is a tremendous help to the AAVSO.

Vance Petriew

Vance joined the AAVSO in 2002. Shortly after he joined the Organization, the AAVSO formed the Comparison Star Database Working Group. The goal of this team was to document all the comparison stars on every AAVSO star chart! AAVSO staff knew they did not have the time to do this alone so they formed a team of volunteers to help. After only a couple of months, it was clear that staff did not have the expertise or time to create and maintain a database of such size. Vance stepped up to the plate and agreed to lead this team which is now just a month or two away from completing the documentation of 70,614 stars!

Vance is not stopping there. He has agreed to lead the team through the next phase of the project which includes updating the photometry of each star. That means going through the astronomical literature and finding the latest calibrated values for the stars. It is a daunting task, but Vance and his team have already proven they can do it.

Other members of the team are: Rick L. Merriman (MWR), Keith Graham (GKA), Tim Hager (HTY), Carlo Gualdoni (GCO), Roy Axelsen (ARX), Brian Skiff (BAS), Dan Taylor (TDB), Joe Maffei (MFJ), Curt Schneider (SUF), Christopher Watson (WCH), Arno van Werven (VWA), Mark Munkacsy (MMU), Jim Bedient (BJS), Radu Corlan (CXR), Dolores Sharples (SDP), Ben Cacace (CBE), Steven Fanutti (FSU), and Doug Hodgson (HWD).

Mike Simonsen

Mike joined the AAVSO in 1999. He is well known as a very active visual observer who has contributed over 41,000 visual observations in only six years. Within the last two years he also became active as the leader of the AAVSO Chart Team. This team has created over 2,000 charts in two years. Creating a new chart and updating older AAVSO charts is not an easy task. It takes a tremendous amount of time and a thorough knowledge of various astronomical databases. Maintaining the AAVSO Chart Catalog used to be one of the most challenging issues faced by the AAVSO. Through great dedication and devotion, Mike and the Chart Team have conquered this daunting task and transformed the Catalog to once again be a great asset of the AAVSO.

Mike did not do it alone, however, and the help of the Chart Team volunteers has been invaluable. In addition to Mike, the Chart Team members who dedicated numerous nights to working with charts are: Chaz Scovil, Marc Biesmans, Dan Taylor, Rick Huziak, Hazel McGee, Bob Stine, Bruce Sumner, Mati Morel, Christopher Watson, Michael Armstrong, and Vance Petriew.

Mike has also been active as an ambassdor to the AAVSO. He gives highly energetic talks to various astronomy clubs in the midwest.

Christopher Watson

Christopher Watson is another recent AAVSO victim, volunteer coming to us in 2003. He joined the chart team and immediately recognized that we needed a better way to keep track of reported chart errors. Before we could draft him, he had designed the Chart Error Tracking Tool (CHET). CHET is now a core service of the AAVSO Chart Team and has been a pivotal tool in the team's productivity. Chris has also designed an AAVSO logo that is frequently used on our website and on posters presented by the AAVSO.

Not limited to programming, Chris also has a talent for designing user interfaces. His elegant and easy-to-use style makes the user's web experience efficient and enjoyable. Chris is currently working on several new and exciting tools for the AAVSO. Stay tuned to our web site for further glimpses into his genius!

Charles A. Whitney

While pursuing his career at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in stellar variability and the structure of stellar atmospheres, Chuck joined the AAVSO as a lifetime member in May of 1975. He immediately took up the voluntary position as Editor of the Journal of the AAVSO and has held that position ever since. The first issue Chuck oversaw was Volume 4, Number 1 (Spring-Summer 1975). Our current issue is Volume 34, Number 1 (2005), so Chuck has been at the helm for over 30 years and 30.5 volumes (61 issues to date) - a tremendous ongoing contribution of his time, expertise, and wisdom for which we are most grateful! Chuck also shared his insights into the professional astronomical community over the years with late AAVSO Director Janet Mattei, who found his thoughts and suggestions extremely valuable. We are always delighted when Chuck visits HQ, with his warm smile and cheery voice (and sometimes accompanied by his charming champion standard poodle), although sadly for us, Chuck's visits have become much more rare since the evolution of email with attachments and his retirement from CfA (he doesn't live very near Cambridge). Thank you, Chuck, for all you do for the AAVSO!

YOU!
As an active member and/or observer of the AAVSO, we value the time and effort that you contribute to the advancement of variable star research. You are what makes this Organization a success! If you are interested in contributing further, please consider one of our volunteer positions or donating to the AAVSO. Thank you!!

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