From: "Pamela L. Gay" <pamela
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 15:44:08 -0400
Cc: 

Before you read this, remember I am on your side, and I am pro  
education.

Here is our parameter space:
  	Any money we spend we must also raise (we can not impact AAVSO  
bottom line except to add money)
	Any man hours we need we must volunteer or find people to volunteer
significantly over worked.
		Exception: If, with the blessing of Arne, we can find the money for  
him to hirer post docs or others
rules HQ)
	We are variable stars and only variable stars
		Fine Print: You can use variable stars to teach many things, and we  
can collaborate with
		folks doing other things (like Night Sky Network).
	Council will want(!!) to know
what we spend?
paying members?
organization?
	Education is defined as:
variable stars
		  without overlapping with work already being done by others (but  
building on the
		  work of others and collaborating with others in encouraged)

At the end of the day, we're going to be held accountable for the  
"how much" and "how many"s that can be directly measured. We have 1  
year from the spring meeting to prove our worth in accountable ways  
(remember: we got formed for a 1 year trial). This may look like a  
confining space to be in, but we are a group of smart and creative  
people. We have claimed the Education Committee will benefit the  
AAVSO. Let's define some projects, make some personal goals and prove  
through our actions that education has direct benefits for the  
organization.

I start with projects because it is easier for me to say: Here are  
some things to do, lets project how many and how much, and shape our  
target numbers that way because we know what we're saying is  
tractable. You don't start a company with the goal of earning a  
million dollars and then devise the product/service you're going to  
retail. Instead, you come up with a product or service and project  
what is a reasonable profit expectation. Our product will be the  
curriculums (formal and informal) we design.

For starts: What are each of us doing to effect the above how manys  
and how much?
For seconds: How can we take our individual ideas and projects to  
develop a coherent AAVSO education program within the above parameter  
space?

My Examples:
collaboration this semester: 1 was aimed at getting Ams to join, 2  
are/were aimed at getting faculty to use AAVSO data and campaigns to  
develop / encourage observational and data mining based research by  
students.

What I want to do as an Ed Committee member: I want to motivate and  
mediate the creation of AAVSO vodcasts that give people the knowledge  
they need to observe for AAVSO visual observing campaigns.

My personal direct goals: to get 5 people involved to the level of  
paying dues this year who weren't previously involved at all, and to  
get at least two faculty/teachers other than me (and who are outside  
of Harvard) to start doing AAVSO linked projects with their classes  

I still need to identify personal ways to bring money into AAVSO in  
ways above and beyond increasing membership. Increasing the AAVSO  
bottom line is a goal of every council member. Can you help us find  
ways to do this?

Cheers,
Pamela


On Apr 12, 2006, at 1:33 PM, Aaron Price wrote:

>
> work on the goals first,
> and then the model and then the projects. May I suggest a  
> discussion of these points?
>
>   1. What are the outstanding E/PO challenges in astronomy right now?
>   2. Define committee goals that address those challenges in some way.
>   3. Plan realistic projects to meet the goals.
>
>  The main part that has been missing is #1 and I bet we all have  
> different opinions
> about it. But we need to reach a consensus on that if we want our  
> #2 goals to be
> effective.
>
>  I'm a little worried about this:
>
>> education within the AAVSO, and I need to prepare a document that
>> defines specific goals in terms of X new members, Y observations by
>> students, and Z new professionals (educators and astronomers) brought
>> into collaborations and traces out projects to use to meet these
>> goals.
>
>  Is the council suggesting that all projects bring in X new  
> members, Y observations and Z
> new professionals? If not, why do they want that as a definition of  
> our goals? To me
> that's a marketing job, not a job for an E/PO committee. Our goals  
> should be based on the
> needs of the community and our plans should reflect the combination  
> of those needs with
> the resources we have available. If XYZ happens, great.  But, in my  
> opinion, it should
> not be a primary or even secondary goal of the committee.
>
>  We also need the scope of the committee defined. For example, are  
> we restricted to
> variable star work or can we work on anything in astronomy? Is the  
> organization expected
> to invest money and/or HQ resources into this or is this driven/ 
> funded solely by the
> committee members?
>
> Aaron
> _______________________________________________