President's Message

Over these 90 plus years, there has been a lot of evolutionary change. In all that change, there has probably not been as much change as in the past five years. During that time, the information age has come upon us, and we have mostly become part of it. We all expect information to be on line at a moment's notice. These are exciting times.

In a previous newsletter, I asked all observers to cooperate with headquarters' initiative to standardize the format that we use to submit observations. This has been very helpful and I thank all of you who have changed to a standard format. Still, there is more to do, and I ask those of you who have not done so to change to the standard format. This will save many staff hours of conversion of observations to standard format, which is a non-value-added activity. These are hours that can be spent doing things that are more productive.

The final thing that I urge everyone to do is to do the thing that you enjoy-presumably to observe variable stars and encourage others to do so. In fact, this past spring the AAVO Council established an additional award-the Distinguished Service Award. This is not awarded for making personal observations, but for bringing others into this hobby that we love. This award recognizes outstanding mentoring, and service to promote the cause of variable star astronomy.

Clear skies and good observing,
Gary Walker