Message from the President

The spring meeting in Tucson was one of the most enjoyable in memory. Field trips included Kitt Peak National observatory, a star party hosted by David Levy and a tour of the University of Arizona's Mirror Lab, a workshop on data analysis, scientific paper sessions and the banquet rounded out the agenda. All and all a truly great meeting!

As reported in the last newsletter the AAVSO council has been keeping a close eye on our financial situation. At the fall meeting last year the Council formed a working group to investigate the AAVSO membership dues structure. This working group gave its report to the Council at the April meeting in Tucson, with recommendations for a membership dues increase along with other changes. After much discussion the Council agreed that dues must be raised.

I think it very noteworthy to point out that the AAVSO has not had a dues increase since the early 1990's. It has been overdue for quite some time. Rather than one large increase the Council has decided to increase dues in small increments over time. The following steps were approved by the council and presented to the spring membership meeting:

1) Dues shall cover the cost of membership services plus a contribution to the organization. 2) The dues structure shall be simplified by dropping all low-cost options and reduced rates for sponsored and senior members. These presently are 50% of full membership. 3) The postage rate surcharge for memberships outside of the United States, unchanged since the late 1970's, will be increased to $10 from $2.50. 4) The AAVSO annual membership dues will be increased to $60 effective with the next billing.

The Council also adopted the following statement:"The council believes the main priority for AAVSO today is to complete the validation of our database as quickly as possible, ideally by the end of FY2003-4. To achieve this, we must continue to spend money at our current rate until validation is complete. This means that we are drawing funds from our endowments at a rate that, because of the current financial climate, will likely result in decreased income from our investments in the future. Nevertheless, we believe this is right thing to do in order to fulfill the scientific mission of the AAVSO."

The validation of the entire AAVSO International Database was a work in progress before I first joined the Council in 1993. With the dedicated staff and sophisticated computer resources available to HQ today, and additional funding from NASA Office of Space Science for which we are very grateful, we rapidly approach the completion of this monumental task. Progress on this project can be followed on the AAVSO website's home page where the percent of completion is tallied.

May your skies always be clear,
Dan Kaiser

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