A Double Presidents Message

Finally the national presidential election is over. What a frustrating, exciting, irritating, historic 36 days we all experienced in November and December. Our grandchildren and our grandchildren's children will study this election in school. Happily the OCA 2001 elections would appear to be much less controversial. The slate of nominees is in place for the OCA election and I am pleased to read over the list.

I am particularly pleased to see Liam Kennedy's name at the top of the ticket. In the past two years that I have worked with Liam I have found him to be an intelligent man with good management and people skills. On top of that he has a real passion for astronomy. These are the four most important elements in leading an organization like OCA. I am totally convinced that he will do a great job as president of OCA.

When I turned the OCA website over to Liam's care more than a year ago I knew he would do a good job. I have not been disappointed. And the addition of providing steaming video of club meetings will prove to be a most significant development in serving our membership.

Liam, congratulations and Godspeed.

"The goodness of the night upon you"
Othello Act 1 Scene 2

Russell Sipe

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Appropriately I found out about this club in January 1998 by doing a search on the web. I Started by tapping in "ASTRONOMY CLUB IRVINE" which didn't turn up anything interesting so I expanded the search to be "ASTRONOMY CLUB ORANGE COUNTY". Bingo! I found it. I called the membership number and spoke with Charlie Oostdyk - the rest is history I guess.

Why am I standing for President of the OCA? To answer that let me quote a little from my "Election Candidate Statement" that I created for the December OCA Meeting.

"The Orange County Astronomers helped open my eyes to the field of amateur astronomy. Prior to three years ago I would say that I was totally unaware of the delights of our universe that await every one of us who owns or has access to a telescope. I now have what I will call a life-long love and devotion to this "hobby" of ours. I see this club as the enabling organization that helps connect the photons of light from distant galaxies to the eyes, imaginations, hearts and minds of all its members and the wider community in which we live. My one regret is that for most of my life - I was practically blind to the sheer majesty of the dark skies available to each and every one of us. I have dedicated myself to enabling others of all ages to see the light."

As I fight my way through the hoards of Christmas shoppers this year - I cannot help but notice the number of telescopes people are buying from all sorts of stores. Each one of those new telescope owners is a potential new member of the OCA. Each one will benefit as much as I did from joining this club. To that end I created a little mini two-page brochure about the OCA (with the help of Jim Benet) and I spent all day December 16th driving around from mall-to-mall asking the store managers if they would distribute the brochure with all new telescopes sold. Nearly all the stores agreed to do this - some with very great appreciation for what the club could do to enhance the overall experience of their customers. We'll see if this results in even more members - I hope it will. (update: by December 21 we had three people sign up as new members using the new forms)

The OCA is something that I truly cherish - and I look forward to serving the membership as the next President of the OCA.

Liam Kennedy