Dear fellow club members,

We have just learned that the printer has been delayed in delivering the January issues of the Sirius Astronomer, and we are concerned that not all of you will receive your copy in time to mail in your ballot so that it will be postmarked by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, January 9, which is the deadline. The purpose of this email is to let you know what options you have for getting a copy of the ballot in case you don’t receive the copy that will be mailed with the January Sirius Astronomer in time.

1) If you are planning to attend the meeting on January 9, which is our formally established Annual Meeting, there will be copies of the ballot there, along with envelopes, so you should find everything you need to vote there.

2) A PDF version of the ballot is attached to this email. Please print it and either vote by mail or bring it with you to the meeting and vote by putting it in the ballot box. Please be sure to follow the instructions on the ballot so that your votes will be counted – vote for no more than 7 Trustee candidates, put your ballot in an envelope, seal it, and WRITE YOUR NAME LEGIBLY ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE. To vote by mail, WRITE YOUR NAME LEGIBLY ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE ENVELOPE, then send the envelope with the ballot inside to Bob Evans, whose address is on the ballot.

3) You can also download a copy of the ballot from our website; the direct URL to the ballot is /members/downloads/Ballot%201-04.pdf. This is the same as the ballot that should be attached; if the attachment doesn’t come through with this email for some reason, please download and print the one on the website. If the above link doesn’t work, you can copy it and paste it into the address line of your web browser, or you can go to our website (ocastronomers.org) and follow the link to the ballot on the home page.

If none of these options works for you and you need to get a ballot some other way, please contact Charlie Oostdyk immediately (714/751-5381 or charlie@cccd.edu).

Please do take the time to vote – this is particularly important as to the Trustee positions, as there are more candidates than positions.

We have only received one Candidate Statement, which appears at the bottom of this email for your convenience.

Thank you for your patience concerning this, and I hope that you all have had a really great holiday season!

Barbara Toy
President Orange County Astronomers

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Candidate Statement:

My name is Tom Kucharski and I am running for Trustee. I have been an amateur astronomer for over thirty years and have been a member of the OCA for the last five years since moving to California. To best serve OCA, I will draw on my past experience at the New Jersey Astronomers Association, the largest amateur astronomy club in NJ, where I served as Observatory Director for two years and as the Research Chair for two years. I will also draw upon my organizational and leadership skills acquired during my career as Vice President of R&D for the largest privately owned food supplement manufacturer in the world. My activities in the club thus far have been with the Astroimagers SIG and the OCA-TV SIG.

Thank you, Tom Kucharski