Re: ATM Astronomy Club ideas

["Robert Kerwin" <rkerwin@goodnet.com>]

Hi Joe -

I'm last year's president of East Valley Astronomy Club (Phoenix metro
area).  About four years ago a guy in our club started a telescope making
workshop.  The interest was, quite literally, overwhelming.  I'm not sure
exactly how many mirrors were started, but I would say it was something
like 15 or so.  They ranged in size from 4.25 to 20 inches.  The class met
twice a week at a local community college.  Unfortunately, the guy that was
leading the workshop moved the following spring, leaving some people with
no way of finishing their projects.  

In retrospect, this workshop was a turning point for the club.  Prior to
the workshop, there were few large scopes in the club.  Afterwards, larger
well-made scopes started showing up at star parties and enthusiasm for
observing began to increase.  Our membership also started to increase. 
Granted, a lot of this may be due to other factors, but certainly the ATM
workshop was a big contributor.

Of course, a few words of caution...The burden of running a workshop is
quite large, especially if there are a lot of people interested.  You might
want to consider limiting the size to something like 5 'students' per
leader. Also, we
met during the week in the evening.  Unfortunately this gave us only three
hours to work.  Getting organized, setting up and cleaning up killed about
an hour, leaving only two hours to do any real work.  An all-day Saturday
session would have been much better.

Just my observations and opinions--your mileage may vary. 

Clear skies,
Robert Kerwin

PS - I was a member of this list back in late '95 and just recently
re-joined.  After completing my 12.5-inch scope, I told myself I was done
with ATMing for 'at least a couple years'.  Four months later, I found
myself in my garage working on another scope project.  Guess I'm hooked for
life!  This list is great--helpful, informative and friendly.  Keep it up!