Long Island Space Society - Meeting Notes

Date: Thursday October 24, 7 - 9 PM
Place: Brookhaven National Lab, Medical Department, Building 490
Host: Marcelo Vazquez, BNL Medical Dept.

Present: Arthur Smith, Marcelo Vazquez, Richard Ohlrogge, Frank Robinson,
  Merven Mandel, Yvette Mandel, Paul Stengel, David Ellis,
  Stephanie Otto, Morris Benjaminson

Arthur Smith and Richard Ohlrogge (president and treasurer
of the society) jointly provided some updates on chapter
status (we've completed all the paperwork with NSS
headquarters - we'll continue reminding them to update the main
web site, Ad Astra, etc.) and then discussed some of the
teams Arthur, Richard, and Edna Edelstein (Vice President) had 
started making plans for.

There was considerable discussion of recruitment
ideas: we should have a flyer we can post
to bring people to the web site and to meetings. People in the
room mentioned connections at Stony Brook, LI Polytech, BNL,
Touro, and Southampton College as places where we could
post a flyer or have other drives to recruit
members. There is also a science fiction convention
held at Stony Brook some time in the spring, at which we could
do some recruitment - some in the room expressed some reservations,
that we do want to keep the membership reasonably professional.
But even so it seemed a good place to find interested people.
For some of the things we're hoping to do, we need wider
"grass-roots" support than we have so far.

Getting good speakers for meetings, to bring people in and keep
them interested, was also discussed. We have some excellent local
speakers (as Marcelo proved later), but if we could get somebody
with wide name recognition in, it ought to bring a lot of people
to join. Several people in the room thought they had connections
to possible famous speakers, and offered to see if those might
lead to something; the hope is to have at least one in January or
February 2003. Next October will also see the formal opening of the
new BNL "Booster Applications Facility" that Marcelo is involved with,
which, since it's doing a lot of local space research, should be a good
event for the society to be involved with.

Other team ideas were briefly discussed, and Richard talked about
where we are with the Challenger Center. That will require a
major effort and long term stable commitment; he is recruiting
people for that team now, and hopes to get started on the
proposal in the first months of 2003. Several of those
present suggested that other, non Challenger Center, educational
projects might be worth looking at as well, and Richard
indicated those would also be considered.

We briefly discussed the issue of where to meet. Several people
had trouble finding the place tonight - it would obviously
be helpful to have a stable regular meeting place, or perhaps
two. No real decision seemed possible among those present.

There was some discussion of dues. NSS recruitment forms were
handed out for anybody who was not yet an NSS member; new NSS members
and renewals after more than 6 months lapse will generate some income
for the chapter, about $15 or $20 per person. But we do need to
have regular membership dues, and again hope to set a reasonable
level for that by January 2003.

Some sheets to gather ideas from those present were also handed
out.

The remainder of the time was given to Marcelo Vazquez, who
gave a very interesting presentation on the long-term spaceflight
focus of space research at Brookhaven and with the National Space
Biomedical Research Institute that BNL is part of. Marcelo's research
is on radiation effects, for which they are using the BNL accelerators
to simulate the heavy ions that are a major part of the high energy
cosmic rays in deep space. Exactly what these things do to cells,
and how their effects could be reduced through shielding,
medication, or other means. This is one of the critical research
areas needed before we can move the human spaceflight program
beyond Low Earth orbit, and on to Mars - a Mars image is even part
of the NSBRI logo.

The meeting ended with a brief comment on our next meeting - we
are hoping to hold it November 21 at Touro College Medical
School in Bay Shore, but there are some insurance issues that
need to be resolved first. More information will be forthcoming
by email.

Action items from the meeting:
1. Work on a flyer that can be posted to recruit members.
2. Once flyer is ready, or even before, start recruiting others!
3. Use the contacts we have to try to bring in a big-name speaker
for early 2003.
4. Continue to prepare for working on a Challenger Center proposal.
5. Establish dues level January 2003.
6. Find a stable location for our meetings.