Activities of year 2006

OKLAHOMA SPACE ALLIANCE

A Chapter of the National Space Society

Oklahoma Space Alliance 2006 Activities Report

          Oklahoma Space Alliance had another quiet year in 2006. We met eleven times during the year, the July meeting at a science fiction convention being cancelled due to lack of active members, so we went straight to a party. The January, February, March, May, August, September and October meetings were at Tom and Heidi Koszoru's house, the November and December meeting at Claire and Clifford McMurray's. The April meeting was part of our Yuri's Night celebration at Borders Books. The June meeting was at the Oklahoma City Library. With the exception of the April and July meetings, attendance generally was between four and seven people, with a high of nine at the Christmas party.
          On April 12, Oklahoma Space alliance hosted a Yuri's night celebration at Borders Books. Clifford McMurray presented his lecture, "Space Tourism: Where's My Ticket." Chuck Lauer, co-founder of Rocketplane, Ltd., followed with a discussion of Rocketplane and the Oklahoma Spaceport. There were about seventeen people in the audience. After the presentation, seven of us went to the Koszoru house for refreshments.
          Tom Koszoru went to the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles and spent most of his time in committees. He reported on the conference at the May meeting.
          The June meeting was at the Oklahoma City Public Library as part of an effort to find a more central meeting place, since several of our members live north of Oklahoma City and others south. We discovered that
although the library has adequate meeting space, there is no really convenient place to park, so the search continues.
          On July 8, Syd Henderson and Tom Koszoru went to the National Conference on Educational Robotics, which was hosted by the KISS Institute of Practical Robotics, to help them judging the special prizes for Beyond
Botball, which is the Botball tournament for adults.
          On July 15, Oklahoma Space Alliance hosted a party at the SoonerCon science fiction convention in Oklahoma City. The party itself ran from 8:00 p.m. past 11:00 p.m., and we had up to seven or eight people pretty steadily through the night, with perhaps thirty or forty dropping by. Steve Browne, a summer reporter for the Oklahoma Daily, interviewed Tom and Syd about the Oklahoma Space Alliance and the National Space Society.
          Oklahoma Space Alliance has agreed to help the North Texas chapter of NSS with the 2007 International Space Conference in Dallas. We have sent them a check to help them financially and will be helping them with registration.
          One of our wandering members, David Craig sent us two discs he had recorded to DVD off the NASA website. The one on the early space race was impressive but too long to watch at the meeting. Tom duplicated the DVDs and distributed the copies at the September meeting.
          NSS is making a Space Settlement Art Calendar, and we donated money to the cause.
          We are putting together a set of questions for a radio space quiz to be done on a local radio talk station. We hope to get this going in 2007.
          Claire McMurray and/or Syd Henderson attended most meetings of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority. OSIDA are hoping to begin suborbital launches in 2009 at the Oklahoma Spaceport in Burns Flat.
          We produced six issues of Outreach with an approximate print run of forty-five. Content averages about fourteen 8 ½ by 5 ½ inch pages, not counting front and back covers. Our second newsletter, Update, is exclusively e-mail and typically runs three to five pages. The e-mail list for both newsletters is forty, of which about 20 overlap with the Outreach list. The actual paying members of OSA number about a dozen, with perhaps another ten or so who need to pay up.
          Syd Henderson initiated a new Oklahoma Space Alliance web page in July and has been maintaining it ever since. The url is http://chapters.nss.org/ok/osanss.html. So far the web site is mostly meeting nnouncements, minutes and copies of our newsletter, but Syd hopes to expand it when he gets more experienced.

-Report Compiled by Syd Henderson, Secretary, Oklahoma Space Alliance

To contact Oklahoma Space Alliance, e-mail Syd Henderson.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Copyright Š2006 Oklahoma Space Alliance.