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February 27, 2008
Headliners
There are 50+ Chapters in the National Space Society. Most of the chapters have four officer positions (President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary) and a member body. All either began their chapter membership as leaders in the Space Community or have become leaders since joining.
The chapter members carry on their everyday activities to create as dynamic a chapter as possible in their own geographic areas while offering an assist to others. They are a special group of people who give their time freely to pursue the dream of one day having the opportunity to live, work and settle in the near and far reaches of our Universe. If you love what you do the chances of becoming good at it are above the norm. We have a sense of pride in what we accomplish as a team and have a grand time doing it.
I hope after reading these passages and viewing the videos you will feel the excitement of getting involved. Each of these persons started with a dream of Space and decided to take the first step to doing something about it. If you are near one of our chapters, join. If none are in your area, what an opportunity to create your own.
This particular article will highlight just a few of the chapter leaders with an example of how they are working toward making our dreams come true while living theirs
The Honor Was All His
Jim Plaxco, is the Public Affairs Vice President of The Chicago Society for Space Studies, a chapter of the National Space Society.
As a pro-space organization, the CSSS has sponsored Space figures in and around the Chicago area as well as producing their own original programming. The chapter received an NSS award for public outreach and Jim played the leading role in the development of the NSS Space Calendar 2008.
This time, Jim was asked to do something a little bit different from what he had ever done before. Did I mention that Jim is also a polished speaker and a Space Artist. He gets some public speaking practice in by his time spent volunteering for NASA as a JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Solar System Ambassador.
Take all of what Jim has been practicing over the years while in the NSS Chicago Chapter and you can see why he was chosen to be On-Stage with The Music Institute of Chicago Orchestra. Click here to see and read exactly what it was that our Chapter Leader was called on to do...
She Brings the Moon closer to Us
Veronica Ann Zabala Aliberto is the President of the Pheonix Chapter of the National Space Society as well as the Chair of the Chapter Projects and Events Committee.
We are fortunate to have a chapter leader working at the Arizona State University which is a hub of ongoing investigative work of our solar sytem and our place in it. Since she is also a JPL Solar System Ambassador, passing on exciting discoveries is as natural to her as our everyday conversations.
Recently she sent us an email concerning the Lunar earth project at ASU with a link to an ASU outreach Video provided by the researches there. Click here http://www.azpbs.org/asuspotlight/player169.php?id=24&episode=105 to watch the video. By the way, you will see Veronica Ann, at work, in the last section when they are telling us how they spend many hours putting together pictures taken on the Lunar surface to place on the web for our viewing.
I emailed Veronica Ann and thanked her for her continued support and promotion of Space through her every day actions.
As per Veronica - Ann
This year "will prove to be a very exciting time for the LRO mission! Not for me personally but for everyone who has yearned to "go back to the Moon". This mission is our defining mission in which it will determine which path we will take in order to see our near term goals of the VSE come to a reality."
Not so different in Space
A Pioneer for All Mankind
Michael Stennecken is the President of Deutsche Raumfahrtgesellschaft e.V, the German Space Society located in Muenster, Germany.
In the past year they conducted a special project with "Club 68 Munster" with the goal of opening space for all people.
At the National Space Society yearly conference, ISDC 2007, held in Dallas, Texas, his chapter received the "Chapter Explorer Award." The award was presented because of their efforts to make a difference for all people with special needs throughout the world.
In their continuing efforts to make this a reality the two groups held a "Press Conference" to extend the Frontiers award to Club 68. A copy of the Chapter Award along with a poster created explicitly for this event was presented to Karl-Josef Panners and Ulrike Batz, President and Vice President of Club 68 by German Space Society Chapter President, Michael Stennecken.
Michael was kind enough to send me a copy of the poster along with News clippings and websites that published the event. Some of the questions that they pose are
Is Space a barrier-free zone?
Can handicapped people be astronuats?
The exhibition "Handicap in Space" they believe answers these questions. The poster shows Sonja Rohde, who he says may possibly be the first German woman in Space with SS2 (Virgin Galactic) and Stephen Hawking, noted Astrophysicist, who despite his "heavy illness and complete body paralysis" prepares for this first space flight. "He is an example to never give up in life and that spirit can triumph over materia", Stennecken says, pointing out that the difference between handicapped and non handicapped melts down in Space.
To quote Michael "Here we had started as DRG e.V. together with the club 68 an unusual action, which got surprisingly more international than local attention." The international attention Michael is referring to here is the award given to them at the ISDC 2007. From there a Hometown Press conference and continuing....
It is my hope that we will be able to continue showcasing our chapters and saluting our leaders in future issues of the Chapter News section of our main NSS website at http://www.nss.org, and, when space allows, in issues of our award winning magazine, Ad Astra.
To The Stars,
Candace Pankanin
National Space Society
Vice President for Chapters
Original Copy 12-23-2007. Actual pulishing date 2/27/2008
Posted by Candace Pankanin at February 27, 2008 11:42 AM
