RTE & the Astronomy voice of Ireland

Beats me how he gets all the air time, DM that is, talking about the recent meteor shower and advertising his website on rte1 radio this mng, mumbled a bit when mentioned that the peak was over, thats all ok but how can we fight our corner when a LIMITED COMPANY seems to have the media sown up
Charles

Beats me how he gets all the air time, DM that is, talking about the recent meteor shower and advertising his website on rte1 radio this mng, mumbled a bit when mentioned that the peak was over, thats all ok but how can we fight our corner when a LIMITED COMPANY seems to the media sown up
Charles

i don't think we can really match him totally on the national level charles for the simple reason we all have jobs whereas he makes his living from it. what i think we can do is on a local level we can compete with him by premoting local clubs. he cannot be everywhere all the time. word of mouth and local events do go along way. i know because even after i stopped being the secretary of the IAS i used to get the odd call for several years after of people looking to find out about the society. this shows that info leaflets handed out years in the past can still survive and people will pass it on to other people who are interested. i have never seen david moore on the tv outside dublin so i would guess he rarely goes to other cities and towns to have events. if we promote clubs outside of dublin he will lose some of his base. then we can take him on in the big smoke as they say.
stephen.

I am "new" to astronomy and this site.
Vaguely remember have seen the other web site a while back.
Have checked the other site a few weeks back.
Very obvious to me that the other one is a commercial setup to sell products.
I stumble upon here thanks to Lidl (the recent telescope offer).
The work you guys have done here is way way better.
Here is for people who love astronomy.
There is no competition - I have not been that site since or buy anything from them.

FWIW I'll tell you why DM gets all the air time he does.

1. He sends out hundreds of press releases every week.
2. He is personally known to the vast majority of the national newspapers and is a former presenter on RTE.
3. He is the chairman of the largest astronomy club in this country. A club BTW which this organisation's constitution excludes. Thousands of people *choose* to pay their sub to AI/A&S.
4. He gets in their face.
5. He's damn good at it.

*Fact* Without DM/AI publicising the event, the vast majority of the general public who stood outside last night watching geminids would have been indoors watching TV, blissfully unaware of the spectacle unfolding above them. As it turned out I personally lost count of the people coming up to me at home and in work asking about the geminids specifically because they heard DM talk about it on the radio.

I'll say it again, DM gets butts off chairs and out into the cold air. The fact that he makes a living doing so is essential. You cant do that full time without either being filthy rich in the first place or by making a living from it while you do it.

I'm sorry in advance if I offend anyone, just have to call is like I see it. It just seems everytime I come here theres another DM/A&S/AI whinging session started. Forgive my suggestion, why not get rid of that exclusionory article from your constitution. Allow AI to apply and then allow AI's resources to help promote your local astronomy clubs/events too.

Clear skies,

Dave.

Forgive my suggestion, why not get rid of that exclusionory article from your constitution. Allow AI to apply and then allow AI's resources to help promote your local astronomy clubs/events too.

Why should IFAS change its constitution from a perfectly reasonable stance of requiring a club to be democratic? If it did would AI be interested in joining? I've asked AI about this before but the discussion didn't really get off the ground. I've seen very little evidence that they are at all interested in being involved with other clubs or ILPAC, in fact I've seen the contrary. I don't think AI being in IFAS is a prerequisite to "allow AI's resources to help promote your local astronomy clubs/events", I'm quite happy to have AI help promote and support ILPAC for example as it is!

To flip the question can I suggest that AI get rid of its current setup. State its relationship to A&S clearly, not _require_ subscribing to a magazine from A&S to be a member and allow members to elect a committee? The people connected to AI would I assume quickly elect DM as president, definatly as PRO. A&S would be the magazine which you _could_ subscribe to (at a discouted rate for club members perhaps), they could promote the shop also as the club shop since the treasurer could show how much money the club got at an AGM. DM could continue to run A&S as he sees fit. Put simply, they state they are the national club, so why not give members a say in its operation?

I'm not starting yet another discussion, the questions above do not need to be discussed here[1]! I'm just pointing out the flip side of Dave's comment. I think it would be reasonably easy for AI join IFAS[2] with some changes like the ones above. This would also open a wider customer base for A&S.

Cheers,
~Al

[1] Connaught Star Party is coming up soon, lets discus over a drink at that eh?

[2] I'm not on the IFAS committee btw! And was a subscriber to A&S when the IFAS constitution was written!

Without DM/AI publicising the event, the vast majority of the general public would have been indoors watching TV.

I don't think so. If AI did not exist, then I think most of the other clubs who have tried to get into the publics eye would have stood a better chance. I make reference to my post in the Politics thread about this, where Radio 3 won't even acknowledge its own local astronomical society in Tullamore (I think its called TAS... ).

AI have ruined it for other clubs to try and get noticed, and that is bloody well obvious. I despise its tactics for democracy within its single-man committee, and how it won't even acknowledge publicly that other, even lesser clubs exist. These lesser clubs aren't even a threat, and he barely operates outside of Dublin, yet he won't mention the other clubs to where he can't even reach.

He even had the cheek to try and set up classes in Astronomy down here in Tullamore and Mullingar last year - I believe only because there are 2 local amateur groups already in existence (again, I think one is called TAS...) - he wanted to oust us! Why else would he try to do it?

He is a pain in the butt, more for what he has tried to do to astronomy then his postive outcomes. I am not jealous - I am annoyed. He deliberately does not want to have anything to do with IFAS, local astronomy clubs, and helping the astronomically vulnerable (premium phone lines instead of web addresses etc)

I'm sorry in advance if I offend anyone, just have to call is like I see it

Doesn't bother me Dave, sure look at some of the stuff I have typed about this!

But believe me, I also do not intend to offend anyone, though I know some who will be frowning at me at COSMOS!

:lol:

Seanie.