As many of you know, AOAS jointly hosted the MSRAL 2011 convention with CAAS, our sister club in Little Rock.
This year, MSRAL 2013 is being hosted by the Omaha Astronomical Society (OAS) at Mahoney State Park near Ashland, Nebraska, about 27 miles SW of Omaha. You can find all the information you need at http://msral2013.org. The event is planned for the weekend of May 17-18, which is hopefully before most high school graduation ceremonies, etc.
the Eugene T. Mahoney State Park is adjacent to the Strategic Air and Space Museum as well as several other outdoor attractions, so there will be plenty to do. Saturday is Helicopter day at the SAS Museum, so it might be tough to attend the business meeting and see the helicopters at the same time. Good luck choosing!
At any rate, I encourage anyone who can make ti to attend to represent AOAS and retunr the favor of those from Omaha who attended our convention in 2011. I've posted a flyer in our downloads section that you can download and print out if you're interested:
MSRAL 2013 Event Flyer
The geography of the Mid-States region works against the Arkansas clubs since we are the southern most point in gerrymandered-like district that is mostly the middle Midwestern states. That hurt our attendance when we hosted MSRAL Con 2 years ago (plus the weather) and it makes out attendance at this year's MSRAL Con impractical to virtually impossible for most. I would like to see the Astro League re-draw its regions.
Yup. I agree with you. Omaha is a long way to go for most anyone in Arkansas. Even us NW Ark. folks.
AOAS.ORG - Forum
http://www.aoas.org/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=2717