AOAS is approaching its 20th anniversary on January 15, 2005. For the past 19 years, we have always met at the Creekmore Park Community Center. Now, I would like to ask every member of AOAS to consider moving to a new location for our bi-monthly meetings.

We are continuing our cooperative efforts with the Ft Smith Parks Dept through 2005 by holding public observing nights at Carol Ann Cross Park once each month between February and October. These dates are posted in our "Saturn in the Parks"/"Stars in the Parks" window on our front page. This allows us to hold our meetings at any Ft Smith meeting room location for free in return for our efforts.

We are considering moving to the downtown River Parks meeting room at the Amphitheatre near Harry E. Kelly Park. We are also considering that the west side meeting room will best serve our needs by providing a nice view overlooking the Arkansas River as well as providing a good shadowed area outside for any observing we might do after our meetings. Both sides of the River Parks bldg have kitchen areas built-in, both are MUCH more spacious, both have good sized areas of wall space for showing slide shows or PowerPoint presentations and the entire facility is new.

If you are a current member in good standing with AOAS please logon and give us your input on this change in where we hold our bi-monthly meetings. All you need to do is click on "Post Reply" below this message and give us your 2-3 cents worth.

I hope you'll all agree that this would be a MUCH better place for us to meet.

UPDATE!
We will NOT be able to continue the 3rd Fridays as we have been. The FIRST FRIDAYS are available and ALL would be in the west meeting room overlooking the river.
Dates are:
Feb 4th, Apr 1st, June 3rd, Aug 5th, Oct 7th, and Dec 2nd

Sounds good to me Bob, but I would like to get down there and scope things out before committing to it. Also what is the cost impact?

There is no cost as stated, Kenny. We receive our meeting rooms free as long as we continue to offer public nights at a Park facility.

Sounds OK to me, but would there be any conflicts with concerts, blues fests, etc,

Dale

I don't think so, Dale. I know there wouldn't be with whether we get the room or not, but I don't know if any loud music would distract us too much in those rooms or not.

Good question; I'll try to find out.


UPDATE!
We are scheduled (tentatively) for the dates listed above, and NO ROOMS are available for rent if there are any conflicting events such as concerts or blues fests. That's one reason we're considering a new week to meet (FIRST Friday's of the months listed) because the 3rd Friday of Aug is Bluesfest.

SEE dates listed at beginning of this topic

Bob,
Both location and time changes will work great for me.
Frank

I vote YES. I have NO problem with either the locations or the dates.

Bob, I caught the cost issue when I re-read your post. I say lets go with it.

Sorry I'm late to post but changing the location sounds fine to me.

Gerald

This post is being made by me for Dr. Larson. His computer still has something that's not allowing him to make replies to our discussion topics.

Dr. Larson votes that we make the move.

I have looked at the western waters room and found it to be acceptable in the daylight. First Friday's are good for me.
Happy Thanksgiving
Charley

I'm a new member of AOAS, so I don't have a lot of experience with the meetings, but the one meeting I've been able to attend so far at Creekmore was not good. Not good not because of the content of the meeting, but because we had to move outside to be able to hear the speakers! The River Park facility will be much better; the rooms are private because they are not connected and even if there's a wild bunch on the other side, we won't be affected by them. And, since I work at the River Park on Saturdays and Sundays, I will be able to attend every Saturday meeting held there! If anyone in the club would like to see the facility on a weekend, I'd be glad to show them around.

That's an EXCELLENT idea, Linda. Everyone should take you up on this suggestion to visit the River Parks meeting rooms on a Saturday or Sunday. That way, we'd all be able to see what's available as I did when you showed the facilities to me last month.

I hope the membership will take you up on this. Thanks for suggesting it!