Committees

Awards Committee

Chair: Chris Dombrowski

Purpose: SCAAS promotes public understanding of the cultural significance of astronomical knowledge among cultures of the Greater American Southwest, past and present, by supporting research, Native contributions, and its public dissemination.

Awards Committee: The committee will consist of a minimum of three members of which one will be a member of the executive committee of the Society. The President of the Society will be an ex officio member. The members will be appointed by the Vice-President based upon recommendations by the Executive Committee.

Nominations: Two months prior to a meeting of the Society, nominations for the awards can be made by members of the Awards Committee, with input, where appropriate, from members of the Society. Nominations shall describe the manner by which the proposed awardees satisfy the specific criteria for the award. Where appropriate a vitae and list of publications will be included. Nominations will be accepted for any of the three awards (Lifetime Achievement, Distinguished Service and Distinguished Student). The Awards committee will decide which awards, if any, will be made. Normally, only one award will be made in any one year; however, multiple awards may be made if no awards were made in interceding years between Conference. The nominations may be made with or without knowledge of the proposed awardees.

Voting: The Board shall vote by written or electronic ballot, no sooner than one week after nominations deadline and at least one month before a scheduled meeting of the Society.

Awards: Awards will be announced and the awardees will be appropriately recognized at the next scheduled meeting of the Society at an appropriate time.

Current Committee Members: Chris Dombrowski (president@scaas.org), Ray Williamson

• Awards and Nomination Forms (PDF)PDF

Social Media and Newsletter Committee

Chairs: William Seven and Karen Knierman

The goals of the media committee are:

1. Newsletter (quarterly on the solstice or equinox)
   1. To keep members informed about the SCAAS
   2. Stories / articles / events of interest to the members of the SCAAS
   3. Articles highlighting the research of our members
2. Social media presence (Facebook, Twitter, et cetera)
   1. Promote the society
   2. Share interest stories
3. Discussion Forums (in the future)
   1. Maintain and moderate a place for members to discuss SCAAS and cultural astronomy issues.

Structure:

The committee will be administered by a board approved appointee and will report to the president or vice president. The president will communicate the Board’s needs to the committee chair.

Members needed:

1. Social media member, responsible to maintain and run our social media accounts.
2. Forum Moderator (when we have a Forum up and running)
3. Content Moderator, not necessarily to generate content but solicit and manage content from members and other sources.

Current Committee Members: William Seven, Chris Dombrowski (president@scaas.org)

Conference and Workshop Committee

Chair: Ric Alling

The goals of the conference and workshop committee are:

The society plans on having periodic workshops and conferences. Conferences being traditional talks and presentations. Workshops are practical, hands on, classes pertaining to cultural astronomy.

1. Organize and run conferences
   1. Organize and plan conferences
   2. Find and organize speakers
   3. Running of the conferences
2. Organize and run workshops
   1. Organize and plan workshops
   2. Running of the workshops

Structure:

The committee will be administered by a board approved appointee and will report to the president or vice president. The president will communicate the Board’s needs to the committee chair.

Current Committee Members: Ric Alling and Chris Dombrowski (president@scaas.org)

Publications Committee

Chairs: Greg Munson and Ray Williamson

The goals of the publications committee are:

1. Publish research derived from SCAAS conferences and workshops in a variety of multimedia formats.
   1. Printed books.
   2. eBooks
   3. CD/DVD
   4. Online audio/video presentations
2. Work closely with other SCAAS committees to support funding of technical editing and publication costs.
   1. Fundraising committee
   2. Media Committee
3. Have a defined focus on assisting less experienced authors in developing their technical writing skills.
4. Have a defined focus on working with Native American and other indigenous peoples to conduct research, present research and publish research through our own peer-reviewed journal or other multimedia formats.

Structure:

The committee will be administered by a board approved appointee and will report to the president or vice president. The president will communicate the Board’s needs to the committee chair.

Members needed:

1. Committee Chair(s) – Greg Munson and Ray Williamson
2. Qualified members and/or outside scholars to provide constructive comments on papers.
3. Members and/or outside workers with highly developed technical editing skills.

Members with experience in publishing books through Kindle Direct Publishing, short-run printers, online and eBooks.

Current Committee Members: Greg Munson (Greg_Munson@scaas.org) and Ray Williamson

Fundraising Committee

Chair: Bryan Bates

Membership Committee

Chair: Greg Munson

The goals of the membership committee are:

1. Conduct membership drives to increase Society membership and encourage participation in SCAAS events and committees.
2. Maintain the Wild Apricot membership database.
   1. Monitor the inquiry@scaas.org email for new memberships and membership renewals.
   2. Enter new memberships and membership renewals made by US mail.
   3. Send new members a welcoming email.
3. Maintain the Wild Apricot donations database.
   1. Monitor the inquiry@scaas.org email for new donations.
   2. Enter new donations made by US mail.
   3. Prepare formal donation receipts and send to donors with a thank you note within 48 hours of donation.
4. Maintain and update the SCAAS GoDaddy website.
5. Represent SCAAS at local, regional and international conferences.
   1. Vendor and information tables.
   2. Sale of publications.

Structure: The committee will be administered by a board approved appointee and will report to the president or vice president. The president will communicate the Board’s needs to the committee chair.

Members needed:

1. Webmaster

Current Committee Members: Greg Munson (Greg_Munson@scaas.org)