Volunteer Network
The Planetary Society's
Global Volunteer Network Newsletter
Summer 2004
July - September
Dear Planetary Society Volunteers,
In the months since I wrote the Spring 2004 Newsletter, The Planetary
Society Global Volunteer Network has grown, both in the number of volunteers
and the number of activities that volunteers have participated in or
organized. This Newsletter will highlight some of those activities,
which I hope you'll find not only interesting, but inspiring as well.
So if you are looking for ideas about how you can promote The Planetary
Society in your community, or want to know what others are doing, read
on.
I've selected an amazing variety of events that our volunteers have
either organized themselves or at which they have been asked to represent
the Society. A year ago, we were supporting several events a year.
Now we are involved in several events a month! Thanks to all of you
who have created your own events, brought upcoming events in your area
to our attention or have responded quickly to our request for help
at a pre-established event. You Make it Happen!
Worldwide events of interest to our Members are posted on the Society’s
Event Calendar. We
can advertise your event via email to our Members or post it on
the Events Calendar. With advanced notice, we will ship you Planetary
Reports, bookmarks, stickers, membership forms and "request for
further information" forms.
I've included some new volunteer opportunities and a reminder of some
opportunities suggested earlier. I've also included some links to our
website you won't want to miss, be it about the Mars Exploration Rovers
or the Cassini-Huygens mission. And finally, as our Global Network
grows, so do the number of regions. Two new regions, in Florida and
Seattle, Washington, were recently formed, and I'd like you to meet
the Coordinators.
I'm writing this Newsletter for you. It is your Newsletter. So please
send me ideas you'd like to share, suggestions on how to reach more
people, your thoughts on what the Global Network means to you.
Both Vilia Zmuidzinas and I thank you for all the enthusiasm and energy
you put into representing the Society. It energizes us in turn! Thank
You!
- Lonny Baker, Global Volunteer Leader
Volunteer Activities
• Argentina
• Australia
• Florida
• India
• Ireland
• NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s
Open House
• Pasadena, California
• San Francisco, California
• United Kingdom
• Astronomy Day
Volunteer Opportunities
Interesting Web Links
Regional Coordinators and New Networks
Volunteer Activities
• Argentina - Our dedicated Regional Coordinator in Argentina
is Sergio Stinco. Sergio speaks with passion about The Planetary Society
at every opportunity. His Radio Network interviews are broadcast on
over 50 radio stations throughout Patagonia and are heard by over 500,000
people. Sergio also speaks to school groups and at public meetings.
• Australia - Matthew James, Kevin Walsh and Michael Paine are
Regional Coordinators in Australia (yes, it's a BIG country!) In February,
Matthew distributed copies of The Planetary Report at public lectures
on Mars and Titan exploration held at the Australian National University,
Canberra.
In July, Kevin organized a lecture at the University of Melbourne
by planetary scientist Dr. Mikhail Marov, from the M.V. Keldysh
Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Marov has worked on the Vega and Phobos missions and is the
former principal investigator on the Russian Venera and Mars missions. See The
Australian Volunteer Network website for upcoming
events.
• Florida - Regional
Coordinator Karen Sulprizio presented programs on Mars and The
Planetary Society to school children, science teachers and school
science department chairs. To make her presentations exciting to
all her audiences she has created posters, magnets and stickers,
which she gives to students and teachers alike. Karen would be
happy to share her materials with other volunteers and would welcome
an email.
• India - Amrut Yalagi,
our Regional Coordinator in India, has represented us at several recent
events. Nearly 300 people attended a transit of Venus workshop on June
7th and later in the month Amrut attended the Indo-US Space Conference
on Space Science. At the 35th Anniversary celebration of the Apollo
11 Moon mission, Amrut presented papers on Apollo 11 and on Cosmos
1: the Solar Sail.
• Ireland - Kevin Nolan, Regional
Coordinator for Ireland, has made several presentations on the
work of The Planetary Society. In April he spoke to a joint Physics/Astrophysics
conference at Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland. He presented
an overview of the Society and the strategy for engaging the public
in space exploration. And then for a change of pace, he gave two
lectures to amateur astronomical societies in April and May. Not
to rest on his past accomplishments, Kevin is planning a series
of three lectures in Dublin in November. Check The
Planetary Society's Irish Volunteers Network website for further information.
• NASA’s Goddard Space
Flight Center, Maryland - When John
Goss, a Virginia volunteer, attended AstroCon '04, held in Berkeley,
California, the last person he expected to meet was me, Lonny Baker,
staffing the Society table. But I recognized his name, we started to
talk, and the next thing I knew he was offering to represent The Planetary
Society at the Goddard Open House the following week. I immediately
called Vilia Zmuidzinas, told her of John's offer, and within an hour
she had a box of Society materials in the mail to him. Bravo for teamwork!
• Pasadena,
California - Where would we be without the Pasadena
volunteers? Under the guidance of Coordinator Anna May Tomaszewski,
this group helps by stuffing envelopes for Society mailings; responding
to Member inquiries for information; taking the Society's telescope
to star parties; and exhibiting the Society’s LEGO model of the
Mars Rover at science fairs and other exhibitions. The group meets
twice a month at the Society headquarters. If you live in the
area or are visiting Southern California, you may wish to join
them.
• San Francisco,
California - Chris Nye, has been named the new
Regional Coordinator for the Bay Area. He and Matt Lucking, the
volunteer coordinator, organized and coordinated twenty volunteers
who staffed information tables for a total of 92 hours at two
events, which occurred simultaneously in July. Splashdown '04, was
a 10-day celebration aboard the USS Hornet, the aircraft carrier
that recovered the Apollo 11 and 12 astronauts. Thousands of people
toured the ship and many stopped by The Planetary Society table to
view a Mars Pathfinder panorama poster using 3-D glasses, as well
as a model of the Cosmos 1 solar sail.
AstroCon '04 was a three-day national amateur astronomy conference.
The Society booth featured an 800-piece LEGO rover
model, built by volunteer Suzy Chippindale, and a Mars Pathfinder
panorama poster in 3-D. Pictures from these two events can
be seen here. Click on Past Events.
• United Kingdom -
Andrew Lound, our UK Regional Coordinator, wrote, produced and
staged a very special Planetary Society event, “Saturn,
Lord of the Rings” at the Soho House Museum, Birmingham, England.
Following a brief illustrated history of Saturn observations by
Galileo, Huygens, and Cassini, he showed pictures of Saturn taken
by ground based telescopes and the Pioneer and Voyager missions
of the 1980s. Finally, he wowed the audience with stunning images
from the Cassini mission: Saturn, its rings, moons, and even the
sound of dust particles hitting the spacecraft. Andy said his program
is evolving as more Cassini images become available. At least two
more presentations are scheduled on November 30 and December 2,
2004. Contact
him for place and time. For information
on Planetary Society activities in the UK, visit The
United Kingdom Planetary Society Volunteers website.
• Astronomy Day and
a Rainy Star Party - Day or Night, our volunteers
represent us! In April, Jeannette Schodroski, in Edwardsville, Illinois
and Gina Schraut in Boston, Massachussetts took part in Astronomy Day
festivities. In July, Ryan Edwards attended the Table Mountain Star
Party in Washington state. Although the weather was rainy and Ryan
was often wet, he promises to go back next year. We're hoping that
other volunteers who attend star parties will spend a little time next
year spreading the word that The Planetary Society is the most innovative
space advocacy organization in the world!
Volunteer Opportunities:
• Help Celebrate The Planetary Society's 25th Anniversary in 2005!
We know that over the years the Society has been mentioned in books,
TV shows, movies, etc. The Society staff has come up with a list of
places (there may be more) where the Society has been mentioned or
portrayed:
TV shows--X-Files, West Wing, JAG, Joan of Arcadia
Movies--Back to the Future
Books -- by authors Gar & Judy Reeves-Stevens
Short stories -- David Brin
The Society would like to have references to film clips from the TV
shows or movies (or at least quotes from scripts, or episode names
and numbers), and quotes from books, magazine articles, etc.
Here's the challenge: Can you help find the references or other mentions? Society
staff would love to incorporate them into a visual show of film clips
or a speech which would be given at an anniversary celebration.
• Volunteers Answer the Call
Thanks to the following volunteers who are currently helping to
research questions on planetary exploration and the search for extraterrestrial
life that have been posed by the general public and our Members: Errol
Coder (Utah), Chad Danielson (Iowa), Jordi Forteza, (Spain), Chris
Martel (Michigan), Seth Matheson (Maryland), Chris Nye (California),
Ron Peterson (California), Joe Reed (Florida), Horst Sommer (France),
Sergio Stinco (Argentina), Karen Sulprizio (Florida), Lee Vallance
(Japan), Kevin Walsh (Australia), Amrut.Yalagi (India), Jon Zander
(Nevada)
• Mars Stations - Would You Like One in Your Backyard?
Have you checked out our Mars Station website yet? Would you like
to have a Mars Station in your City/County/Province or Country?
All you have to do is contact your local Science Museum or Planetarium,
ignite their interest in developing a Mars Station at their site,
and we will do the rest. For further information, email us.
• Volunteers Represent Us Well
Our volunteers are involved in many different activities: star
parties, science fairs, classroom presentations, museum celebrations -
we are there. Many of these events are brought to our attention
by our sharp-eyed volunteers. If you know of an upcoming event
where you might represent the Society, please write Rita
Szeto or Lonny at
and we'll provide Planetary Society materials and advertise the
event on the Society’s
Events Calendar.
• Volunteers Boost Membership!
For the first time, volunteers were asked to actively promote Membership
in the Society. Thought at first to be a difficult task, the San
Francisco Bay Area volunteers found that with the special promotional
tools offered by the Society (50% off Membership and a premium gift
of a beautiful poster) along with an attractive booth, their efforts
were rewarded with an unexpectedly high number of new Memberships!
Interesting Web Sites:
• Mars Exploration Rover Model - discount offer expires December 31
Time is running out for US and Canadian Society members and volunteers
to order the 858-piece Mars Exploration Rover model from LEGO at
a substantial discount of $US39.99. See page 18 of the May/June issue
of The Planetary Report for details and special member codes.
• MarsDial: The Movie!
Watch time pass on Mars in movies of a Mars-based sundial, a MarsDial,
made from still images captured over a 10-day period by the Spirit
rover. The movies were created by The Planetary Society's Student
Astronauts, teenaged Members of the Mars Exploration Rover team.
View the movie here.
• Interview with Charley Kohlhase
Charley Kohlhase, a Society Advisory Board member and former Cassini
Science and Mission Design Manager, was asked by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory to coordinate a public outreach effort to gather signatures
to carry on the Cassini spacecraft. As the Cassini-Huygens public
outreach coordinator and creator of the DVD Signature Disc aboard
the Cassini spacecraft, Charley was interviewed by A.J.S. Rayl for
an article on our website about how over 600,000 signatures from
81 countries were collected and scanned by our Pasadena volunteers.
Joe Oliver, who logged 334 hours in 1995, was particularly noted!
• Follow the Exciting Adventure of Cassini-Huygens
Having trouble keeping up with all the exciting news that the Cassini-Huygens
spacecraft is sending back? There's little in the newspaper since
the successful insertion into Saturn orbit and the astronomy
magazines are weeks late in printing the latest images. For up-to-date
information about mission highlights and milestones, visit The Planetary
Society's new Cassini-Huygens web resource.
Regional Coordinators and New Networks
Congratulations to our three
new Regional Coordinators:
• Ron Daigle coordinates The Planetary Society’s Seattle Area Volunteer
Network (TPSSAVN). Under Ron's guidance, this group represented the Society
at several Mars-related events in January (see the
Spring '04 Newsletter).
Their first meeting as a group was held on August 15, 2004.
• Karen Sulprizio of Venice, Florida, became a volunteer and
immediately went to work promoting the Society in schools throughout
her county. As
Florida volunteers live mostly along the east and west coasts of
the state, she will find it challenging to bring this group together,
but the power of the internet will assist her. Karen has developed
many visual tools (posters, magnets, tickets) that she would like
to share with other volunteers. Feel free to email her.
• Chris Nye became Coordinator of TPSBAVN (The
Planetary Society Bay Area Volunteer Network) in June '04. His
group of 40 volunteers has worked together for more than 17 years.
They support Society events in the Bay Area and organize events
of their own.
The following Regional Coordinators will serve for another two years:
Elia Cozzi (Italy), Marge Currie (Colorado), Francisco Goncalves
(Portugal), Matthew James (Australia), Andrew Lound (United Kingdom),
Jesus Martinez-Frias (Spain), Patrick Morton (Venezuela), Kevin Nolan
(Ireland), Michael Paine (Australia), Regina Schraut (Massachusetts),
Sergio Stinco (Argentina), Anna May Tomaszewski (Pasadena), Jose
Roberto Costa (Brazil), Kevin Walsh (Australia), Amrut Yalagi (India)
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