Information for Speakers

Our club meetings are held the third Thursday of the month and start at 7:00 PM. You will be introduced and have the floor after about 5 minutes of announcements. Talks given to the club run 45-60 minutes, including a question and answer period. It is up to you if you prefer to first give the presentation followed by Q&A, or if you prefer the talk to be interactive with reasonable Q&A interruptions.

The audience size will be 40 to 60 people. Most of the audience will be retirees. There are no professional astronomers in our club. We come from all walks of life from all over the US and Canada, and our commonality is a keen interest in astronomy. Among us are retired artists, teachers, social workers, tradesmen, physicians, lawyers, executives, architects, scientists, engineers, university faculty, etc. All of us are always in a learning mode. On the distribution curve, consider our average knowledge level on the high end of laypersons and on the low end of amateur astronomers.

With regard to logistics:

We need the title of your talk plus a descriptive sentence or two 3-4 months in advance of your talk.
We need a brief biography to introduce you to the audience. You may either e-mail it to the Program Chairman or bring a copy with you.
We need to know your projection needs a few weeks in advance. We have at our disposal an overhead projector, a Kodak slide projector, and a projector capable of projecting computer output and videos. A cordless microphone and a laser pointer are also available.
We cordially invite you to join us for dinner before your talk. As our guest, a few club members would join you for a relaxed dinner. It would have to be a rather early dinner -- 5:15. But this early time will allow us a comfortable margin before the meeting, which starts at 7:00. Dinner would be at one of a few local restaurants just a few minutes from our meeting place. Please advise if you can accept our invitation.
After your talk, our club will hold a brief business meeting. After that, we have an "open forum", for which most of our speakers have remained to participate. Anyone in the audience can bring up an astronomy question for discussion. We hope that your schedule permits your remaining for our open forum. We usually adjourn about 8:45. You do not have to give us an answer in advance if you can remain. We just want to let you know for your planning purposes.

For reference, driving time to our area from the UA campus is about 50 minutes during the evening rush hour. We usually have the pre-meeting dinner at 5:15 at the Cibaria Cucina Italiana, which is located in the shopping center (12985 N. Oracle Rd.) on the northwest corner of Oracle Rd. and Rancho Vistoso Blvd.

Rancho Vistoso Blvd. is a left off Oracle Rd. at the eleventh traffic light north of Ina Road. For reference, the tenth light is the one at Tangerine Rd. Rancho Vistoso is about a mile after Tangerine.

Our meetings take place in the Sun City Social Hall, which is located at 1495 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd., almost exactly 2 miles from Oracle Rd. To go directly to the Social Hall, follow the directions about to be given. Note that all landmarks mentioned will appear on the right:

As you proceed west on Rancho Vistoso Blvd. from Oracle Rd., you will pass Del Webb Blvd. and Crossbow Dr.
A short distance after, you will pass by a driveway with a sign "Sun City Golf Club and Café".
Make a right at the very next driveway, which has a sign "Mountain Vista Recreation Center".
The Social Hall is the leftmost of the 2 large buildings you will see upon entering the driveway.
Our meetings take place in the Navajo Room, which is located in the left rear of the building.

For your information, click here for a list of speakers who have given presentations to our club.

Please contact us if you require further information.

Sincerely,

The Program Committee

Fred E. Mills	Robert P. Schiller
825-7321	825-4694
fredmills@mailaps.org	rps333@earthlink.net