Growing Your Astronomy Club |
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1. Attract Club Visitors
How do you get new visitors to come to your club meetings?
Your club’s public astronomy events are one of the best opportunities to let interested people know they can join your club. So along with sharing their astronomy knowledge and views through the telescope, every club member can spread the word about your club.
Many clubs have discovered that members of the public who attend astronomy events are not often aware that the presenters and telescope operators belong to an astronomy club. Or that the club holds meetings that the visitor is also welcome to attend.
If you are talking to someone who shows a more-than-average interest in astronomy, you may have a future club member standing in front of you. The event organizer might want to make sure that every club member at the event has a few cards or flyers with your club information that can be handed out.
Suggested approach:
“You seem really interested in astronomy. Our club holds meetings at the community center on the second Wednesday of every month. I’d like to invite you to attend as our guest – no obligation – I think you’d enjoy the speaker and the guy who brings the cookies is a pastry chef. Here’s a card with our website.”
Other misperceptions that visitors might have:
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You must to own a telescope to become a club member (tell them that many members don’t own scopes)
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It is an expensive hobby (yes, it can be, but it doesn’t have to be!)
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You need a lot of astronomy knowledge before you can join (“Most of us came with an interest . . . not a degree.”)
If the visitor expresses any of these concerns, give reassurance that all of your club members are at different levels, not all own telescopes (if that’s the case), and you enjoy learning together.
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Sharing the Universe videos are produced by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) from research conducted by the Institute for Learning Innovation, the ASP, and from astronomy clubs like yours. www.astrosociety.org/SharingTheUniverse
The Sharing the Universe project is funded by the National
Science Foundation and is supported by the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) of the National Science Foundation under Grant Number DRL 0638873. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Video production by Flying Moose Pictures