Who is the ALCor?
A person in your society who has been
selected to serve as official contact person between
the AL and your group. As such, you act as an officer
of the League, and are responsible for making sure a
good working relationship exists between your organization
and the Astronomical League.
How is the ALCor chosen?
Any way your organization likes. But
it usually works best for the ALCor to be the person
who handles your club's data base, so the League can
easily be kept up-to-date. Since we ask for electronic
computer files, the person needs to have a computer
and be able to connect to the Internet. The ALCor must
be a conscientious person familiar with organization
activities, who attends meetings regularly, and will
relay information to your organization about the AL,
and information about your society to the League.
What if our organization does not have an ALCor right
now?
League materials will instead be sent to the organization's
president or other designated official who serves as
temporary ALCor until the AL is notified of the new
ALCor.
What does the ALCor do?
First, the ALCor is the contact person
between your organization and the League. The ALCor
is responsible for sending in roster updates, either
quarterly or as they occur. Along with your organization's
president, the ALCor serves as your organization's representative
on the Regional Council. If the ALCor is not able to
attend the regional convention, your organization may
appoint an alternate and send him/her with a proxy letter.
At the regional conventions, other groups from neighboring
states not only plan future regional conventions but
also other activities and joint programs. As your organization's
ALCor, you need to be in contact with your regional
representative to forward nominations, suggestions,
or other proposals. As an AL Council member, your representative
is obligated to consider the voice of ALCors and their
organizations in your region.
How can the ALCor help communications
between the AL and your organization?
First, the ALCor should periodically update the mailing
list used by the AL to send out the Reflector quarterly.
If your organization has not updated this list in the
last few months, you can request an electronic file
(spreadsheet) from the National Office.You can make
changes, deletions, additions, and update officer listings
on this spreadsheet, then email it back to the National Office
at aloffice@earthlink.net
You should make a periodic report of League activities
to your society membership and officers. This should
be done at least twice a year, first in time to vote
for national officers and other issues before the national
convention, then later to report on election of officers
and other issues at ALCON. ALCors should also report
on activities at the regional conventions. This information
should also be included in your organization's newsletter,
for members who missed the meetings.
You will occasionally receive mailings from the League,
and we ask that you please distribute these to the appropriate
officers. The AL tries to make programs and other materials
available to assist your organization, and you are the
key person in passing this information on to those who
can best use it. You can also assist all organization
members by serving as a source of information about
our many services. If you are no longer ALCor for any
reason, please pass all ALCor files along to your successor.
Include a note in your files as well indicating where
the files should be forwarded if needed, and advise
the National Office of this change.
After your annual elections, please be
sure to advise us of your new officers. This information
can be up-dated on the quarterly spreadsheet that you
send to the National Office.. Should your organization
encounter any problem pertaining to the League, or have
an idea for which the Astronomical League might be of
assistance, please contact the AL National Office at
the address or telephone number on the contact page
. If she can't help you, she will get you in touch with
the AL officer who is best qualified to serve you and
your organization.
How does the ALCor report membership changes to the
National Office ?
As members join, leave, and change their addresses,
you must let the National Office know each member's
current information. This is necessary, since the Reflector
is mailed at a bulk rate, so copies that cannot be delivered
are not forwarded. If the address is wrong, they post
office throws them out. We must have your member's correct
addresses or they will not receive their Reflectors.
The National Office can accept your changes at any time
you care to send them, but you may want to coordinate
your updates with the mailing of the Reflector, which
is on a strict schedule of being mailed in the first
week of the publication month. To keep to this schedule,
we have to send in the database to the printer around
the middle of the previous month. This means that to
get your updates in before the next Reflector, they
must be in our hands by the first week of January, April,
July, and October. If you miss these dates, new members
will not get their first Reflector for an additional
three months.
Please keep in mind that if you have
additional members join your club during the year, we
want you to add them to the roster you send us. You
are not charged any additional dues for these members.
(Nor do we give refunds for any members that may drop
out of your club during the year.) The accounting for
this just would be horrific, so we just ask for dues
to be paid once each year (due on July 1) for the members
you have at that time. However, if your club is growing
fast, and you are adding numerous new members, we might
appreciate some additional dues. Please contact the
National Office if you have a question regarding this.
To Send your roster:
The format to use is an MS Excel spreadsheet,
if possible. The column headings should be:
CLUB CODE; LAST NAME; FIRST NAME; SALUTATION
(if wanted - if not, leave blank or don't use); ADDRESS
1 (used for additional family members or extra long
addresses, i.e. college or universities); ADDRESS 2
(this is the main street address or Post Office Box);
CITY; STATE; ZIPCODE; COUNTRY (only if needed); TELEPHONE
(with the area code, please); ALCOR (put an "AL"
in the row of the ALCor's name); PRESIDENT (put a "PR"
in the President's row); TREASURER (put a "TR"
in the Treasurer's row); OTHER (indicate any other officers
you would like us to know about in this column); EMAIL
ADDRESS.
If you can't do an Excel spreadsheet,
we can also handle MS Works, or even a comma delimited
text file, as long as the information is in the above
order. Please contact the Executive Secretary if you
have any questions at all.
A note about telephone and email addresses:
We understand the sensitivity most of us have for receiving telemarketing phone calls and unwanted SPAM via email. For that reason, we NEVER give out any telephone numbers or email addresses, UNLESS it is to another League club or a League Region that has a legitimate astronomy-related reason to contact you and your members. A typical request we get for email addresses would be to advertise a National or Regional Convention, or perhaps a regional star party hosted by a League club or region.
Who is to be considered a member of our society for reporting purposes?
While it is obvious that an individual member should be reported so we can send the Reflector to him or her, many groups have family memberships, associate memberships, honorary memberships and so on. We are only interested in those who are supposed to be getting the Reflector, not in the list of your entire membership. This means that if you have a family membership where, for example, one copy of your newsletter is mailed to the entire household, then you should report that household to us as a single member. Associate members, such as spouses or live-in children, should not be reported to us separately, unless they also have separate individual memberships.
The implication of this is twofold. First, you are paying dues based on the number of Reflectors that get mailed to your members. If your dues structure does not have your member paying for your newsletter, you should not have them paying for the Reflector. The second implication is that if a member is paying for your newsletter, they should be paying for the Reflector. If your society considers a member important enough to receive your newsletter we consider that member important enough to receive our newsletter, the Reflector.
We also would like to point out that when you pay your dues to the Astronomical League, you must pay dues for your entire society. You cannot offer AL membership as an option to your individual members. Your society must pay for all of your members, and we will charge you for them and give you the equivalent number of votes in AL balloting. The Astronomical League is a federation of astronomical societies: it is an all or nothing affair for your society.
Astronomical League National Headquarters
9201 Ward Parkway; Suite 100
Kansas City, MO 64114
ALOffice@earthlink.net
1-816-333-7759
www.astroleague.org