Related Info:
The Astronomical League CORrespondent (ALCor).
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.
Return to the ALCor Information Home Page;
Read the Astronomical League Bylaws and Standing Resolutions;
Return to Astronomical League Home Page.
This page is maintained by Matt Ganis for the Astronomical League. Comments, corrections, and suggestions can be addressed to webmaster@astroleague.org. This page last updated September 20, 2004
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