IOTA at NEAF 2013 The IOTA Booth At The 2013 Northeast Astronomy Forum Bruce Berger, Ted Blank, Al Carcich, Ken Coles, Steve Conard, Bruce Holenstein IOTA 2013 Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada

North East Astronomy Forum Co-hosted by Rockland Astronomy Club and Sky&Telescope attendees over 2 full days (Sat. and Sun.) All major Astro vendors, Magazines, Clubs, Imagers, etc. Founded by Allan Green (RAC president) and Al Nagler (TeleVue) Also: Northeast Astro Imaging Conference & Solar Star Party

Goals New: NEAF Pro-Am track: Offer a class on Introduction to Occultations Exposure for IOTA New Members IOTA-VTI info/sales Feedback from NEAF attendees on IOTA Ideas for improving future booths (NEAF, Arizona Expo, etc.)

IOTA-VTI Activity Walt Morgan again offered a $15 discount offer for units purchased within a week of NEAF.

Outreach: Signups A BatchGEO map of booth visitor home towns was generated and sent to IOTA members, to make it easier to meet and mentor new members. (See next slide)

Geo-locations of 2013 Visitors to the IOTA table at NEAF

Outreach: Hands-on Demos and Real Equipment Volunteers brought their own occultation kits and made them available for examination during the weekend. Advantage: real gear, ability to show visitors how everything actually connects up Disadvantage: potential for damage or loss Result: No damage or loss Bruce Berger demonstrates a Canon ZR recorder to some visitors.

Outreach: Handouts etc. Visit IOTA on Yahoo Groups! Please visit us on our Yahoo Group, Feel free to join the group and post a message telling us a little bit about yourself, your geographic location, background and equipment and we will try to connect you with a more experienced member in your area. Beginner questions are

Ten-Inch Travel Scope The 10 travel scope was again assembled and displayed to visitors.

Activity: Analyze an occultation video Each visitor was offered the opportunity to analyze an existing recording on a laptop with Limovie.

Ted Blank and Bruce Berger taught two classes of Introduction to Occultations (pics by Bruce) Saturday 2pm – 3pm, 20 students Sunday 10am-11am – 9 students Covered hardware, software, web sites, using LiMovie, Occult Watcher, etc.

Budget NEAF Booth charge: $430 Booth: $175 (non profit 50%) Extra 8 table: $50 Extra chair: $5 +3 $25: $75 Power: $125 Handouts: $20 Banner and storyboards – re-used Total: $450 IOTA donation: $300 Other donations: Donations from attending members and their companies covered the remaining costs Display Equipment: provided by the volunteers (personal equipment)

Feedback / Results / Recommendations Ted Blank followed up with an to each person who left their contact information (33 total) 8 responses, one working with Scotty, one with Ted Blank, April Russell attending and presenting this year in Toronto Multitude of IOTA websites can confuse first-time visitors. Need a single web point of contact geared more toward the first contact visitor. Elizabeth Warner has offered to put up a consolidated front-end website Need list of IOTA members by geography who are willing to be mentors to new members or those just interested in learning more (i.e. future members) Need a single IOTA person willing to connect new members with local mentors Application deadline for NEAF 2014 is March 1 We have been offered a free booth in the non-profit area at Arizona Science & Astronomy Expo (ASEA) in 2014, or we could pay $250 to be on the main floor.