Instructions for Organizers

Planning the Schedule of Events

• Typically, events are scheduled in six month blocks for lecture events, Astronomy on Tap, sidewalk astronomy, and science train. I like to start the process of making the schedule about 2 months prior to the beginning of the next six-month period.
• Investigate if there are any special astronomical events for this six-month block (e.g. transit, eclipse, NASA launch, etc.) If it's going to get covered by the news, people will want us to hold an event.
• Plan out the dates of the events you want to hold. Lectures are generally held once a month on a Friday, and Astro on Tap is generally once a month on a Monday. Try to keep them out of phase with each other to avoid overload of volunteers and audience. I like to plan lecture/stargazing nights as close as possible to first quarter moon, so we always have a good astronomical target in the sky.
• Avoid national holidays and any campus-wide holidays (e.g., graduation) that might interfere with the event schedule. Note, try to avoid dates near Thanksgiving and too late in December when (volunteers/audience) are out of town for the holidays.
• Check availability of your speaking location:
  • For Astro on Tap, check with the manager of the bar (e.g., Gabe at Der Wolf) to see if your proposed schedule is available.
  • For Lecture/stargazing, check if Hameetman is available for the lectures: http://mrbs.astro.caltech.edu/)
  • For Lecture/stargazing, check with Athletics Department (e.g., Joe Jordan) if north field is available for stargazing (it almost always is).
• Once dates are assembled, invite speakers.
  • Select speakers based on your knowledge (direct or indirect) of their speaking ability, their interest in public education (and to give a talk), their enthusiasm for their subject, and potentially the subject matter. Try not to get all speakers who work on the same subject.
  • For the lecture series, I like to select 2 faculty, 2 postdocs, and 2 grad students from Caltech with gender parity for each category of speaker. This ensures a diverse group representing the Institute. I select members of Caltech Astro, GPS, and sometimes IPAC. But because there aren't a lot of female faculty in Caltech Astro/GPS, you may have to select a staff scientist or even a postdoc. Do what you can.
  • For Astro On Tap, there is a much larger population of people for selection, including scientists at Caltech, IPAC, Carnegie, JPL, UCLA, Planetary Society, TMT, GMT, Griffith, etc. We have two speakers per night, which seems like the right number. I like to again, keep gender parity for each night in selecting speakers. It isn't necessary to get two speakers to talk on related subjects for a given night, but sometimes it can be fun.
  • Initially, invite speakers by giving them the available dates and a quick rundown of the series and what their minimal obligations are (lecture -> 30 minute talk, Astro on Tap ->10-15 minute talk). There is info on what to expect at this link (Lecturer, Astro on Tap Speaker. Ask for them to pick a date at minimum and then promise to follow up for a title/abstract in the following weeks. Asking them in person usually gets a faster (and better) response than asking over email.
• Once you've gotten all of the dates filled, request titles and abstracts, so you can advertise the events. Abstracts are only necessary for the lectures, not Astro on Tap.
• Fill out the wiki with all of the upcoming events. You can use events from the Past Events as a template.
• Create a lecture schedule poster using one of the previous schedule posters. I do them in keynote and just swap out the background image and the text for the dates/speakers. Contact Cameron for template.
• Create lecture posters for each of the lectures. Again, I do it in keynote and swap out the background image and relevant title/speaker/abstract/date. Contact Cameron for template.
• Contact Althea to book Hameetman for the times you need it for the lecture (again, making sure that it isn't in use: http://mrbs.astro.caltech.edu/)
• Contact Joe Jordan at the athletic center to make sure he knows the dates you'll be using the North Field.
• Create Astro on Tap posters for each of the Astro on Tap nights.
• Bring Astro on Tap posters to the bar each month so they can advertise. Post the Lecture posters and schedule in Cahill's entry each month to advertise.
• Fill out the Caltech Master Calendar to create entries for each of the lecture/stargazing events: http://www.caltech.edu/how-to-post-events-and-seminars . You may need to get permission (try Strategic Communications and Ramanuj Basu) to post to the master calendar and add to the Astro Outreach Lecture Series: https://www.caltech.edu/master-calendar/lecture-series/49826/2018 .
• Schedule the A/V equipment in Hameetman to record the lecture events: https://echo360.org/section/5cc4ec39-30a7-4a70-985c-20cfd5283fcc/home . You'll need permissions from Caltech Astro Helpdesk (Patrick or Anu) to be able to post here. Log in as a scheduler, then click the Caltech Astro Outreach link, and click the button on the right side (square button, the left of the four) of that entry. This brings up the past recordings. Now click the "new capture" button in the upper right. Follow the template that past events have with "Speaker: Title_of_talk" as the title, then make sure to specify the campus/building/room that is recording and click the "Live" link. Finally, assure the video records for 3 hours, just to make sure we get all of it. Do not click "add section", just "save."
• Create a Facebook event each month for each Astro on Tap and Lecture/Stargazing event. Can be done through the Caltech Astro Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/CaltechAstro
• Create an Astronomy on Tap event on the main astronomy on tap website for each month's event. Login is here. Remember to link the posters!
• Periodically tweet about upcoming events on twitter from the Caltech Astro twitter account: https://twitter.com/CaltechAstro
• Hold a volunteer meeting with all of the volunteers
  • Good to get the volunteer meeting before the season starts. I like to do this in January after students are back, or June when students are still around.
  • Talk to some grads to assure that the time you'll hold the meeting doesn't conflict with their classes. I like to plan for a Thursday afternoon at 3 or 4PM because people are inclined to come at the end of the day.
  • Book space in the room where you'll hold the outreach meeting. In the past, we have used Cahill 370 (the interaction room), so check the availability and book it with: http://mrbs.astro.caltech.edu/
  • Send out an announcement email to outreach-volunteers@astro.caltech.edu and alternatively additionally to cahill-announce@astro.caltech.edu letting people know of the meeting and linking this wiki for more info. Make sure you send it out about a week in advance and send out a reminder email the day of the event.
  • Order cupcakes or some sort of food item to help entice people to come. I usually get 4 dozen mini cupcakes from Dots cupcakes on Arroyo, which costs about $100.
  • Print out the upcoming events part of the wiki so people can sign up for various roles if they want.
  • Hold the actual meeting and give a brief overview of what we do in outreach and hand around the signup sheet. Then open things up to discussion on ways we could improve our events based on the last six months of successes and failures.
  • After the meeting, enter in all of the volunteer signups to the wiki, and email the outreach-volunteer list with the assigned roles so people know what they're signed up for.
• Stay on top of things and make sure enough people are signed up for the events. If they aren't, ask people directly, potentially in person, to get the remaining spots filled.

Other Responsibilities

• Contact volunteers/lecturers/speakers several days before each event to remind them of their obligations.
• Plan what targets will be observed on telescopes for observing events.
• Attend as many of the events as possible.
• Organize to have a photographer present (Christophe) and/or take photographs at the event yourself.
• After each event, post something on social media highlighting the event and displaying photos from the event.
• Upload photographs to our Flickr page and organize a new album for it following the format from previous albums.
  • Name the event: YYYYMMDD - Lecture & Stargazing: SPEAKER --or-- YYYYMMDD - Astronomy on Tap: SPEAKER1 & SPEAKER2
  • Add in the description the speaker(s) and talk title(s) and include the abstract if available.
  • Arrange the photos in chronological order (oldest first)
  • Include the poster image in the album.
• Periodically post things on social media (Facebook, Twitter) regarding upcoming astronomical events and news.
• Maintain the outreach wiki to assure it's up to date with volunteers, new events, and past events.
• Maintain the observing equipment: re-collimate the telescopes, sort the eyepieces, replace batteries in telrads, upgrade anything that has broken, etc.
• Respond to messages to the outreach-admin@astro.caltech.edu email address.
• When invited to come provide events to the public, organize such events with other volunteers.

Link back to home page.