[AstroNet] African Astronomical Society: Summary and recording of skypecon

[Kevin Govender]

Greetings
Just a followup to my previous email about the African Astronomical Society.
As mentioned a discussion was held over skype earlier. Links to the 
recordings and a brief summary are contained below.
Please consider how this would positively/negatively impact on astronomy 
in Africa and what role you could/should be playing. A web page and 
discussion forum have been set up 
(http://www.developingastronomy.org/index.php/activities/213-afas) - 
please post your thoughts on that forum.
Regards
Kevin



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[Africa Astronomy] AfAS Skypecon: Summary and recording
Date: 	Fri, 24 Sep 2010 23:55:24 +0200
From: 	Kevin Govender <kg at saao.ac.za>
To: 	africalist <africalist at astronomy2009.org.za>



Greetings all and thanks to those who joined the skypecon.
There was a small software glitch which caused a short break in the
recording but the majority of the conversation was captured. The MP3
files and text exchanged during the skypecon are available at the
following links:

First 35 minutes: ftp://ftp.saao.ac.za/outgoing/kg/AfAS_skypecon_1of2.mp3
Last 33 minutes: ftp://ftp.saao.ac.za/outgoing/kg/AfAS_skypecon_2of2.mp3
Text exchanged: ftp://ftp.saao.ac.za/outgoing/kg/AfAS_skypecon_text.txt

A brief summary is given below. Please consider the discussion and post
your thoughts on the online forum
(http://www.developingastronomy.org/index.php/forum)

Attended by:
Jarita Holbrook (US)
Thebe Medupe (SA)
Bonaventure Okere (Nigeria)
Pius Okeke (Nigeria)
Bosco Oruru (Uganda)
Charles McGruder (US)
Claude Carignan (Canada; Burkina Faso)
Ed Guinan (US; international)
Ernst van Groningen (Sweden; international)
Johnson Urama (Nigeria)
Katrien Kolenberg (Austria; Senegal)
Lawrance Norris (US)
Omar Fikry (Egypt)
Pheneas Nkundabakura (Rwanda)
Solohery Randriamampandry (Madagascar)
Zara Randriamanakoto (Madagascar)
Abiy Tekola (Ethiopia)
Kevin Govender (SA)

In brief:
- Prof Okeke started by giving a brief background to the idea of AfAS
and how it came about - basically was conceived during the launch of the
African Physical Society in Dakar in January 2010.
- It was decided that the details of the legalisation process should be
left to later. The concept of the society needed to first be agreed upon.
- Two very strong opposing views were clear. One was that a continental
body should arise naturally following the establishment of regional
bodies first (bottom up approach that would involve everyone from the
outset). The other was that a continental body should first be formed
and that it would assist regional bodies to form (shouldn't wait for
regional bodies which could take time or not materialise).
- After discussions it was generally agreed that an African Astronomical
Society should in fact be formed in the long term as it would benefit
the continent. Only the path to getting there was contentious - some
felt it should be launched at the Ouagadougou conference in December,
others felt that was too soon and could result in failure if rushed.
- It was generally agreed that a continental body would help to raise
funds. However, it needed to be a formal, registered organisation in
order to raise funds.
- Some felt launching an AfAS at the Ouagadougou conference would not be
representative of all of Africa since it was a science conference in a
specific field. Suggestion was made to consider more general conference
such as MEARIM II in 2011.
- An offer was made for a face to face discussion meeting in Egypt.
- Final compromise on the way forward which everyone agreed upon was
that a "Working Group towards the establishment of AfAS" be launched at
the Ouagadougou conference - this group should comprise representatives
from as many existing societies/astronomy communities as possible. The
group would be tasked with carrying out sufficient consultation and
investigation into the legalisation of AfAS. This group should come up
with a proposal for the official launch of AfAS at a later time (not
necessarily MEARIM but also not necessarily astronomy - could be
launched at an African Union meeting for example).
- Discussions should continue on the discussion forum set up at
http://www.developingastronomy.org/index.php/forum



PS. a webpage for this discussion can be found at
http://www.developingastronomy.org/index.php/activities/213-afas





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