January 2022 Meeting Report
The January meeting began with the AGM where the accounts were shown. The society did make a profit in the past year but this was only because we did not have to pay for the hire of the hall for many of our meetings, but we do pay £15 a month for a proper zoom account. We are now paying for both the hire of the hall and the zoom account. Despite the costs it was agreed that we would continue to run the hybrid meetings as we are seeing a 50/50 split but more members are attending. Membership has increased and this has been helped by offering pro-rata memberships throughout the year. It was also agreed that after 60 years of membership Michael Hobbs would be made a Life member of the society. The election of officers remained the same. The subscription will remain at £20 for the year.
Michael Hobbs then gave the John Thompson memorial lecture and it was a fascinating insight into where the names and numbers that we often take for granted in astronomy, originated from. Michael delighted us with some wonderful history