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Over the past few weeks the Secretary and Treasurer of the Society
contacted by e-mail and phone a considerable number of the members
of Hel.A.S. within Greece who had outstanding payments of their
annual membership fee to the Society. Those members were requested
to pay their past membership fees within a reasonable time. Members
of the Society who work abroad will be contacted for the same reason
later in the summer once the Society is able to accept online
payments using a credit card.
Two were the principal reasons behind this effort.
The first and foremost is the application of the Constitution of
the Society. According to Article 13 of the Constitution, the
Governing Council (GC) of the Society may remove the membership
status from an individual if he/she has not paied his/her annual
membership fee to the Society for more than 2 years.
The second is more practical and it is related to that fact that
the Society after a presence of nearly 15 years has a well
defined professional shape a goals. Furthermore, after several years
of rapid expansion in membership, as it often happens in many
professional Societies, a number of the members may have explored
different professional endeavors or have developed interests which
may not be fully addressed by the Society. The GC of Hel.A.S. would
like to know who these members are and examine what it could do so
that they feel that their needs are met.
The GC of Hel.A.S, collaborating closely with the Greek National
Committee for Astronomy is doing its best to promote Astronomy
within Greece, as well as to represent the professional image of
Greek astronomy within Europe. It also tries to provide to all
members of the Society the best service possible and it is open to
suggestions from all members on how to improve them. The recent
"upgrades" on the content of Hipparchos and the web page of the
Society are some of the steps already taken towards this
direction. As the governing body of the Society though, it is also
responsible for applying the Constitution.
We would thus like to request all members to please review the
Constitution of the Society which is available at:
http://www.helas.gr/gr/const.php
All members who are uncertain on whether they have payed their
annual membership fee for 2007 or earlier years, are also strongly
encouraged to contact the Treasurer of the Society Prof. Apostolos
Mastichiadis at: treasurer@helas.gr or +30 210 7276909 to request
an update on their status.
For more information on these topics feel free to contact the
Secretary Prof. V. Charmandaris at: secretary@helas.gr or at +30
2810 394245.
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