HOWARD

ASTRONOMICAL

LEAGUE

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HAL Supergiants and Shining Stars

HAL's success is due not only to the efforts of our current officers, committee chairs and past presidents, but also to a very few special individuals who have made stellar contributions over a number of years. These people have gone above and beyond to provide valuable services to our organization and/or to help us achieve the goals stated in HAL's Articles of Incorporation, namely:

• to promote and encourage science education, particularly in the area of astronomy;
• to educate the public while furthering our own education in space sciences;
• to build and maintain an observatory and library for the use of amateur astronomers; and
• to undertake other projects, programs and activities not inconsistent with Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, as the need to do so presents itself in the opinion of the Board of Directors.

Supergiant Characteristics	Stellar Contributions	Photo
Webmaster (15 years: 2006 - 2021) Treasurer (3 years) Observatory Director (2016) Event Coordinator (2006) Membership Database Facebook and Email List Admin Store Admin Bylaws Committee Heyn Astronomical Notebook Committee	Chas Rimpo joined HAL in late 2005 and quickly assumed the Webmaster (*) role early in 2006 -- which he held for an amazing 15 years until February 2021. In 2013, then-president Chris Todd leveraged PHP/MySQL code from NOVAC to simplify the Treasurer's labor-intensive membership management tasks via a database. Chas converted all web pages to use PHP to enable additional scripting functionality as well as to provide common site-wide navigation and appearance. During his 3 years as Treasurer, Chas created numerous scripts, cron jobs and other processes to provide a front-end to the database and payments, as well as automating many membership notifications. He initiated Bylaws updates in 2015, 2018, and 2020 to clarify responsibilities, as well as to align with current club practices and 501(C)(3) compliance. In 2015, Chas helped set up the original Watson scope including installing and interfacing the scope with a laptop as well as specifying the type of connectivity and communication cables to use. Chas made the necessary changes when HAL switched to the Illig scope. Chas created PHP code to catalog, display, and print the contents of the HALO Library, as well as for checking books out/in and automating overdue notices. He has served as Facebook admin, public and impromptu email list admin and HAL Store admin. Most recently, he edited and formatted the Herman Heyn Sidewalk Astronomy notes that Cheryl Kerr had scanned. (*) The original Webmaster was ZoAnn Lapinsky-Macon, one of HAL's 5 founders.	Chas Rimpo