[meteorite-list] Meteorite Association

From: Alexander Seidel <ase_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:41 2004
Message-ID: <3AB7EA3F.C9906D55_at_planet-interkom.de>

Listees concerned about a "Meteorite Association",

donīt overestimate the impact of this list [..well, donīt beat me for
such a heretic statement..:-)]. The point is, some, but really not too
many of the "high rollers" in the meteorite scene, the real "big ones"
(collectors, dealers, scientists), are obviously NOT subscribed to this
list for one reason or the other, at least they donīt show up here
actively with their own posts. The same with the scientists in the
field, with some honorable exceptions. This is nothing but an observable
fact on the one hand. On the other hand, a Meteorite Association, in my
opinion, would need these people and their support. I donīt know how
this could be resolved here. The idea as such may be good, and we have
already seen from the vivid discussions in the past that there seems to
be need for getting it to work in practice, but apart from the
establishment of some local groups (which surely is good for those
involved - we just learned about one in Colorado..) nothing has evolved
from those discussions on a bigger, national or even (a necessary)
international scale.

So, my heretic question again: is this the right forum? May be it could
be some kind of "kernel" where ideas can be discussed and condensed to
let the seed grow like the planetesimals slowly grew long ago.
Unfortunately not too many members of this list seem to be organised in
the one-and-only big organization of "meteoriticists", namely the
Meteoritical Society, a renowned forum of slightly over 1000 members
worldwide, mainly scientists, but also many amateurs. This society
issues a great, though quite technical, magazine, holds annual meetings
(the next one in Rome, Italy), and hosts the famous NomCom, which has
often contributed also to this list by virtue of Jeff Grossman, one of
itīs members.

I believe, if more of us where organized under the roof of such a
renowned society, things like establishing a "Meteorite Association"
with all the goals of it already outlined would be somewhat easier.
A "Meteorite Association" would, of course, neither be comparable
to nor should it ever strive to intersect with the main efforts of the
Meteoritical Society, the latter one being a purely scientific forum,
but it could grow out from such a "mother organization" as some
independent, interdisciplinary quality-assurance task force of
dealers, collectors, scientists alike, with a heavyweight on the
special purposes it aims at.

Well, just an opinion...
Alex

-- 
===================|================================|
 Alexander Seidel  | Home position on planet Earth: |  
 Dankersstrasse 22 | N53.5918  E9.4670  13m (WGS84) | 
 D-21680 Stade	   | -------------------------------| 
 Germany           | Phone and Fax (+49) 4141 68772 | 
===================|================================|

Received on Tue 20 Mar 2001 06:39:43 PM PST