Over the past year a few of us with the Association for Young Astrologers have been steadily working together behind the scenes to improve and expand the organization, and we have some news to share with everyone.
New WebsiteI am happy to announce that we launched our new website earlier this week. You can find it at:
Youngastrologers.org We have a new
membership system set up, and we are also in the process of expanding our MP3 library of astrological lectures in the
members area of our site. If anyone knows any astrologers or organizations that might be willing to donate audio lectures to AYA then please contact them to see if they would be interested, and let us know about it by emailing us at info@youngastrologers.org. If they only have tapes then let them know that we can convert them to MP3s, and we will link back to their site in the members section next where their lectures are listed.
We also have a
snazzy new discussion forum on the site, and we are looking forward to hosting many interesting and informative exchanges there.
UACAYA's main goal over the past few years has been to foster the integration of the younger and newer generations of astrologers into the established astrological community. Since astrological conferences are the central community event where friendships are made and a lot of knowledge is exchanged, we have tried to focus much of our efforts on finding ways to make it possible to allow younger and newer astrologers to attend the conferences. The biggest conference happening this year, and probably during this entire decade, is the United Astrological Conference (UAC) in Denver from May 15-20. AYA is hoping to make a big splash at UAC, and we are organizing a few programs that might be of interest to those who wanted to attend.
Scholarships, Volunteer Positions & DonationsAYA is collecting donations with the goal of providing 5 full scholarships to AYA members who are dedicated students of astrology and express financial need. Any additional funds received over the target amount will be offered as partial scholarships. The Association for Astrological Networking (AFAN) has generously offered free memberships to the scholarship recipients. At the same time, we are working with the organizers of UAC to find volunteer positions to work in exchange for reduced or free admission. If you are interested in either a scholarship or volunteer position, then please
apply on our website.
On the other hand, if you are interested in donating to AYA in order to help us provide some of these scholarships, then please see
our UAC donations page. Donors will receive either a copy of the New York NCGR's journal, a CD with some astrological lectures donated by the NY NCGR, or a personalized astro-datebook. Of course,
becoming a member of AYA is also a good way to help us to provide and organize many of these services for younger and newer astrologers as well.
Room SharingSince one of the major challenges for young astrologers in attending conferences is the fact that the cost is often prohibitive, we have been in the habit of renting out rooms for our members to share for the past few years now. At UAC we have rented out quite a bit of space and we have set up a room sharing program in order to lower the costs associated with staying in a pricey hotel during the conference. We have enough space for at least 20 people, and we are looking for members who are interested in sharing a room with other AYA members. For more information on our room sharing program please see
our website.
Return of the Magi Movie Premiere AYA is also helping to organize and host the premiere of Kelly Lee Phipps' documentary
Return of the Magi at UAC. The movie premiere will take place at 9:00 pm on the night of the 18th at the Adams' Mark hotel in Denver, Colorado. We are
selling tickets on our website for $10, so if you are interested in attending the movie premiere then please pre-order your tickets since space is limited and the money will help us to cover some of the overhead costs associated with hosting the event.
We will also have a booth at UAC, so please stop by and see us at the conference.
The FutureAs you can tell, we plan to make quite a splash at UAC, and we hope to demonstrate that there are lots of younger and newer astrologers entering the astrological community at this time. We are hoping that after UAC AYA will be recognized as a growing force in the astrological community, and our goal post-UAC will be to continue to expand the organization so that by the time that the next UAC rolls around in a few years we will be able to be one of the sponsoring organizations for the next conference. If we keep up with the present momentum then there is no doubt in my mind that this is a real possibility. So if you are interested in being a part of this movement, then please join us, sign up for a membership, meet up with us at UAC, and come help us to shape the future of the astrological community.