247
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Sánchez, The Rise of Astrophysics in Modern Spain, Astronomers’ Universe,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66426-8_23
23
The Starlight Foundation: A Step Beyond
Astrotourism (2008–Present)
The communication, publishing, and outreach activities of the IAC have
gradually increased and diversified to the point of overload (see Chap. 20).
Ideas and projects have had to be postponed indefinitely. By the end of the
nineties there were ten people working in these areas in the Director’s Support
Team. To our lack of resources was the added problem of bureaucratic red
tape. We therefore considered outsourcing the greater part of these activities,
and the model that seemed best suited to us was that of a foundation.
There is a series of reports and decisions taken in this regard in the minutes
of the meeting of the Governing Council of the IAC, dating from the first
years of this century, in which the idea of a private foundation is accepted ‘to
ensure that the IAC, through its objectives, statutes, and Council, is guaranteed control over it’. There were a number of conditions attached: that the
foundation’s objectives included ‘the spreading and popularization of Science,
especially Astrophysics’; that it be ‘an instrument through which the citizenry
of the islands should achieve increased cultural and economic returns’; and
that ‘it serve generally to channel and facilitate the IAC’s relations with local
society’.
After making enquiries, putting out feelers here and there, and many formalities, we contracted a consultancy firm to produce a project for a foundation, together with an economic feasibility study. What we got from them in
2008 was a gargantuan organization, complete with bells and whistles, that
was totally unviable, when our approach had been realistic and minimalist.
And there the matter rested. But, as is our wont, we did not stop there. We
continued to seek workable solutions to surmount the problems of lack of
resources and flexibility. We were firmly convinced of the need to do science
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Sánchez, The Rise of Astrophysics in Modern Spain, Astronomers’ Universe,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66426-8_23
23
The Starlight Foundation: A Step Beyond
Astrotourism (2008–Present)
The communication, publishing, and outreach activities of the IAC have
gradually increased and diversified to the point of overload (see Chap. 20).
Ideas and projects have had to be postponed indefinitely. By the end of the
nineties there were ten people working in these areas in the Director’s Support
Team. To our lack of resources was the added problem of bureaucratic red
tape. We therefore considered outsourcing the greater part of these activities,
and the model that seemed best suited to us was that of a foundation.
There is a series of reports and decisions taken in this regard in the minutes
of the meeting of the Governing Council of the IAC, dating from the first
years of this century, in which the idea of a private foundation is accepted ‘to
ensure that the IAC, through its objectives, statutes, and Council, is guaranteed control over it’. There were a number of conditions attached: that the
foundation’s objectives included ‘the spreading and popularization of Science,
especially Astrophysics’; that it be ‘an instrument through which the citizenry
of the islands should achieve increased cultural and economic returns’; and
that ‘it serve generally to channel and facilitate the IAC’s relations with local
society’.
After making enquiries, putting out feelers here and there, and many formalities, we contracted a consultancy firm to produce a project for a foundation, together with an economic feasibility study. What we got from them in
2008 was a gargantuan organization, complete with bells and whistles, that
was totally unviable, when our approach had been realistic and minimalist.
And there the matter rested. But, as is our wont, we did not stop there. We
continued to seek workable solutions to surmount the problems of lack of
resources and flexibility. We were firmly convinced of the need to do science