"After 20 years away from the region, I was both surprised and disappointed to hear delegates from right across our region, at last year’s South West Astro Fair, discussing their difficulties with getting speakers to address their meetings.

As a former President of the Devon Association of Astronomical Societies (DAAS  and a former Committee member of the Southern Area Group of Astronomical Societies) I predicted the lack of need for such umbrella organizations, suggesting that the then burgeoning internet would fill the gap and be easily accessible to individual societies.

It seems that my prediction was not wholly correct as societies in the South West still find attracting notable speakers difficult. I recall that one of the objectives of the DAAS was to share details of speakers from within our regional societies who are willing to travel to other societies and to recommend speakers from outside our region who are willing to travel to societies in the South West.

Another suggestion was that societies in the South West might “pool their resources” in order to both attract and afford the most notable speakers from time to time.

It is with this in mind that I conceived of the South West Astronomy Network (SWAN) as a local, central repository of information about speakers willing to travel to and within the South West. Torbay Astronomical Society (TAS) is willing to host this virtual library and awaits details from other societies in our region."

John Stapleton
Chairman
Torbay Astronomical Society