With a membership literally scattered from one end of the Commonwealth to the other, finding a venue for our chapter’s annual meeting is challenging. Fortunately, officers quickly settled on Chelmsford for December 9th’s festivities — because the town has moderately stringent outdoor-lighting bylaw in place and because the town of Pepperell (with its now-famous 2200K streetlights) is a short drive away.

This year’s meeting was a hybrid affair, as was the case last year. Attendees gathered in a comfy meeting room at the Chelmsford Center for the Arts, joined by a number of others online, to hear great presentations from invited speakers and to get an update on the state of our chapter.

First up was Amber Harrison, DarkSky International’s Dark Sky Places Program Associate. She highlighted what has become DarkSky’s signature program. Currently more than 200 certified Dark Sky Places exist worldwide, with many more applications in the pipeline for approval (among them an ongoing effort to make Nantucket Island a Dark Sky Community).

One of the fastest-growing topics of concern and action involves sports lighting, and that topic was addressed both by James Brigagliano (who manages DarkSky’s Lighting Program) and by Mike Limpach (a regional sales manager for Musco Lighting). James explained how the advent of LEDs has actually made it much easier to fully control how much and where light falls onto a sports field — and how properly shielded fixtures can dramatically reduce how much light and glare are apparent even a few feet away.

To drive home that point, Mike Limpach vividly demonstrated how Musco’s proprietary, state-of-the art shielding can completely control lighting at a sports complex. In the photo above, a Musco lighting fixture is at upper left. Note how intense the lighting is on the “field” below it — yet none of the fixture’s output is seen by a bystander only a few feet away. (James Lowenthal photo; click on the image to see a larger version).

Members also heard reports from the chapter’s officers, and lighting designer Glenn Heinmiller provided an overview of the new model lighting bylaw that he, Tim Brothers, and Kelly Beatty shaped into a final “version 1.0” over the past year.

As part of the meeting’s official business, new officers were elected for the coming year (the same slate as were in office during 2023):

• President: James Lowenthal
• Vice President: Anne Hayek
• Treasurer: Michael Person
• Secretary: Nancy Morrison
• Communications Officer: Kelly Beatty

Once the indoor activities drew to a close, attendees got a brief tour of the lighting landscape in downtown Chelmsford. From a viewpoint in front of the town’s public library, resident Kelly Beatty explained how there have been successes (2700K lighting in an adjacent shopping mall) and failures (some 5000K lighting around municipal facilities) over the years. He hopes to introduce a much-better outdoor-lighting bylaw later this year.

Then everyone hit to road for nearby Pepperell, which distinguished itself in early 2022 by installing 2200K streetlights townwide — a remarkably forward-thinking decision that is paying huge dividends in cost savings, resident satisfaction, and approval from public-safety personnel. Here’s hoping that Pepperell will lead by example for other towns either considering their first installations of LED streetlights — or considering replacement of older LEDs with next-generation technology.

You can view a video of this year’s annual meeting on DarkSkyMA’s YouTube channel.