President's
MessagePresident's
Message
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If you missed our last General Meeting, you may not be fully prepared to enter the new millennium. Read Jack Corcoran's excellent review of the present and future state of the 'Net that John Patrick presented to a packed audience sitting at the edge of their seats, and you may be able to sneak in through a side door. And just in case you're stopped at the entrance, bring a DACS coffee mug along with you for identification. You can get a free coffee mug by doing what many of us have been doing naturally. Just introduce a friend to DACS, come to three consecutive meetings, write an article for dacs.doc, run a SIG or come to SIG meetings, join a committee, or run for office or the board. It's a long list, and if I missed anything, just do something for DACS and write us a note saying, "I want a coffee mug." It's our way of saying, "Let's get organized." We had 144 mugs when Ed Heere started handing them out at the last meeting. That's just short of one mug for every three DACS members, so we may have to order lots more when this thing starts to really take off-especially for all those new members who have joined up. I have written in this column-often to the point of boredom-on DACS' role in providing community service through its member volunteers. But I had never really understood the scope of that volunteer activity until recently. We are in the midst of a process to renew our lease for the Resource Center at Ives Manor in Danbury. Part of the justification for that lease ($1.00 per year) is that we provide active service to the local community. Charlie Bovaird has been one of our most dedicated volunteers, so I asked him to put together a list of organizations that have received our support, either through donated equipment we helped to provide, or through technical services or instruction by DACS volunteers. The following list covers most of our initiatives, but is not necessarily complete:
As I write this column, it is still uncertain whether our lease will be renewed. The city of Danbury needs to balance its budget, and it is always hard to measure the value of services in kind against the costs of maintaining public facilities. Nevertheless, it's important that we stay active in the community, not just to qualify for public space, but because computing is our special skill, and we have a human obligation to share it. --Allan Ostergren |
