Directors' Notes
Directors' Notes
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A Special Meeting of the Board of Directors was held at the Resource Center on Monday, December 16, 2002. Present were Messrs. Buoy, Cohen, Gallichotte, Keane, Ostergren, Powers and Scheef. Also present was Don Pearson. President Scheef presided and Secretary Larry Buoy kept the record. The minutes of the last meeting, held on November 11, 2002, were approved with one correction. In the absence of Treasurer Bovaird, a Balance Sheet prepared in advance was presented to the meeting showing combined bank and postal accounts of $18,028.02 plus postage on hand of $107.31, a total of $18,135.33, less prepaid dues of $7,427.00, for a net of $10,708.33. Also reported was current membership of 452. Following a discussion of the effectiveness of newspaper advertising for General Meetings, it was proposed that advertising via posters placed in libraries and other venues may be a viable alternative. The logistics of preparation and distribution of that media were discussed and Allan Ostergren agreed to draft such a poster. With regard to future programs for General Meetings, the subjects of: Hackers and how they operate; Spyware; WiFi, the hazards and conveniences thereof; Firewalls, both personal and network; and digital photography techniques. President Scheef stated that there had been some response to the announcement that business card ads would be placed in the newsletter at no cost to members and that he had accepted several business cards for such purpose. He also restated the need for volunteers to help with the establishment of Sendmail on the Linux server at the RC. Jim Scheef broached the subject of making the RC more accessible to the general membership, such as a library of computer-related material deemed obsolete by individuals but useful to others, which may or may not be returned. A discussion led to many possible uses as well as many problems, chiefly regarding access and security. During the foregoing discussion, Treasurer Bovaird entered and participated in the further proceedings of the meeting. President Scheef also suggested that a permanent email address could be established for members through the DACS server which would forward such members mail to any ISP of his choice but retaining the @dacs.org address. Such proposal will be presented to the general membership to measure its reaction. Also discussed was DACS' relationship with the Danbury Chamber of Commerce, with the result that it may be feasible to co-host an occasional Chamber event for the networking opportunities available. John Gallichotte then announced his intention to attempt to organize a new SIG on the subject of microcontrollers. With reference to the rising costs of maintaining automatic renewal of memberships via credit card charges, it was expressed, without definitive action being taken, that the discount for such automatic renewal should be discontinued. Larry Buoy |
