Circuit Writer Version 7.1 by Jim Scheef DACS is in trouble I wish I had better news, but I see DACS sliding into oblivion. If things don’t change direction, our club could end within the coming year. I’ll start at the top. Rob Limbaugh announced last year that this would be his last year as President. I believe that changing the President helps keep the club alive; this is why I limited my term as President to three years. Rob has provided impressive leadership and moved the club forward in many ways. His term ends next spring and Rob will not leave the next President dangling, but no one is stepping forward to take his place. The more immediate problem is that over the last year, three directors have resigned. Another director is temporarily unable to attend board meetings. This leads to meetings where we do not have a quorum and cannot conduct official business. Of course we can and do still plan general meetings and keep things going, but this is emblematic of the deeper issues. Our special interest groups, the SIGs, have always been the crown jewels of DACS. These groups are where members of a common interest get together to share knowledge. Once upon a time, we had more than fifteen SIGs. There were few free nights in the Resource Center. Now we have two SIGs “on hiatus” which is a euphemism for inactive. The Tech Projects, and PC Maintenance SIGs have closed this year and we combined Virtual Computing into the Server and Networking SIG. Thus we have gone from ten SIGs in January (the ASP.NET and VB/C# SIGs are really one long meeting so I count them as one) to seven with two of those “on hiatus”. On the positive side After all that it may be hard to imagine that there is a positive side. Our Treasurer, Charlie Bovaird, has served the club since 1994 and would like to ease back a little. Along with keeping our financial records, Charlie also keeps the membership records. Here the situation is less dire: John Lansdale has agreed to take over as treasurer and I will keep the membership records. We were fortunate to get Joe Tobin to fill the empty spot from the elections in December 2007. Joe has given the board a younger perspective that we lacked. And, Annette van Ommeren returned to the board to fill the opening created when Jamie Yates passed away so suddenly. Despite these additions, recent resignations leave two vacancies. Whether the SIG closings and board changes are a cause or a symptom, our membership has now dropped below 200. This means it is more important than ever for members to become more active. Our eleven-member board is now 5% of the membership. The bottom line The future of DACS is in your hands – you the members. If we are not presenting interesting topics at the general meetings, please make a suggestion on how they could be better. If you have never been to a SIG meeting, well shame on you. If there is no SIG for your interest, talk to a board member and we will help you find others with the same interest. Whatever it is, get involved! Bring a friend to a meeting – any meeting. Write an article for the newsletter, or, dare I suggest it? Offer to be on the board. Please note that I am not asking that anyone volunteer for something she or he doesn’t want to do. Our SIGs have been successful because the SIG leaders are genuinely interested in the topic and want to help other learn. Our most pressing challenge is the two vacancies on the board of directors. All the other issues are secondary. Do you want to help? |
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