DACS Board of Directors Meeting
Wednesday, December 12, 2012

By Bruce Preston

Called to order: 7:15 PM

Attending: Richard Corzo, Jim Scheef, Lisa Leifels, Richard Teasdale, David Green, Bruce Preston, Andy Woodruff

Minutes of Last Meeting: Approved with amendment.

Treasurer’s Report for October 2012

Balance on hand 11/1/12 $4,907.43

INCOME

Dues $270.00
Bank Interest 0.20
Total $270.20

EXPENSES

Resource Center Phone $80.58
Resource Security $79.60
Newsletter Printing (Nov & Dec)

170.00

Newsletter Postage 44.85
Renewal Letter Postage $9.28
APCUG Membership $50.00
Total $434.31

Balance on hand 11/30/12 $4,743.32

Membership Report

  October 2012 November 2012 December 2012
Paying members 129 129 129
-with email addresses 114 116 -
new members 1 0 0
       
DACS.DOC printed 100 100 100
DACS.DOC mailed 71 71 69
DACS.DOC mailed-member 51 51 49
DACS.DOC mailed-other 6 6 6
DACS.DOC mailed-free lib 14 14 14
       
General meeting Os X Mountain Lion Mobile Apps Dev Windows 8
       
seat count 37 27 39
members signed in 27 26 32
visitors signed in 8 1 7

Old Business
1. General meetings

  • December 4: Windows 8 - Jay Ferron didn’t make it so Carolyn Bighinatti from the Microsoft Store filled in. Preview: Jim Scheef, Review: Richard Corzo
  • Wednesday, January 2: Marc Polansky from McCarthy Observatory—Astronomy and Computers at New Milford High School. Preview: Allan Ostergren, Review: Richard Teasdale
  • February 5: Drew Kwashnak—Cloud Storage Services. Preview: Bill Saturno, Review: Richard Corzo
  • March 5: Toni McKeen—Genealogy. Preview: Bruce Preston, Review: Richard Teasdale
  • April 2: Laura Nute of Lynda.com and Kevin Corcoran of CTDLC.org—Online Learning. Preview: Elizabeth Talian, Review: ________
  • May 7: John Patrick—State of the Internet. Need to review publicity well in advance.

Possible future topics:

  • Presentation on Facebook. Jim suggested having someone talk about how to configure the security, privacy issues, what does “Like” accomplish, the difference between a group and a page. Jim is working with someone in another organization – AMC – and they might collaborate on a presentation.
  • Jeff Robbins—Drupal expert. Jeff is interested in doing a presentation but is not able to commit to a date at this time. Andy will follow up early next year.
  • Twitter? Lisa will look into the topic. Sean mentioned someone he knew, Jennifer M. Scott, who use Twitter heavily for her business (http://www.workforceengine.com/).
  • Bruce could do Desktop Publishing in June or July
  • Years ago we did “Surfin’ Safari” as a segment about interesting websites.  Perhaps now we could do something similar with mobile devices – smartphone and tablets – what apps are found to be interesting, entertaining, etc.  This could be a ‘forum’ type meeting with multiple presenters for a full session, or it could be a small segment after AskDACS.
  • Approach Dr. John Murphy, President & CEO of Danbury Hospital, about doing a presentation on Electronic Medical Records etc. – Danbury Hospital is leading edge on this topic.

2.         Open positions
            The membership chairperson/greeter position is still open. The greeter has these responsibilities:

  • Sign in members
  • Sign in visitors, ask how they found us
  • Accept dues
  • Distribute raffle tickets

Jim Scheef has composed a draft welcome e-mail to be sent to new members.  He submitted it to the board for review by email.  Charlie and Jim held their meeting to work on the database.
3.         In addition our general meeting, we have posted several of our SIG meetings on Meetup. Annette got some visitors to her Web Design SIG.
4.         Should we start a “Beginners” SIG? We concluded that it wasn’t feasible for a SIG, but perhaps it would be a good topic for a ‘workshop’ that we hold from time to time. Jim volunteered to do a workshop and Charlie volunteered to be an assistant. Date (and day of week for that matter, including possibly a weekend) to be determined.  Jim will communicate with Charlie to schedule a date in January for a beginner’s workshop.
5.         Five board members were elected in December: incumbents Richard Corzo, Dave Green (only committing for one year), Richard Teasdale, Andy Woodruff, and new member Bill Saturno. Previously this class of board members (even years) had six members, but we have decided to reduce this year’s number to five, and next year’s number to four, for a total of nine members, down from the previous total of 11.
6.         APCUG membership was renewed.
7.         I contacted Carolyn Bighinatti at the Microsoft Store to schedule a Windows 8 workshop.  (Note: Since the BOD meeting we got confirmation for January 7th.)

During the review of the general meetings (Old Business item 1) a discussion as to how to attract visitors and ultimately convert them to membership.  Many visitors come as a result of the e-mail distribution that Charlie sends out, and it was suggested that perhaps more details including benefits of membership be included in the message. We will also spend a bit more time during the general meeting boosting membership benefits.

New Business
1.         Richard Corzo contacted AT&T about switching from our current DSL provider to AT&T. They have a bundle price that is very attractive for a faster connection than we currently have. Shall we make the switch later this month?
Moved and seconded that we convert.

  • After being contacted by the librarian, Richard Corzo volunteered to do a presentation on Apple products on March 9 at Trumbull Library. They have a PC user’s group in town, but it apparently doesn’t cover Apple. Richard has already mailed some DACS brochures and will bring some to his presentation.  Andy suggested offering a 3-month free-trial membership to participants as a means to attract membership.
  • We need to recognize the death of Patrick Libert former Board Member, DACS.DOC Editor, contributor, long-time member, and of course friend.

Adjourned: 9:25

 

 


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