DACS Board of Directors Meeting
Wednesday, March 13, 2013

By Bruce Preston

Called to order:7:30 PM

Attending: Richard Corzo, Jim Scheef, Lisa Leifels, Richard Teasdale, Bruce Preston, Bill Saturno, Annette van Ommeren, David Green.  Andy Woodruff called in from New Orleans via Skype for a few minutes but as we had a quorum he left the meeting.

Minutes of Last Meeting: Accepted.

Treasurer’s Report for February 2013

Balance on hand 2/1/13 $4,267.73

INCOME

Dues $416.49 
Bank Interest 0.17
Total $416.66

EXPENSES

Resource Center Phone $96.45
Resource Center Security 79.60
Newsletter Postage 37.62 
Newsletter Printing

105.00

Newsletter Supplies (Clipart renewal) 68.66
Renewal Letter Postage 1.05
Total $388.38

Balance on hand 2/28/13 $4,296.01

Membership Stats

  January 2013 February 2013 March 2013
Paying members 124 126 127
-with email addresses 109 113 112
new members 1 1 1
       
DACS.DOC printed 100 100 100
DACS.DOC mailed 68 67 67
DACS.DOC mailed-member 48 47 47
DACS.DOC mailed-other 6 6 6
DACS.DOC mailed-free lib 14 14 14
       
General meeting Mark Polansky - Astronomy Cloud Storage – Drew Kwashnak Genealogy – Toni McKeen
       
seat count 27 34 43
members signed in 17 28 32
visitors signed in 10 5 11

Old Business

  1. General meetings
    • March 5: Toni McKeen - Genealogy. Preview: Bruce Preston, Review: Richard Teasdale. Bill Saturno moderated Ask DACS, covering for Jim Scheef.
    • April 2: Laura Nute of Lynda.com - Online Learning. Preview: Elizabeth Talian, Review: Annette van Ommeren
    • May 7: John Patrick - State of the Internet. Preview: Jim Scheef, Review: Chris Crowl, Richard T. (backup)  Reviewed publicity plan with John Patrick. He suggested, “You might look at the most recent couple of posts on http://patrickweb.com about a speech I made in NY and a sound clip with a radio interview I did in Florida.” Drew suggested to include the Voices (http://www.voicesnews.com/http://www.voicesnews.com/), which covers 16 town North and Northeast of Danbury. Bill Saturno will provide additional radio station contacts, beyond our usual list of publicity contacts. We can send emails to the usual newspapers and emails (and faxes if known) to radio contacts. We should include photos to the non-radio station contacts. 
    • June 4: Jennifer M. Scott - Twitter. Preview: Lisa Leifels, Review:_________
    • July 2: Bruce Preston -  PagePlus X6 Desktop Publishing. Preview:_________, Review:_________
    • Possible future topics:
      • Presentation on Facebook. Jim is working on how to best use Facebook as an organization, and might come up with a presentation on how individuals may use Facebook.
      • Jeff Robbins - Drupal expert. Jeff is interested in doing a presentation but is not able to commit to a date at this time. Andy contacted him in January to let him know our calendar is full the first half of this year. Andy will follow up in May and ask that he let us know when he will be near the area. (He resides in Rhode Island.) This is a “long shot” as to a presentation.
      • 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 meeting with multiple presenters for a full session, or it could be a small segment after Ask DACS. The iBook (Apple iTunes store), “The Telegraph: 500 Must Have Apps” would be a good resource. Richard Corzo tried to demo the Windows 8 app News Bento, an RSS news reader, but was thwarted by the conference center projector.
      • Jim has communicated with the Danbury Hospital’s CIO’s secretary who understands our request and will investigate finding a presenter suitable for our request.
      • Office 2013 – Microsoft has backed off the one machine only per purchase (no transfer to replacement machine.) Include pricing options – purchase vs. subscription, etc.  Microsoft Store representative perhaps?
      • Apple TV device or perhaps the rumored Intel product. Watching TV using a broadband connection but not a cable TV subscription, Hulu Plus, etc. Good seasonal device presentation?
      • Microsoft Surface Pro (the Intel-based Microsoft tablet that will also run Windows desktop applications).  Include with a Windows 8 presentation?  Good seasonal device presentation?
      • Bruce has gotten involved with OTR (Old Time Radio) 100% free and legal downloadable radio programs from the 30s through the 50s. Genres include Detective, Comedy, Mystery, History etc.  It was suggested that it be a newsletter article instead of a general meeting topic.
  2. Open positions
  3. Need a new APCUG representative to replace Patrick Libert, primarily to post to the APCUG website, field questions, receive quarterly postings, etc. Bill Saturno volunteered to look into APCUG, but Richard Corzo wasn’t able to find credentials yet for logging in.
  4. We also need a liaison with TechSoup–the fulfillment operation used by many software vendors for distribution to non-profits.  The TechSoup function is to receive distributions of product announcements and distribute to the Board.  This person would also be responsible for placing orders. Jim was going to review how he set this up.
  5. “Beginners” Workshop? Workshop could be held from time to time. Jim volunteered to do a workshop and Charlie volunteered to be an assistant. Jim and Charlie canceled the proposed Feb. 27th meeting and will decide upon a date which might be in April.  They will need to get the date to the newsletter by this Saturday. It is still viewed at being intended to be only offered to members. We do not see it as being suitable for Meetup as Meetup participants are generally well beyond beginner status.
  6. To help launch the Innovation Center and Hackerspace, the City of Danbury is hosting the Danbury Mad Hacker Social Media Conference – intended to be an annual event.  For this year the Danbury Mini Maker Faire would be a one-time event.. Mike Kaltschnee has invited us to have a booth at the Maker Faire in June and we have accepted the offer.
  7. Separately Tom Carruthers asked to meet with us about possible participation in the Mad Hacker Conference June 8 and 9 in downtown Danbury. Tom says, “I have been put in charge of the task of organizing about 28-35 workshops, panels, symposiums and keynotes for the event. There will also be a Makers Fair on the green and at the Ice Arena as well as events, keynotes and a big bash at the new Danbury Sports Dome located on Shelter Rock Road.” Sean H. and Andy Woodruff are willing to do a music workshop, possibly in two sessions, one introductory and the second more advanced Tom mentioned an interest in Google Docs as part of an open source office workshop, asking for a contact.
  8. We switched from our former DSL provider to AT&T. Download speed is definitely faster, measured at about 5 Mbps. Received first AT&T bill with new DSL service. We are being charged $30 phone, $10 business unlimited calling, $72 Elite Internet, - $42 1-year promotional discount on internet. So $70 total plus surcharges, fees, and taxes. We used to pay $57.00 phone, $5.50 additional listing, plus $3 business calling for a total of $65.50 without internet (again not counting surcharges, fees, and taxes).

New Business

  1. Jim has renewed our initial one-year Microsoft Office 365 subscription, used by the DACS board.
  2. Annette has received notification that our Meetup account has been auto-renewed.  We have decided to continue with another six months.
  3. Annual officer elections for secretary, treasurer, president.
    • David Green has agreed to extend his term as Treasurer for one year.
    • Bruce Preston has agreed to extend his term as Secretary for one year.
    • A search committee has been formed to recruit a new board member as several board members expect to be relocating.  The committee consists of Richard Corzo, Jim Scheef, and Bruce Preston.
    • Richard Corzo will continue as president on a month to month basis as per bylaws until a president is appointed by the board.  Note that as per the bylaws the president of the society need not be a member of the board.  All members are encouraged to suggest candidates for board or president position to a member of the search committee.

Adjourned: 10:10 PM

 

 

 


Click Here

DacsGear!
Mugs and more, visit CafePress to order

 
 
© Danbury Area Computer Society, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Web Site Terms & Conditions of Use