DACS Board of Directors Meeting
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

By Bruce Preston

Called to Order: 7:25 PM.

Attending: Richard Corzo, Annette van Ommeren, Jim Scheef, Andy Woodruff, Drew Kwashnak, David Green, Bruce Preston

Minutes of Last Meeting accepted.

Treasurer’s Report for March 2013

INCOME

EXPENSES

Membership Stats

Old Business

1. General meetings
• May 7: John Patrick—Health Care & Internet. Preview: Jim Scheef, Review: Dave Mawdsley
• June 4: Jennifer M. Scott—Twitter. Preview: Lisa Leifels Review: Andy Woodruff
• July 2: Bruce Preston— PagePlus X6 Desktop Publishing. Preview: Drew Kwashnak Review: Allan Ostergren
• Possible future topics:
• Presentation on Facebook - Jim has worked with another organization (AMC) and they have gotten volunteers to post about 3 times a week.  It is a long-shot as a meeting topic, but he hasn’t crossed it off possible topic list yet.
• 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. Andy will revisit.
• Demonstrate apps for mobile devices–smartphones and tablets. 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.
• Note that we have had trouble getting any Windows 8 machine to work with the hospital projectors. Richard brought in a 25-ft VGA cable for size at the May meeting, but we would need a VGA gender changer to connect to our own DACS projector. Jim offered his when we need it. We still need to try placement of the projector.  Jim will provide a VGA FF ‘gender changer’ to use in trial.
• Jim is pursuing a presentation on Electronic Medical Records, etc. Danbury Hospital is leading edge on this topic. Jim was referred to the hospital’s CIO. 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 later this year? Microsoft has backed off the one machine only per purchase (no transfer to replacement machine). Presentation should include pricing options – purchase vs. subscription, etc.  We could ask Jay Ferron or the Microsoft Store, or we could do a workshop in the Microsoft Store like we did for Windows 8.
• Microsoft Surface Pro (the Intel-based Microsoft tablet that will also run Windows desktop applications in addition to ‘apps’). Perhaps this should be included within a Windows 8 presentation as it probably is not enough for a full presentation.
• Windows Blue – is it an incremental upgrade (Windows 8.1) or a different name for a service pack?  We will watch it.
• Bruce suggested repurposing an old machine (such as an XP era machine since XP support is being sunsetted) to a machine that runs a variant of Linux such as one of the Puppy releases.  He had recently converted a very sluggish netbook to one that runs impressively fast.  Richard Corzo will contact Dave Mawdsley and Jim Ritterbusch to see if they would be interested in a presentation.
• Something on Pinterest?  Brief discussion – Bruce said he would talk to a Ridgefield Librarian who did a brief session on Pinterest – but general feeling was that it probably isn’t enough to warrant a full presentation.
• At mention of Shutterfly discussion morphed into digital photography.  Last session was from Ritz Camara, and it was more geared towards cameras or accessories and services.  We haven’t done a session on digital photo editing, consumer-grade package such as Photo Elements 11 rather than CS 6 etc. This led to suggestion that we approach Ken Graff – Andy said he would ask him if he could cover composition, editing, organizing, sharing online, and archiving.
• Animation software – such as an Anime package.  At one time we had someone from WCSU, need to investigate. We will keep eye open at Mad Hacker Conference/Maker Faire etc.  Sat. June 8th.
• Do a tour of Windows Live Suite: Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Writer (blogs) etc.
2. Open positions
• 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 I wasn’t able to find credentials yet for logging in.
• Jim is now our 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 has re-verified our 501(c)(3) status.
3. We’ll be including Windows 8 in the Mobile Devices SIG.  It was announced at the May General Meeting.
4. To help launch the Innovation Center and Hackerspace, the City of Danbury is hosting the Danbury Mad Hacker Social Media Conference and the Danbury Mini Maker Faire. Mike Kaltschnee has invited us to have a booth at the Maker Faire from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 8, and we have accepted the offer.  What should go into the booth?  Something that isn’t static?  Something “Maker-ish” whatever that is?  Example: Make a DVR with a Linux box? Richard contacted Dave Mawdsley but he says he currently is too busy. Locations are to be distributed – tens on the city center green, band shell, etc.  Discussion of what we would present/display followed.   We can use some existing posters; perhaps demonstrate Raspberry Pi, Ardolino, etc.  Slide-show running?  Ask DACS table?  Some simple “write a little program” demos – “Hello World!” in various languages such as C, VB, PHP, etc.  Jim pointed out that we currently don’t have any SIGs that teach programming.  Jim, Bruce, Andy, Dave and Richard all said they could spend some time in the booth.  Schedule (on the hour?) a 10-minute thing on how to remove spyware or virus.  On the half hour (say) speak to data backup strategies, cloud backup, etc.  After much discussion we agreed upon:
   • Posters to attract attention
   • Live “Ask DACS” for individual problems – perhaps 4 minute max.
   • Windows 8 available for introductory demonstrations
   • Hourly brief (10 minute max?) discussion of preventing/removing virus/malware etc.
   Follow up Skype conference Wed. May 22nd.
5. Separately Tom Carruthers asked us to participate in the Mad Hacker Conference June 8 in downtown Danbury. Sean H. and Andy Woodruff are willing to do a music workshop, possibly in two sessions, one introductory and the second more advanced. Tom is no longer involved with the conference and has been replaced by Beth Haddad from New Jersey who has somewhat indicated that she will be using ‘her own people.   Andy has not gotten responses to e-mails – if nothing happens within a few days we will bow out as he and Sean need to get started, it can’t be done at the last-minute.
6. Since we didn’t elect a new president last month, we want to be on the lookout for a new board member with “presidential potential.”
7. From Charlie: We have received a request to update our telephone contacts for the
   security system at the resource center.  Board members have the listing, but we have decided to not make it public for privacy reasons.

New Business

1. Charlie reported new printing costs. How much of a change is this compared to the past?  We have reduced the number of printed copies due to electronic distribution and fewer copies distributed to non-members.
2. Do we need to do something to verify that SIG participants are still members?  Decided that SIG leaders should get a membership list with expiration date, and privately check membership status.  If someone is lapsed then notify membership who will correspond privately.  We don’t want to embarrass SIG attendees during a meeting.  SIG leaders should remind attendees that SIG attendance is for members in good standing.   We should also add that renewal post card should mention that membership is a requirement for SIG participation.