DACS Board of Directors Meeting
Wednesday, August 14, 2013

By Bruce Preston

Called to order: 7:15

Attending: Richard Corzo, Jim Scheef, Annette van Ommeren, Lisa Leifels, Andy Woodruff, Bruce Preston

Minutes of Last Meeting: Approved

Treasurer’s Report

Membership Stats

Old Business

1. General meetings
   
   
   • August 6: Office 2013. Carolyn Bighinatti attended with Mike Walters and Nick Volant from the Microsoft Store. Preview: Richard Corzo, Review: Richard Teasdale
   • September 3: Ken Graff—digital photo editing, organizing, and sharing online. Preview: Lisa Leifels, Review: Richard Koser
   • October 1 – Bruce Preston – Virtual Machine Technology, how it works and demonstration.  Preview: Jim Scheef Review:__________.
   • November 5: Mike Kaltschnee—Danbury Hackerspace.  Preview: Bill Saturno, Review: ________
   • December 3: Bill DeRosa—Facebook and Pinterest.  Preview: ________, Review: ________
   • Possible future topics:
     • 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.
     • “SIG Open House” session where the SIG leaders set up ‘tables’ to discuss their activities. This would be done between the Ask DACS session and the featured presentation.
     • We will continue with “LifeStream” monitoring. Mike Kaltschnee mentioned FitBit (currently available at BestBuy) or other ‘wearable electronics’.  Considering session on wearable technology such as this for the January session.  Andy spoke with Jeff Schlicht, professor of phys ed at West Conn, about a possible presentation at DACS re wearable electronic devices that monitor exercise and/or body functions.
     • Windows 8.1 – will be a free upgrade out October 17-18. We should have a presentation on the update from the Microsoft Store. It could also include information about the Microsoft Surface Pro (the Intel-based Microsoft tablet that will also run Windows desktop applications in addition to ‘apps’).
     • Bruce will do a Virtual Machine session in October and show that an XP machine (or earlier) could be built to support legacy applications. At the general meeting there appeared to be interest in learning about virtual machine software, such as VirtualBox, for installing and running older versions of Windows. There could also be a hands-on workshop as a follow-on.
     • Do a tour of Windows Live Suite: Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Writer (blogs) etc.? It looks like Ken Graff will be mentioning Picasa, a Google alternative to Photo Gallery in his presentation.  It was decided to table Windows Live as not being sufficient to require a full meeting.
     • Now that the new OS X Mavericks release has been announced to come out in the fall, we should ask Dave Marra to do another presentation as the time draws nearer.
     • Andy suggested a session on creating a web site of various types: blog, brochure, e-commerce site, etc.) – making use of such as products/services as site builder (online or on PC), turn-key sites, etc.   Andy suggested that as a computer group we should do some sort of session that would answer the question: “I think I need a web site, what are my options?”  This might involve a “high level” overview of the various approaches.  Would include discussion of WordPress, Blogger, and using a hosting service.
     • Lisa suggested a “decision tree” presentation – “What should I get?” – Windows or Mac, Desktop, All-in-One, Notebook, Tablet, or even SmartPhone – Android or iOS, etc. Lots of decisions - how to decide what meets your needs.  We think this would be a ‘tough’ presentation to pull off but a lively session.
     • Bruce suggested a session on advanced Google search techniques.  For example here’s a search:  “a * saved is a * earned” would find the quotation.
2. Bill Saturno is our new APCUG representative.
3. Open positions

• Treasurer - when Dave Green retires March 31.
• President - when Richard Corzo retires March 31.

4. DACS had a booth at the Danbury Mini Maker Faire on June 8. We had 37 visitors leave us their e-mail address. We followed up with a welcome e-mail and a reminder prior to the July and August meetings. We got no visitors from that list in July or August.

New Business

1. Since Microsoft has extended the deadline for the exam, Sean H. will be continuing his SQL Server study group through December.
2. Jim has suggested we need to revisit our social media strategy.  Richard Corzo is posting the general meeting on Meetup and LinkedIn. He and some other SIG leaders are sometimes posting SIG meetings on Meetup. It looks like no one is updating Facebook.  Annette will post links to the website as this may draw interest to the site.  She is not expected to add content to Facebook.
3. Richard Corzo announced his and Dave Green’s upcoming retirements at the August general meeting. If we don’t find replacements, we will need to disband DACS as a society. What do we need to do should it come time to end DACS? Should we consider closing up at the end of 2013? What shall we do with the Resource Center and its contents?  It was suggested that operations cease with the December meeting as that is when board member terms expire, and that the officers then use January through March to do the steps needed to dissolve the corporation filing the paperwork with the state and the IRS.  Jim will write an article for DACS.DOC detailing the situation.

Meeting adjourned at 9:20pm.