DACS Board of Directors Meeting
Wednesday, November 13, 2013

By Bruce Preston

Called to Order: 7:10 PM

Attending: Richard Corzo, Jim Scheef, Lisa Leifels, Richard Teasdale, Bert Goff, Dick Gingras, Andy Woodruff, Bill Saturno, Bruce Preston, Annette van Ommeren

Guest: Charlie Bovaird

Minutes of Last Meeting - Accepted

Treasurer’s Report

Membership Report

Old Business

1. General meetings
   • November 5: Mike Kaltschnee—Danbury Hackerspace.  Preview: Bill Saturno, Review: Sean Henderson
   • December 3: Bill DeRosa—Facebook and Pinterest.  Preview: Lisa Leifels, Review: Richard Teasdale
   • January 7, 2014: TBD – possibly Apple ‘ecosystem’.
   • February 4, 2014: Jay Ferron—Windows 8.1.  Preview: TBD, Review: TBD
   • Possible future topics:
   • We’ve started to do a “Meet the SIG” segment between the Ask DACS session and the featured presentation? We did the Linux SIG in November. What SIG should we do in January? Some suggestions: Apple, Mobile Devices, Drupal, Web Design.
   • “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 PhysEd at Western Connecticut State University, about a possible presentation at DACS re wearable electronic devices that monitor exercise and/or body functions.  Bill may have access to someone who has Google Glass, and perhaps other health-related wearable devices.
   • Sean and Bruce have agreed to put together a Saturday session, perhaps in January, more likely in February, on building virtual machines.  Participants would have to bring their own operating system.  Sean has his music seminar in November and a certification exam in December so we don’t anticipate any action on this until after these two events.
   • Dave Marra will not be able to do an Apple OS X Mavericks presentation.
   • 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. Andy (and to some extent Bruce) wanted to talk about the entry level ‘turn-key’ systems where you must live within the constraints of the design, where Annette is more concerned about  “What happens if it doesn’t do what you want it to do?”  Annette and Andy will discuss creating an outline that describes at a high-level what components might be a part of a web site and the repercussions they have upon the construction of the site.  No activity to report as yet.
   • 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, Richard C., Jim and Charlie will work on defining the metrics. They will possibly do comparisons of tablets: iOS/Android/Surface could be a session; SmartPhones: (similar list) although differences between tablet and phone is minimal, Computers etc.
   • Video production – putting something up on YouTube.
   • Google products?  Android operating system, Chromebook, Plus, etc.  Richard C. will contact Millicent Branca who was here several years ago. .
   • Home theater systems
   • Digital Cameras – Ritz Camera contact no longer in business, so who might be able to do it?
2. Opening positions:
• Treasurer: When Dave Green retires March 31. DACS member Bert Goff has agreed to replace our outgoing treasurer and attended tonight’s board meeting.
• President when Richard Corzo will retire in March 31, Dick Gingras agreed to take on the position of President, having last served as President in 1995.. .
• Replacements for retiring “odd-year class” board members Drew Kwashnak and Annette van Ommeren in December. Jim, Lisa, and Bruce are continuing. Dave Green is also retiring in December as an “even-year class” board member after serving just one year of his term.
• At our October meeting Dick Gingras joined the board and is replacing Dave Green to serve out the rest of his term that started last December.
• Bert Goff will run for a board member position and will be on the December slate.
3. Sean Henderson will be doing his annual music production workshop on November 22.
4. Jim has been looking into the feasibility of implementing a ‘split domain’ where DACS e-mails may be serviced by either Microsoft Office 365 or our current mail server on Bluehost.  The reason that he wants to do this is that a member with an @dacs.org address could make use of the MS Exchange functionalities available, such as centralized Outlook calendar that can be synchronized across devices.  He is in the process of determining as to whether this can be done without impacting existing accounts.  No progress to report.

New Business

1. Drew suggested that we establish a policy for unwinding Office 365 seat when a board member departs.  It was decided that e-mail address @dacs.org may be retained.  Since we have a limited number of Office 365 seats we should offload the former member from 365.  Getting e-mail history exported is the primary task that would have to be executed.  Motion was moved and carried that retired director or officers have their access to Share Point and Office 365 removed with 3-month grace period.

Adjourned: 9:15 PM