President's Message

Y2K II

If you missed our Year 2000 conference last October, you’ve been given a reprieve. At our next General Meeting on May 4, DACS will present a follow-up to that program called Y2K-II. This time we will move from the national and corporate stage to focus on the individual and small business.

As media hype, Y2K probably ranks up there along with global warming, Armageddon and the great asteroid collision. But since unlike the other two disasters, we know precisely when the Y2K bug will arrive and are generally expected to survive it’s coming, we would all benefit from at least some understanding of what obstacles and opportunities we face next January 1. Once again, DACS’ own pied piper of the PC, Ed Heere, will conduct an all-star cast in a walk-through of what to expect in personal finance, investing, local and state services, home and small business computing.

Forever APCUG

Hats off to the Association of PC User Groups for some great initiatives on behalf of its members. In conjunction with the Houston Area League of Computer Users, Inc., APCUG has pooled the resources of its 1500 constituent user groups world-wide to obtain full-page advertising from the PC industry. Under the arrangement, HAL-PC brokers advertising based on the combined newsletter circulation of participating groups, and divides the proceeds among the groups. The first ad from Symantec appears in this issue. Hopefully, more advertisers will use this service in the future, thus providing a continuous sponsorship of user group publishing activities.

In addition, APCUG has asked its active movers and shakers to contribute newsletter copy to member groups, thus providing much needed relief to harried editors. The first installment, on the USB serial bus, appears on page 10.

APCUG has always provided a useful service in sponsoring industry events like COMDEX and its annual InterGalactic User Group Officers’ Conference each June, prior to PC Expo. DACS has benefited immeasurably from their annual newsletter awards, given at InterGalactic. Since most of these services are enjoyed by user group leaders, the general membership of computer clubs may not be aware of their role. But their activities deserve your support and participation. For more information, please visit the APCUG Web site at www.apcug.org.

Is Postal Service an oxymoron?

Perhaps spurred by the incendiary rhetoric at our monthly meetings, and by the frustration of getting our newsletter late for months on end, DACS members have said they’re fed up, and won’t take it any longer. This past month, two letters have appeared in the News-Times decrying the Postal Service’s slow delivery. Another letter to the DACS editors suggests that we bite the bullet and raise dues sufficiently to send the newsletter out by first class mail.

After much consideration, the board decided to keep dacs.doc and our dues at existing rates. There has been some indication lately that the Postal Service is beginning to speed up deliveries. Also, it has been our pride that DACS is able to provide its many services at such a small cost to our membership. At a time when many user groups charging much higher dues are becoming overextended having to close down, we will continue to husband our resources, while providing the highest quality services possible to our membership.

DOC in distress

After nearly half a decade on the .doc, our fearless editor, Frances Owles is beginning to weary of the chase. A pathological volunteerist, Frances has been contributing her publishing skills and acumen to virtually all who ask for it–from dacs.doc to dressage, Russian women to amateur gardening, and of course, Voice for Joanie. We are desperately trying to keep her on the newsletter staff, but at the very least, she will need to cut back her involvement in some way. New volunteers must come forward to help with this task. Won’t you be one of them?

Those who work on our newsletter have in the process learned many valuable skills, including desktop publishing, graphic design, editing, PC trouble shooting, meeting tortuous deadlines, and that uncanny ability to stay up for hours after everyone else has gone to sleep. The pay backs have also been generous: year after year being among the select few to receive international user group newsletter awards. More than a friendly referral or fancy business card, dacs.doc tells others in great detail who we are and how seriously we take our mission.

And the next time you see Frances, tell her what a great job she is doing, and how much we will all miss her if she leaves. It’s the truth . . . so why not proclaim it?

--Allan Ostergren
dacsprez@aol.com