The meeting was called to order at 7:03pm by the DACS President, David Green.
In attendance were Board members Richard Corzo, Dick Gingras, Bert Goff, David Green (President), and Andy Woodruff. Also present was guest: Charlie Bovaird. The minutes were taken by Richard Teasdale.
(Names in italics denote responsibilities for actions.)
- The Minutes of the 8/2/2017 Board Meeting were accepted.
Reports
- The August Treasurer’s report was received from Bert.
- Dues receipts were $300 (minus PayPal fees). Total Year to date (8 months) dues receipts were about the same as the first 8 months of 2016. Expenses continued to be normal and the 8-month year-to-date totals were slightly below 2016, adjusted for John Patrick’s book expenses (which he covered).
- The Resource Center Fund continues to have a balance of $655.
- Bert reported that he had spoken to Frontier about the increase in their phone charges. The company agreed to a small decrease in the monthly charge, together with a $10 credit for past over-billing.
- The Membership report was received by e-mail from Jim Scheef.
- 88 paid-up members (including 5 new), and 14 in-grace, for a total of 102.
- 26 people attended the 9/5/2017 general meeting, including 10 visitors. Data was captured about how each visitor heard of the meeting, both through the Google Docs form at the door and verbally in the auditorium (by Andy and Charlie). The relative effectiveness of each data capture method was discussed.
- The Board concluded from the data that (1) most of the visitors knew of the meeting from Andy’s marketing efforts; (2) marketing to organizations with membership likely to have an interest in the meeting topic is worthwhile; and (3) on this occasion, members of educational bodies were not interested in the topic.
- Press Coverage:
- David reported that he got some acknowledgments to the press releases that he sent out.
- David will look again for the list of SCORE contacts that was e-mailed to him, and follow up for any corrections needed to the e-mail addresses stored in CiviCRM. Bert volunteered to do the CiviCRM updates, if any are required.
- It was agreed that each month, David should make the press release available for the Board’s review before it is distributed.
- Websites:
- Richard reported that September calendar entries for the Hackerspace have been added to the website calendar. The usefulness of cross-promotion with the Hackerspace was questioned and discussed. The Board agreed to continue promoting Hackerspace events and adopt a wait-and-see approach for its effectiveness. It was agreed to adjust the colors of the calendar entries to make DACS events stand out over non-DACS entries. Andy offered to assist the webmasters with keeping the calendar up-to-date.
- Richard reported that the CiviCRM problem encountered during an attempt to update the system is to be addressed by installing releases one at a time. It is hoped that this approach will bring us up-to-date without a recurrence of the problem.
- The Math CAPTCHA plug-in used to secure logins to the main DACS website has been disabled due to a problem, and may be replaced.
- It was agreed to remove the President’s Column from the home page of the website.
Old Business
- Programs:
- Chris Furey will speak at the October general meeting about Ransomeware.
- Preview: Dick.
- Review: David will call a DACS member who may be willing to write the review.
- A number of ideas for publicizing the meeting were discussed. Dick will contact the Danbury Chamber of Commerce and SCORE to ask for their help. Bert will approach the New Milford Chamber of Commerce.
- At the November general meeting, Mike Kaltschnee will provide an interactive session using TinkerCAD, to teach the audience about 3D Printing.
- Preview: Andy.
- Review: TBD.
- Andy will contact John Patrick in approximately two weeks, for an update about his readiness to speak to a general meeting about Home Automation.
- Richard and Dick both have contacted Andrew Ribeiro, a member of the Danbury AI Meetup group, who may be available to speak about Artificial Intelligence. The Danbury AI group’s meeting schedule is an obstacle since it is the same as DACS general meetings. Richard will speak with him further.
- Richard will contact a potential speaker about Linux-related topics and also one for Minecraft.
- Chris Furey will speak at the October general meeting about Ransomeware.
- Renovation of the Resource Center (RC): The donation of used carpeting from Meadow Ridge Senior Living Community in Redding still has not taken place. Andy drafted a letter from the President of DACS to his contact there, for David’s signature. Andy recommended that if this measure is unsuccessful, the floor of the RC should be painted instead of carpeted.
- Mike Ross’s e-mailed suggestions for the weekly Upcoming DACS Meetings message were discussed. Some changes were agreed and Andy undertook to communicate them to Jim Scheef. He will also notify Mike Ross that the Board acted on his suggestions.
New Business
- Snacks for General Meetings:
- Richard Teasdale will provide snacks for October, and David will bring beverages.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:11 pm.