The meeting was called to order at 7:10pm. Andy Woodruff chaired the meeting in place of President Dick Gingras, who was absent due to illness.
In attendance were Richard Corzo, Bert Goff (Treasurer & Secretary), Dave Green, Cathy Quaranta, Andy Woodruff, and Tom Zarecki. DACS members Steve Harkness and Sean Henderson were present as guests for parts of the meeting; also Michael Ross, a Personal and Professional Development coach. The minutes were taken by Richard Teasdale.
- The Minutes of the 11/4/2015 Board Meeting were approved.
Reports
- The Treasurer’s report for November was reviewed and discussed. It now appears that the loss for the year will approximate that of 2014. Bert to work with Annette on the possibility of using free Staples print services for more brochures.
- Membership committee:
- Bert: Total membership: 112 (including members up to 6 months lapsed).
- December general meeting attendance: 38, including 25 DACS members.
- Richard: CiviCRM is running okay. Newsletter was sent out via e-mail.
- Bert: Jim Scheef is close to automating the sending of dues reminder e-mails.
- Richard to schedule a CiviCRM training session for people who need access.
- Program committee:
- December general meeting – Tom reviewed a list of follow-up suggestions sent by Linda Bourie. It was agreed that a plan is needed to respond to these.
- The board’s consensus about the December meeting presentation was that it was well-presented but too basic for the audience.
- Tom is writing the review article for the December meeting.
- Marketing committee:
- Cathy: Good event at the Hackerspace in October. Follow-ups have not been done with the people who filled out raffle cards.
- Steve visited the Naugatuck Valley Community College, which holds computer classes and is moving into the Main St office vacated by CityCenter Danbury. He plans to meet with Antonio Santiago, the Associate Dean for the Danbury campus, to discuss how to interest students in DACS.
- Press Coverage:
- Tom: A press release was sent 2-3 weeks ago, via CiviCRM.
- Tom & Linda are working on confirming contact names and getting feedback about publication.
- Website:
- Consensus: the website is working well.
- Bert: bill from Bluehost for domain registration. No corresponding credit, as received in other years. Bert to follow up with Jim Scheef.
- Internship:
- Tom: Linda Bourie has been very busy but her internship will end soon. Tom is working on getting a replacement for Linda in the January – May semester.
Old Business
- 25th Anniversary Dinner:
- Several ideas and possibilities were discussed. There was consensus that a board meeting evening would not be a good date, but dinner in lieu of a general meeting is a possibility. It was agreed that a fixed price dinner with at least two choices of entree would be suitable. Cathy to continue making preparations.
- Goals and Staffing Predicament:
An extended discussion of the challenges faced by DACS was held. Most comments and suggestions pertained to a few basic issues (shown bolded below).
- The reduced number of members of DACS is a major issue. DACS’ success as an organization should be measured by its membership count.
- There have been several major people losses over past year. The burden on remaining active members is getting heavier.
- Roles and responsibilities have to be well-defined and finite.
- Need for fun & satisfaction.
- How appeal to everyone and stop membership erosion?
- What is our mission?
- We need to prioritize efforts and tasks.
- We need to attract more attendees to meetings.
- General meetings don’t get people to come back.
- More effective to target computer users, i.e. people working in the field, rather than students.
- Bring back AskDACS in a shorter version (like Trumbull group)?
- Socialization sells. Break in middle of meeting, to allow for networking?
- A smaller meeting room (i.e. the Robilotti room or the DACS Resource Center) may work better than the auditorium.
- Could we serve food/snacks (in the Robilotti room or outside)? Dave to contact hospital re food in the conference center.
- FUD – security – help people protect themselves? But we have had many security-related meetings. In general, the general meeting topics have been good.
- Maybe two small presentations in the same meeting?
- Issue of whether meetings can be skipped, e.g. have 6/year instead of 12.
- If we have to cut back our offerings, general meetings are not the right place to start.
- Radio station analogy: every 20 minutes has to be a microcosm of the entire station. Many companies and non-profits do the same thing.
- Consider other computer clubs’ ideas e.g. Westchester PCUG.
- Conjunction with other organizations. We should do more with them.
- Invite vendors to meetings?
- Would it be preferable to merge with another org rather than go out of business?
- Strategic relationships with other organizations, e.g. computer support providers (Network Support Co. was mentioned), the Danbury Hackerspace, etc.
- Danbury High School – computer labs.
New Business
- General meetings
- January – Cloud Computing update (Amazon Web Services) – Anand Tirumani. Richard is contact person but will ask Jim Scheef about making contact and writing the preview article.
- February – Office 2016.
- Sean has a contact who could present about Configuration Management.
- Bert will chair the January meeting of the Board of Directors.
- The board will advertise for DACS Presidential candidates. Sean to compose a first draft of the ad.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:50pm.