The meeting was called to order at 7:05pm. Bert Goff chaired the meeting in place of President Dick Gingras, who was absent due to illness.
In attendance were board members Richard Corzo, Bert Goff (Treasurer & Secretary), Dave Green, Cathy Quaranta, Andy Woodruff, and Tom Zarecki. DACS members Linda Bourie, Charlie Bovaird, and Jim Scheef were also present. The minutes were taken by Richard Teasdale.
- The Minutes of the 12/2/2015 Board Meeting were approved.
Reports
- The Treasurer’s report for December was reviewed and discussed. The loss for the year 2015, at $94.12, was much less than the yearly losses experienced in recent years, due to many member renewals in December and non-publication of the January 2016 newsletter.
- Membership committee:
- Jim reported that there are 100 current members + 12 in-grace, making a total membership of 112. 48 newsletters are being distributed, of which 19 are for promotional purposes.
- Andy asked that something be done about the high number of erroneous expired membership reminder e-mails being sent out from CiviCRM. Bert explained that update responsibility is to be transferred to the Treasurer so that CiviCRM can be kept more up-to-date. Jim agreed to remove various people who don’t need to know from the distribution list for expired membership e-mails.
- Marketing committee:
- Wednesday, March 9 was chosen as the target date for the 25th Anniversary dinner event. Restaurants to be investigated are Outback Steakhouse (Cathy), Two Steps (Jim), and Chuck’s Steakhouse (Andy).
- Press Coverage:
- Tom: No press release was sent out for the January general meeting. A release will be distributed for the February meeting.
- Website:
- Richard: WordPress has been upgraded to the latest version and a new theme has been implemented.
- Internship:
- Tom: There are currently two WestConn intern candidates for marketing.
- Andy + Tom: Ridley-Lowell is interested in supplying interns to work with DACS. Tom will investigate further.
Old Business
- Staffing Predicament
- Richard will chair the February meeting of the Board of Directors.
- Versions of the “need President” publicity piece drafted by Sean Henderson will be published to the DACS membership (Jim), on the website (Andy), on Craig’s List (Andy), on Meetup (Jim), in the News-Times (Tom), and on all social media sites where DACS has a membership. Andy will write a job description of DACS President for use in the publicity.
- “End Planning” for DACS was deferred. A copy of the DACS Charter is required.
- Programs
- February: MS Office 2016, Preview – Richard, Review – Andy.
- Andy will contact Mike Kaltschnee re speaker candidate(s) to present about wearable computing devices.
- Discussion of DACS goals was deferred.
- Implementation of Ask-DACS and snacks
- The board agreed to institute at general meetings a quick Q&A session and a break for snacks (with a donation bucket).
- Dave volunteered to bring the snacks and Bert to assist.
- Renovation of Resource Center
- The idea of asking for store donations of materials was discussed. Bert and Andy will approach stores (Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc.).
New Business
- Newsletter
- It was agreed that no consideration will be given for non-publication of the January newsletter.
- Forum software
- The board approved implementation of the new forum software developed by Jeff Setaro.
- John Adams’ invitation to pitch DACS to his class – Tom and Linda will follow up.
- Member Directory – discussed. Action deferred.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20pm.