The meeting was called to order at 7:22pm by the DACS President, Dave Green.
In attendance were board members Richard Corzo, Bert Goff (Secretary & Treasurer), Dave Green (President), Jim Scheef, and Andy Woodruff. Dick Gingras, Cathy Quaranta, and Tom Zarecki were not present. The minutes were taken by Richard Teasdale.
(Names in italics denote responsibilities for actions.)
- The Minutes of the 7/6/2016 Board Meeting were accepted.
Reports
- The Treasurer’s report for July was discussed. Bert reported that dues receipts in July were very low, and that expenses for the month were also less than usual. The year-to-date loss is about $454, compared to about $502 at the same time last year. Jim will investigate the possibility that automatic e-mail reminders are not being sent out to expiring members.
- Membership committee: Jim reported 87 current members (including 5 new), and 16 in-grace, for a total of 103.
- Marketing committee: No report.
- Press Coverage: Dave reported that the press release for the August general meeting was distributed last month.
- Website:
- Richard reported that some instances of hacking of the website have happened recently. A restore of WordPress was done, since which no further hacks have been detected.
- The price for protection of two sites (the DACS website and the CiviCRM site) using the premium version of Wordfence is now estimated at $150/year. The board unanimously approved a motion to authorize expenditure up to $175.
- At Andy’s request, the backup procedures for the DACS website were reviewed. All files and the database are being backed up regularly. Andy recommended that action be taken to address the possibility that the backup cycle wraps around completely before file corruption due to hacking is discovered.
Old Business
- Programs:
- Preparations for John Patrick’s talk in October about elections technology were discussed. Andy reported that John’s new book, Election Attitude, is expected to be published in August. Hamlet Hub is involved and would be willing to participate in publicity for the DACS meeting. Bert mentioned that he had spoken with a contact at the New Milford Spectrum, which might be willing to have a reporter cover the meeting, but they would need a press release in advance. Andy will write the preview article (which will form the basis of the press release), and Jim will write the review.
- Bert will contact the DACS member who may be able to present about intellectual property, to ask about September or November.
- The potential topic, How to Buy a Computer, was discussed. Andy will ascertain whether the Samsung staff who work at the Best Buy store in Danbury include a possible speaker for that topic.
- Jim will contact Allan Ostergren about the possibility of an astronomy presentation, in conjunction with the McCarthy observatory in New Milford.
- Richard will contact Mike Kaltschnee about a possible presentation to DACS.
- Richard will find out whether the Apple store is willing to present (in November).
- Renovation of the Resource Center (RC):
- Jim reported (by e-mail prior to the meeting) that subject to certain conditions, the Ives Manor building manager has no objection to disposal of the old carpeting in the building’s dumpster.
- Renovation tasks required were further discussed. The board agreed that next steps should include removal of the old carpeting and donation of the server rack to the Hackerspace.
New Business
- Snacks for general meetings:
- Jim and Dave (drinks) and Bert (snacks) will make the arrangements in September.
- Richard initiated a discussion of two topics which might be of interest to the DACS membership: (1) a workshop devoted to Network-attached Storage (NAS) systems, and (2) SLACK, a web-based communication system. The board agreed that these would be legitimate topics for a survey of the membership. Jim will work on creating the survey.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:37pm.