The meeting was called to order at 7:10pm by the DACS President, Dave Green.
In attendance were board members Richard Corzo, Bert Goff (Secretary & Treasurer), Dave Green (President), and Andy Woodruff. Dick Gingras was not present. The minutes were taken by Richard Teasdale.
(Names in italics denote responsibilities for actions.)
- The Minutes of the 1/4/2017 Board Meeting were accepted.
Reports
- The Treasurer’s report for January was discussed. Bert reported that the month compared favorably to January of 2016. The Balance on Hand is about the same as on 1/31/2016. Andy pointed out a minor error on the Dues income line, which Bert will correct. Fundraising for the Resource Center Capital Campaign continues to do well – the total amount received being $606.35; donations averaging about $50 per donor.
- The Membership report was received from Jim Scheef by e-mail:
- 91 paid-up members (including 4 new), and 10 in-grace, for a total of 101.
- 22 people attended the February 7 General Meeting, 4 of whom were visitors.
- Press Coverage:
- Dave reported that press releases for the February general meeting were sent out on 1/25.
- Andy reported that he posted an announcement of the general meeting on WSHU’s website. It was agreed that going forward, this posting will be added to Dave‘s Press Release distribution routine. Andy will send details to Dave.
- The board also agreed that press release announcements that stay on publishers’ websites should be distributed as early as possible. (Distributions to print publishers will continue to go out 2 weeks before the date of the general meeting.)
- Website:
- Richard mentioned that he added a permission to the Editor role in CiviCRM, so that Bert can update the text of acknowledgement e-mails that are sent via Civi.
- Richard reported that from time to time, compromised files continue to be detected by Wordfence. It was agreed that files in the non-Wordpress folders, e.g. the newsletter archives, should be scanned for malware. Richard will take this up with Jim Scheef.
- Andy asked that two separate backup copies of the website files be kept, one copy in Amazon Web Services, as now, and a second copy somewhere else. Richard agreed to take this up with Jim Scheef at the next Membership committee meeting.
- Bert pointed out that some points made by the February general meeting speaker are relevant to the DACS website:
- Social networking sites on which DACS has a presence, e.g. Meetup, should include links to the DACS website.
- Visitors to the website should have an easy way to communicate with DACS.
- Google Analytics – the board discussed how the information that is collected might be used but concluded that it has no great value to DACS.
- It was agreed that visitors to the website should be encouraged to submit their e-mail addresses by enabling them to sign up for the weekly e-mails. Richard will ask Annette van Ommeren to implement this feature.
Old Business
- Programs:
- In view of David Fischer’s desire to know who attended the February general meeting, it was decided to ask Jim Scheef to query each attendee by e-mail whether his/her contact information may be provided to the speaker. The board agreed that DACS-owned information about meeting attendees will never be shared with speakers (or anyone else).
- Dave reported that he asked the manager of Best Buy about a possible speaker for the topic of Wearable Devices, but has received no answer.
- A list of potential general meeting topics was reviewed.
- Bert reported on his follow-up conversation with Steve Harkness after the January general meeting. Bert will contact the manager of a New Milford retailer of hobby-related merchandise, who may be willing to talk on the subject of remote-controlled devices, e.g. drones.
- Andy will speak to John Patrick about the topic of his next address to DACS (mentioning home automation as a possibility).
- Richard will contact the Apple store in the Danbury Mall about speaking at a general meeting.
- Renovation of the Resource Center (RC):
- Bert reported that he and Jim Scheef are awaiting the start of some action on the renovation before they approach potential business donors.
- Andy has not heard recently from his contact at Meadow Ridge about their donation of used carpet. The board agreed to wait another month before starting painting, since the choice of paint color may depend on the carpet to be donated (whose color is not yet known).
- Other prospective renovations were discussed further.
New Business
- Snacks for general meetings:
- Bert (snacks) and Richard Teasdale (drinks) will make the arrangements in March.
- Dave will mail the March newsletters.
- Richard will contact John Adams (Ridley-Lowell) about holding a (one-time) workshop on the subject of Network-attached Storage (NAS).
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 pm.