The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm by the DACS President, Dave Green.
In attendance were Board members Richard Corzo, Dick Gingras, Dave Green (President), and Andy Woodruff. Bert Goff was not present. Also present were guests: Charlie Bovaird (CB), Mike Kaltschnee (MK), John Kinkopf (JK), Drew Kwashnak (DK), Jim Scheef (JS), Carl Traina (CT), and Sam Wexler. The minutes were taken by Richard Teasdale.
(Names in italics denote responsibilities for actions.)
The first part of the meeting was reserved for advice and remarks by Sam Wexler on How to Improve Membership of DACS, combined with and followed by discussion centered around the future of DACS. Sam is a member of the APCUG Board of Advisors, with responsibility for Region 1 (New York & New England).
The highlights of Sam Wexler’s recommendations were as follows.
- Try something new. Take a chance. “Find something other than a Windows 10 presentation”.
- Leverage LinkedIn to message people in the Danbury area about DACS meetings.
- Try to “break through” to businesses, to find younger potential membership.
Other significant comments and observations included:
- MK: Computer groups have evolved into meetups. Consider morphing DACS into a Danbury Tech[nology] Meetup.
- CT: Use Online meetings.
- Richard: [DACS suffers from a] lack of networking opportunities.
- CT: Set up a DACS Youtube channel.
- CT: People will travel long distances for something they are really interested in.
- MK: Stop holding everything precious – everything is fair game (for change).
- MK: Consider a new location for general meetings, e.g. at the new Hackerspace location that is in development (which would be free for DACS).
- MK: DACS and the Hackerspace should cross-promote each other’s meetings.
At the conclusion of the discussion, the ordinary business of the Board was conducted.
- The Minutes of the 6/7/2017 Board Meeting were accepted.
Reports
- The Membership report was received from Jim Scheef.
- 95 paid-up members (including 5 new), and 7 in-grace, for a total of 102.
- No information was available about how visitors heard of the meeting, e.g. via Meetup. Andy reiterated that this information should be collected.
- Press Coverage:
- Dave reported that the press release for the July General Meeting was sent out to the usual recipients on about June 22.
- Andy pointed out the need to monitor how effective we are in getting announcements published by the press. Dave indicated that he will work on developing a network of people who can assist with monitoring the print publications in their various coverage areas.
- MK mentioned that Chris Bosak should be the contact person at the Danbury News-Times, and that he has been very helpful with publicizing Hackerspace events.
- MK also recommended contacting Joe Lipovich, at Danbury Patch.
- Website:
- Richard reported that although there was an incursion early in the month, the website has been stable since then.
- Jim reported that a new subdomain has been created for the Single Board Computer workshop (sbc.dacs.org).
Old Business
- Programs:
- Ed Fitzgerald will speak at the July general meeting, on the subject of Using an iPad with someone who has dementia.
- Preview: Richard Teasdale.
- Review: Mike McGrath.
- Robert Hurlbut will speak at the August general meeting, on the subject of Online Privacy and VPNs.
- Preview: Jim Scheef.
- Review: John Kinkopf or Richard Teasdale.
- Shannon Calvert, of the Westport Astronomical Society, will speak at the September general meeting about Astrophotography.
- Preview: Andy.
- Review: TBD.
- At Richard’s request, MK contacted a potential speaker on Artificial Intelligence, who may be available in October.
- MK offered to run an interactive session using TinkerCAD, to teach the audience about 3D Printing.
- Ed Fitzgerald will speak at the July general meeting, on the subject of Using an iPad with someone who has dementia.
- Members Directory:
- The board has determined that DACS members need to be able to identify and contact each other, and to share information about their interests, without having to disclose e-mail or phone details. The options are (1) the use of a plug-in or custom coding on the CiviCRM website, and (2) Meetup. The pros and cons of each potential solution were discussed further. The consensus of the meeting was that option (2) Meetup is preferable. It was agreed to move forward with this approach.
- Renovation of the Resource Center (RC):
- Andy reported that a donation of 18 chairs and two conference tables were received for the RC. Members who assisted in moving these items were John Kinkopf, Dave Mawdsley, Jim Scheef, Richard Teasdale, and Andy Woodruff. Andy will write an article about the donation for publication in the newsletter.
- The donation of used carpeting from Meadow Ridge Senior Living Community in Redding is expected imminently.
New Business
- JS suggested that at each general meeting, the audience be asked to each quickly identify themselves and summarize their computer-related interests. The board agreed to do this. Jim will put together some Powerpoint slides for prompting of the audience.
- Snacks for General Meetings:
- Richard (snacks) and Richard Teasdale (beverages) will make the arrangements in July.
- Dave will approach Bert Goff regarding snacks for August, and will bring beverages.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:41 pm.