The meeting was called to order at 7:10pm by the DACS President, Dave Green.
In attendance were board members Richard Corzo, Dick Gingras, Bert Goff (Secretary & Treasurer), Dave Green (President), and Andy Woodruff. The minutes were taken by Richard Teasdale.
(Names in italics denote responsibilities for actions.)
- The Minutes of the 2/8/2017 Board Meeting were accepted.
Reports
- The Treasurer’s report for February was discussed. Bert reported that dues receipts were slow but appear to be picking up in March. An issue with the sending of e-mails from CiviCRM may have impacted renewal reminders. Richard mentioned that the issue would be addressed at the Membership Committee meeting on 3/9. Bert reported that liquid assets currently exceed prepaid dues by about $1,200. Fundraising for the Resource Center Capital Campaign currently stands at $656.
- The Membership report was received from Jim Scheef by e-mail:
- 89 paid-up members (including 4 new), and 11 in-grace, for a total of 100.
- 28 people attended the March 7 general meeting, 4 of whom were visitors.
- Press Coverage:
- Dave reported that press releases for the March general meeting were sent out in late February.
- Andy pointed out that we should be monitoring publishers to whom the press release has been sent and following up in cases where the release did not get published. In the case of online publishers this is easy to do but print publications require much more work.
- Dave agreed to work on getting help from DACS members to monitor print publications.
- Dick will ask the Trumbull computer group for information about their publicity efforts, since they seem to have more success at meeting attendance than DACS.
- The board discussed the possibility of publicity to the clients of small business owners who have presented at general meetings but concluded that this was unlikely to produce results.
- The pros and cons of co-sponsorship of events with other organizations (e.g. Danbury Library, Apple, Microsoft), so that DACS could benefit from their public relations efforts, were discussed.
- Website:
- Richard reported that a few compromised files continue to be detected by Wordfence.
Old Business
- Programs:
- April: Dan O’Connor will speak about the WAMP stack (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and its uses for application development. Richard will write the Preview and Richard Teasdale will write the Review. Richard (C) will ask Dan about publicizing the event to his work colleagues.
- May: John Gallagher, the manager of a New Milford retailer of hobby-related merchandise, will present a talk on the subject of remote-controlled devices, including drones. Bert will write the Preview and Andy will write the Review. Bert will ask the speaker about publicity to his client base.
- Bert is in conversation with a New Milford consultant who has Google SEO experience, and who may be available to present on the topic of Google products.
- Renovation of the Resource Center (RC):
- No donation of used carpet has yet been received from Meadow Ridge Senior Living Community in Redding, but Andy’s contact there has confirmed that one is still forthcoming.
- The board discussed the pros and cons of starting the painting work right away versus waiting.
- Andy will speak to Mike Kaltschnee about prospects for relocating the RC to the Hackerspace’s possible new location in the Danbury News-Times building.
New Business
- Free Memberships for general meeting speakers:
- Andy proposed a motion that “DACS will offer one 1-year free membership (with online newsletter) to each general meeting presenter, regardless of whether they are existing members of DACS. (If there is more than one presenter at a meeting, they will decide between themselves which is to receive the free membership.)” The motion was seconded by Bert. After discussion, the motion was voted on and carried with 4 yes votes (1 abstention).
- Annual Officers Election (President, Secretary, Treasurer)
- President: Dave Green was nominated by Richard Corzo and seconded by Andy Woodruff. No other candidates were nominated. A vote was taken, and Dave was re-elected to the position, 4 votes in favor, none opposed.
- Secretary: Bert Goff was nominated by Dick Gingras and seconded by Andy Woodruff. No other candidates were nominated. A vote was taken and Bert was re-elected to the position, 4 votes in favor, none opposed.
- Treasurer: Bert Goff was nominated by Dave Green and seconded by Andy Woodruff. No other candidates were nominated. A vote was taken and Bert was re-elected to the position, unanimously.
- Snacks for general meetings:
- Richard Corzo (snacks) and Jim Scheef (drinks) will make the arrangements in April.
- Members Directory:
- The desirability and practicality of a Members Directory were discussed.
- It was agreed to form a committee, consisting of Richard, Andy, and Jim Scheef (assuming his availability), to look into the topic further. It was provisionally planned for this activity to begin at the April meeting of the Membership committee.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 pm.