What is a SIG? Many of us get asked that question frequently by prospective new members. It is an acronym used for many years, especially by computer clubs, to mean Special Interest Group. At our most recent Board meeting we decided that it is time to retire the SIG acronym in favor of monthly workshop. Workshops are commonly used by many organizations and no one should need to ask “What is a workshop?” It will take us time to break the habit and some SIG (oops! I mean workshop) leaders need to get used to the change, but it will come naturally over time. A special workshop is a single occurrence and a workshop series is a fixed number of sessions.
Dues increase – Out of necessity, your board voted to increase dues. This is the first dues increase since 2008. Expenses have gone up, membership has dropped, and we have been bleeding our treasury every year. Please read the article on the dues increase found elsewhere. We will follow the same precedents from 7 years ago and put this into effect on April 1st with a special renewal offer for everyone if done by March 31st.
Tag line – We need a short and memorable tag line to describe DACS that will be used consistently in our newsletter, website, social media, email, and all printed material. I like and have been using “From mobile to desktop, we inform, enlighten, and educate”. Others are of the opinion that it should be lighter like “What’s new, now and next…in tech – Smartphones – Tablets – Laptops”. What do you think would be a good tag line? Please let us know at http://dacs.org/feedback/. Your opinion counts.
Big shoes to fill – Just a few days ago I received a letter of resignation from a good friend and longtime DACS member, Bruce Preston, as corporate Secretary and Director, citing health and personal reasons. I have known Bruce since the early days of this organization and have always admired his work ethic and many contributions he has made to DACS. I remember the many excursions we made together to PC Expo in New York and other events, in the early days. He has always been at the forefront of technology (he introduced me to the Palm Pilot, the 1st real handheld computer), hosted the early “Ask DACS” sessions, led the Access SIG for many years, and ran many other special workshops, exhibits, and other activities. Most recently he has been involved with indexing 17 years of our newsletters in preparation for our 25th anniversary. As many of you know from reading this column over the past year, few people have been recognized as much as Bruce; he will be sorely missed. I have asked Bruce and he has agreed, to stay on for another month as Secretary and Board member, until we can find someone to fill his shoes. He will hopefully continue to make his much appreciated contributions into the foreseeable future.
First Night Danbury – The celebration is over for Danbury’s First Night festivities and we were happy to participate. Many thanks to Mike Kaltschnee and Jon Gatrell from the Danbury Hackerspace for hosting DACS at the Innovation center, to Cathy Quaranta, who organized this at very short notice, and to Richard Teasdale and Charlie Bovaird for working our table and talking to prospective DACS members. The effort continues to prepare for our 25th anniversary – we need more of you to work with Cathy to plan and make this yearlong celebration a success. Our objective is to create a much broader awareness of DACS, as we participate in new activities and create collectables of interest to DACS members and the general public.
Small Business Workshops – We are co-sponsoring a series of four Small Business Workshops with SCORE. The topics will be: “Your Marketing Tool Kit”, “Branding”, “Keys to a Great Website”, and “SEO Deep Dive”. These are to be hosted by the Danbury Library, starting on February 10th until March 31st. Many of you should have already received more information about these workshops from my direct mailing to you this month and it will appear elsewhere on our website. Judging from the attendance at the excellent presentation by John Barry last month, it is apparent that many of you are interested in making more money on the job or running a small business, so these free workshops and others like them should be of particular interest to you. What topics would you like to know more about?
Don’t forget that our new meeting time is 7:30pm and starts with our main presentation. Don’t be late.
From mobile to desktop, we inform, enlighten, and educate.
– Dick Gingras, President