I want to wish everyone a wonderful Holiday season and a healthy, prosperous, and happy New Year. 2015 is shaping up to be a banner year for DACS and I hope it is for each of you.
As we wrap up 2014 there are 3 things to consider doing.
- Give a gift of DACS membership. Just send an email to membership@DACS.org with your name, the name and email address of the person receiving your gift, and when you would like them to receive a welcome letter from DACS.
- Be sure to use our Amazon Smile link when shopping.
- Take a year-end tax deduction by clicking our Donate link.
I welcome Cathy Quaranta as our newest member of the Board of Directors. She brings with her many fresh ideas, high energy, and a strong commitment to DACS. She is organizing a new Marketing Committee for a coordinated effort to publicize DACS events and increase awareness, participation, and membership with a renewed public relations effort. She is in touch with area leaders and experts for guidance and will be looking into different ways of creating more public awareness and interest in DACS events. She wants your help and ideas. Two activities Cathy is focused on are:
First Night Danbury – December 31st from 5 to 9 PM, and also celebrating their 25th anniversary. DACS will have a presence at the new Innovation Center, adjacent to the Public Library, because of our close association with the Danbury Hackerspace. Please stop by and help or just say hello and enjoy the First Night festivities.
25th anniversary – Very few groups survive as long as we have. That’s what makes our 25th anniversary a special occasion. I am looking for more of you to work with Cathy to plan and make this yearlong celebration a success. This will 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.
Bruce Preston has been hard at work indexing past newsletters going as far back as January 1998 when they were first published as PDF files. This is an incredible and greatly appreciated effort that may lead to its distribution on physical media such as DVD or thumb drive. Thank you Bruce! Perhaps this will inspire others to transform the remaining 7 years of printed newsletters to electronic format
New activities – SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is a nonprofit association, assisted by the SBA (Small Business Association), dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, grow, and achieve their goals through education and mentorship. They have a regional office at the Innovation Center adjacent to the Danbury Library. They have asked us and I have accepted their request to sponsor a series of workshops in February and March that will be of interest to many of you. The topics will include: “Your Marketing Tool Kit”, “Branding”, “Keys to a Great Website”, and “SEO Deep Dive”. Additionally we are partnering with SCORE and Microsoft to launch a series of workshops about effectively using the Microsoft Office suite. We will have more information on these workshops next month on our website and newsletter. Keep posted.
SIG signup sheets – will again be available at our general meeting. If you can’t make it to the general meeting but you have a suggestion for a new Special Interest Group, please send an email to NewSIG@dacs.org. Please indicate what days and times are best for you.
Don’t forget our new meeting time is now 7:30pm and starts with our main presentation. Don’t be late.
From mobile to desktop, we inform, enlighten, and educate.
– Dick Gingras, President