Hello again, or maybe I should say “I’m back…”.
Back in March, 2002, I was elected DACS president for the first time. That was a vastly different time for the club. We had a membership of about 470 and just over $20,000 in the bank. We had ten special interest groups (SIGs – what we now call workshops) meeting each month. Actually, we had 10 and a half SIGs, as Chuck Fizer’s Visual Basic SIG met twice on the first Wednesday each month, first during the afternoon and again in the evening with pizza between sessions. There was so much happening and more importantly, there were many volunteers willing to make it all happen. I served as president for three years.
Several trends were already evident. The most important was a declining membership. DACS membership was about 560 in January 2000. By the end of that decade (January, 2010) the count was only 188. Today we number 92. If you peruse the newsletters from the last 20 years, General Meeting topics have retained the same high quality all the way. The change in membership is reflected in our demographics – we are older. A primary reason given for leaving the club is a move out of state after retirement. Some of our most loyal members – even SIG leaders! – have moved to Florida in recent years. Among the trends affecting computer user groups, this one is tough to fight.
So, what is happening to DACS now? First and foremost, the DACS mission is not ending. Our monthly meetings at Danbury Hospital will continue to be free and open to the public. However, DACS will no longer be an independent entity. Perhaps not so dire, eh? Of all the possibilities explored by the board, our best option appeared to be some form of merger with the Danbury Hackerspace. Our discussions with Mike Kaltschnee, a long time DACS member and frequent speaker, led to the prospect of our becoming one of several groups within the Hackerspace umbrella. The formal process is that we must dissolve the DACS corporation. DACS has been a 501(c)3 non-profit since we incorporated in 1992. Our status as a 501(c)3 mandates specific steps by both the state and the IRS that we must follow. I have become president to see this process through and ensure a smooth transition to the Hackerspace organization. The sad part is that this means I will be the last DACS president.
In the meantime, the process has begun. We stopped sending those reminder emails and stopped accepting membership dues. In the coming weeks we will determine how best to refund the remaining dues of all current members. Where possible, memberships paid by PayPal will be refunded by PayPal. Others will receive a check.
The March newsletter was our last printed newsletter. Unfortunately, this decision was reached too late to be announced in the last printed newsletter. From now on we will post the newsletter on the website as soon as it is available, eliminating the need to send it by email to current members. Watch for an announcement in the weekly email (sent each Sunday morning).
You may have questions; please bring them to the general meeting on Tuesday, April 3rd.