SUN CITY COMPUTER CLUB

EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

April 6, 2006, 9:00 aM

CyberCenter Meeting Room

The Meeting was called to order at 9:00 A.M. by Dick Smith, President.

Present:

Peter Roll, Founder
Dick Smith, President
Dick Doane, Vice President
Linda Shanhouse, Treasurer
Dave Hanna, Communications Director
Peggy Uselton, Membership Director
Rex Davenport, Programs Director
Grady Manley, Training Director
Linda Walke, Secretary

Absent

Don Snapp, CyberCenter Director
Nelda McQuary, Special Interest Groups Director

Agenda Changes

Topics added:

          Mentor Program

          Web Portal and update on Vista

Approval of Minutes

A motion was made by Dick Smith on March 10, 2006 to accept by e-vote and publish on the Computer Club web site the revised minutes of the March 2, 2006 Board Meeting.  The motion was seconded and passed by e-vote.

Financial Report

Technical difficulties prevented Linda Shanhouse, Treasurer, from distributing the March financial report.  It will be sent as soon as possible.

DISCUSSION OF DIRECTORS’ REPORTS RECEIVED BY E-MAIL

Communications - Dave Hanna

Club email accounts

Some of the Computer Club email accounts were receiving SPAM messages daily. We have changed the address on the Classroom email account and on the Q&A account by adding a "2" just before the "@" and it has eliminated the SPAM for now.  Further email address changes will likely be required.

The new server requires an email account password to have at least five characters. This caused a change in the password being used on the Classroom computers. During the last two weeks we have had a series of problems in using the Classroom email accounts during classes. The first problem was that we did not do a good job in letting the instructors know about the change in the email address (to Class2@....). The password change and wrong password information provided by me made the problem worse. Finally, with Peter's help, the problem was corrected and everything should be working again.

Some of the instructors are unaware that Domingo Martinez may be contacted to help with Classroom equipment problems.

Media Conversion

Ray DeVries is now handling the scheduling of all Media Conversion workshops including 8mm movie film. He will also be taking over leading the movie workshop sessions. As a matter of interest since October 2004, I have conducted 23 workshop sessions on 8 mm film conversion with 57 members being trained. Of these 57, about two-thirds have continued on with movie conversions. We continue to have new members signing up for training. Ray has three workshops scheduled for the next three Friday mornings and that will clean up the backlog

Nelda and Doug are working up guidelines for video data editing.  As it is really a step beyond conversion, it should be handled separately.

Membership - Peggy Uselton

The number of club members as of March 31, 2006                         1,822

The number of new members who joined in March, 2006                       54

The total number of new members who have joined in 2006                 231

We now have 90.4% of 2005’s membership.               

The New Member Reception was held March 28 and about 35 attended (33% of the 107 who were invited). The tour of the CyberCenter was restricted because the classroom and meeting room were both in use.  In the future, perhaps we can avoid scheduling classes or SIG’s at the time of the reception. 

The established format for the New Member Reception of 30 minutes of presentation and 30 minutes of socializing and tours of the CyberCenter has worked well and will continue for the foreseeable receptions.  The next New Member Reception is scheduled for May 23 in Meeting Rooms 3 & 4.

Programs - Rex Davenport

April 3:          Genealogy (SIG)

April 10:        “How Did You Do That” (John Bosch)

April 17:        “Scanning” (Marlene Sloan)

April 24:        “Open Office” (Jim Crutcher)

May 1:          “Keeping Your Computer Up To Date” (Beginners SIG)

May 8:          “Using Word to make letterheads & business cards (Barbara Resnick)

May 15         “How Did You Do That” (John Bosch)

May 22:        Computers & cell phones technology (Tony Morrison)

May 29:        Holiday

June 5:         “How Did You Do That” (John Bosch)

June 12:        “The Magic of Photo Restoration” (Burton Anes)

June 19:        Vector Vest (Investment SIG)

June 26:        VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) - Walter Eastburn

July 3:          No meeting

July 10:         ProShow Gold (Amanda) (ProShow Gold SIG)

July 17:         “How Did You Do That” (John Bosch)

July 24:         Update on Web Portal

July 31:         -- 10th Anniversary (at the pavilion)

Training - Grady Manley

Classes in March

Basic course classes         4        Enrollment     40

Genealogy classes            1        Enrollment     10

Mac classes                      4        Enrollment     20

PS classes                        3        Enrollment     27

Total classes           12      Enrollment     97

Total fees                                             $1120

Grady is revising the list of classes and instructors on the database and Web site.

The Teacher appreciation luncheon is planned for May 17 in meeting rooms 1&2.  Accents will do the catering.

The 3-month training calendar seems to be working well.  Teacher response has been good and student enrollment seems to reduce the need for “interested in classes” lists.  Currently the classes for June are being put together.

There are three MAC instructors who have had orientation in setting up the units for the classroom.  One of them should be asked to help should the Photoshop Lab need to use Computer Club MAC units in the classroom.

Special Interest Groups – Nelda McQuary

  1. The Digital Camera SIG is very happy to have the new software they requested.  CS2 will be installed on #L20 computer.
  2. Media Conversion SIG – Premiere Elements 2.0 was installed on #L5 computer. Steps will be taken to upgrade Premiere Elements version.1 on #L13 to version. 2.
  3. Don sent Nelda information about “the tank” to share with all SIG Leaders.  I have had comments like these from some of the SIG Leaders.  “Doing good – I love the USB ports on the monitor.”  “It worked just fine.”  “The ‘tank’ works well.”
  4. Mac Users Group (MUG) SIG - Joan asked that the name of the Mac Beginner User Group be changed to Mac Users Group SIG.  All changes have been made on the calendars and the web-site.
  5. Kaffee Klatch SIG has been requested to cancel their meeting on May 23 because of the conflict with the New Member’s Reception scheduled at the same time.  John Polich agreed to this request, and the Meeting Calendar has been updated. 
  6. Genealogy SIG – Ben reported that they had 43 attendees in March, thus he requested a larger meeting room. The following has been confirmed with Yolanda, and the Meeting Calendar has been updated.  All meetings are scheduled for 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

    April 20 - Rooms 3 & 4
    May 18 - Rooms 1 & 2
    June 15 - Rooms 3 & 4

    There will be no meetings for July & August.

7.  Attendance at all SIG’s in March totaled 249.

NEW BUSINESS

Web Portal – Peter reported the first class begins on April 6 from 3 – 4 PM.  He is expecting about 2 classes per week depending on when meeting places can be found.  Some are presentations while others are hands-on.  These meetings/training sessions will be posted on the Computer Club calendars.

2007 Room Reservations due to CA 05/22/06 – The New Member Receptions will be held on Jan 30, March 27, May 29, July 31 and Oct 30.

Chartered Club Space Requirements for Meetings and Activities are due to the Property and Grounds Committee on 04/24/06.  Dick and Gael will use past attendance totals to make estimates of future space requirements.

Request for assistance by Neighborhood Representative Organization - The NRO asked if they could publish the fact that any resident could join the Computer Club and a club member would set up an email address for them.  Discussion indicated that setting up an email address is less than 1% of the solution to getting non-computer users to use email as a communications vehicle.  The Computer Club is not prepared to handle this request.  The NRO should contact the Communications Committee.

Vista – More information is being released to the public about the hardware requirements of Vista and the time of release.  It was agreed that from this point forward, all purchased equipment should be Vista ready.  The video card seems to be the most critical element.

Microsoft Partner and Their Action Pack Program – Peter explained the procedure for becoming a Microsoft Partner.  He suggests this program for individuals but dose not consider it appropriate for the Computer Club.  The Action Pack program should be reviewed and considered at a later time.

OTHER BUSINESS

Junior Camp 2006 – The organization meeting for those assisting with Jr. Camp is on 4/06/06 at 1:00pm.  There will be two sessions with up to 90 participants in each session.  Again this year, the CA is asking the Computer Club to copy DVDs for sale to the Junior Camp participants.

Thank You card was received for the Mentor Appreciation Luncheon and Workshop.

New Chartered Club Guidelines (03/2006) document is available.

Sun Rays Computer Club Article – A request was made for a volunteer to rewrite the Computer Club article that appears in the monthly Sun Rays.  No board member volunteered.

Mentor Program – Darrylin Coleman sent a survey to the 44 mentors.  Responses from 14 were complied and distributed to the Board members.  They were reviewed and discussed:

Dave will post a Mentor Workshop on the meeting calendar for Wed. May 10, 2006 @3:00 PM.

Audit Classes - No cost to Mentors or Monitors that are active in the last month.  Request must be made to instructors in advance, on a space available basis.

USB Hard Drive Enclosures - Two are available in the lab.  An enclosure may be signed out by a mentor to use on a call when needed. 

Software budget is primarily for anticipated new versions of software and additional copies of software required to complement the software already installed in the lab and classroom.  Quicken is a specialized program not appropriate for personal financial data entry in the lab.  Mentors should help solve problems on version of program they are qualified on.  It is not possible to purchase software for everyone.

Remote Assistance is a complex and very expensive program that is beyond the scope of our club. 

The next Executive Board Meeting will be 9:00 A.M. Thursday, May 4, 2006, at the Sun City CyberCenter Meeting Room. 

The meeting was adjourned at 12 P.M.

Linda Walke

Secretary

Approved by Executive Committee e-vote, April 11, 2006

Posted April 12, 2006