SUN CITY COMPUTER CLUB

EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING

January 5, 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
Don Snapp, CyberCenter Director
Peggy Uselton, Membership Director
Rex Davenport, Programs Director
Nelda McQuary, Special Interest Groups Director
Gael Miller, Past President
Linda Walke, Secretary

Absent

Grady Manley, Training Director

Agenda Changes

None

Guests

None

Approval of Minutes

A motion was made by Gael Miller on December 10, 2005 to accept by e-vote and publish on the Computer Club web site the revised minutes of the December 1, 2005 Board Meeting. The motion was seconded and passed by e-vote.

Financial Report

Linda Shanhouse presented the December, 2005 Financial Report. A motion was made by Rex Davenport and seconded by Peter Roll to accept the report. The motion passed. The Financial Report will be filed for audit. Linda explained that “contributions” includes the income from media conversion and other miscellaneous items other than those identified as “supplies”.

DISCUSSION OF DIRECTORS’ REPORTS RECEIVED BY E-MAIL

Communications, Dave Hanna

The Executive Board mailing list has been updated to now include only 2006 Board members.

Mail may be sent from any of the included addresses to the Board by addressing it to: <ExecBoard@sctxcompclub.org> The list is set up as a closed list and mail from other email addresses will be rejected. So, to successfully send to the list, you must use the address in the list as your “From:” address. If anyone wants to change their address on the list let Dave know.

Mail to Non-renewing 2005 Members

Dave proposed that we continue to send Club email to non-renewing 2005 members through January 31; then remove them from the list at that time. During January we will include "nagging" such as "Please Renew Now" messages in the Weekly update email of those members who have not yet renewed.

There are no objections, so Dave will ask Gene Uselton to follow this policy.

CyberCenter, Don Snapp

All the equipment stored outside the ballroom was brought to the CyberCenter until construction is over for the expanded ballroom.  Dave and Don checked out our stacked PA system in the Atrium and it appears to function properly. The portable PA system belonging to the CA is also being temporarily stored behind the Membership computer.  It must be plugged in to maintain the battery charge. He also acquired a VHS unit used in the ballroom which is deemed surplus to the CA at this time.

The Proxima projector finally hit the dust. It was agreed to donate it to Good Will. Don ordered a new Epson unit which is smaller & lighter. It should be quite adequate for use in the Activities Center . At this time, he does not know when the new one is scheduled to arrive.  Dave and Don performed maintenance on our other 2 projectors during the holiday break.

Don thinks it is time to reactivate the task force appointed in November (Hanna, Roll, Smith, Snapp and Willoughby ) and begin the process of acquiring equipment budgeted for this year.  He expects to spec out and prioritize; acquiring the laptop computer and the scanner first. 

Membership, Peggy Uselton

The number of club members as of December 31, 2005 2,015

The number of new members who joined in December, 2005 79

The total number of new members who have joined in 2005 652

The number of members who are current through 2006 969

We ended the year with 118% of 2004’s membership.

2005 was a very good year for our computer club; the community grows and so do we! We will continue to accept checks for renewing membership at the Monday meetings through the end of January.

Peggy noted that in 2005, 355 people did not renew after being members in 2004. Some of these non-renewals may have resulted from people moving from Sun City .

We will host another Reception for New Members on Tuesday, January 31, in Meeting Rooms 3 & 4, at 9:30 AM .

Programs, Rex Davenport

MONDAY PROGRAM CALENDAR 2006

January 2: No Meeting

January 9: SIG

January 16 Computers in Libraries: Present and Future (Eric P. Lashley).

January 23: You Bought A Digital Camera – What’s Next (Gary Resnick)

January 30: CyberSocial.

February 6 SIG -- “Photoshop One Year Later” (Wes O’Dell ).

February 13: “How Did You Do That?” You’ve Got Mail Anywhere (John Bosch)

February 20: Tax Program (Louise Anderson)

February 27: “Understanding Power Point” (Archie Holmes)

March 6: SIG

March 13: Web Portal (Peter Roll & Committee)

March 20 “How Did You Do That?” (John Bosch)

March 27: New 2006 Hallmark greeting card program (Carol Utterberg)

Rex reported that the program committee is considering reformatting the monthly SIG presentations. They are also planning to have some step-by-step presentations to balance the programs geared to the more computer experienced members.

Training, Grady Manley

In the absence of Grady, Gael will make announcements at the weekly Monday meetings about scheduled training classes. He will stress the new topics.

There was a brief review of the definitions of labs and workshops. Descriptions had been written, distributed to the executive board members and reviewed since the last meeting

Special Interest Groups, Nelda McQuary

The Investment Education SIG doesn’t currently have a leader. They have been working with Charles Eckerd to determine if they should continue as part of the Computer Club or become an independent Charter Club. Rex will discuss the possibility of joint programs when computer use is part of their program topic.

The Beginning MAC SIG changed their meeting time from 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM .

The SIG leaders will be meeting on Monday, January 9 at 2:30PM . Whether the Media Conversion group could be identified as a SIG was discussed. It was decided they were not as structured as a SIG.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Update Status – Atrium capacity for handling Monday Meetings

A sign has been posted stating that capacity of the Atrium is 101. The CA requires the room set-up be consistent. Each group using the Atrium is free to reposition the tables and chairs for their own use as long as they are returned to their desired position with the chairs facing away from the double doors. Since the Computer Club usually needs to use the screen on the left wall, more set-up people will be needed before and after each meeting.

Peter recommends the Club pay for the CA AV consultant to configure the co-ax running to the lab from the Atrium. He expects it to come to about $650. A camera and VCR may also be needed.

Gael made the motion that $1,000 be designated to pay for the configuration service and necessary equipment and related labor. Rex seconded the motion and it was passed unanimously by those present.

Update Status – Sun City Portal

Peter reported that the Portal project was underway. Initial efforts are to diagram the architecture of the portal. When this is accomplished, contact people for each group will be given orientation and instruction. This training will probably begin toward the end of January. The project is expected to take until sometime around June.

“Labs, Workshops” in place beginning in February

Members are referred to the descriptions drafted since the last meeting.

NEW BUSINESS

Mentors

Coordinator Replacement

Martha Lawler who has acted as the Mentor Coordinator has asked to be replaced. This position reports to the Vice-President. It was agreed the Coordinator should be someone who is a mentor or has served as one. There is a need to recruit additional mentors. A periodic meeting to discuss the positive and negative aspects of the service would help all mentors learn from the experience of others. These meetings would also serve to raise awareness among the membership of the opportunities in this area. Dick Doane was asked to pursue a Mentor Coordinator replacement.

New equipment configuration and acquisition

It was agreed that acquiring the laptop and scanner is the top priority.

Donation of replaced computers

Disposal of old equipment was discussed. COPS has requested and will be given an old PC that would meet their needs. It was agreed any units leaving the Computer Club must be cleared of any licensed software and clean of data. Any software licensed to the Computer Club must be moved to another unit.

Consistent problems with classroom computers

Complaints from instructors about missing desktop icons after rebooting have not been satisfactorily resolved. Several approaches were considered. One solution may be to encourage the process of configuring the desktop for a particular class become part of the training procedure. Peter will ask for ideas from the System Administrators when they meet this coming Saturday.

OTHER BUSINESS

Consideration of coordinating the desktops in the lab will be addressed at a future time.

Social Committee – 2006 under Denny Barnes

Dick was pleased to announce a response of 31 people to the announcement in the weekly update to the members about the need for help on the social committee.

New Homeowner Orientation - Jan. 18, 2006

The Computer Club will do the set-up of the projector to be used during the Open House. It was decided a Power Point presentation about the Computer Club would be effective for this event.

Computer Club New Member Reception - Jan. 31, 2006

E-Vote Procedure

The e-vote procedure was reviewed for the new members of the Board. Once the draft of the Board minutes has been distributed, the President will call for a reply of corrections. After the corrections are made and a final version is emailed, the President asks for a vote of acceptance. When a majority has replied positively, then he declares them approved.

The next Executive Board Meeting will be 9:00 A.M. Thursday, February 2, 2006 , at the Holiday Inn Express Meeting Room.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:10AM

Linda Walke

Secretary

Date of approval: January 12, 2006