SUN CITY COMPUTER CLUB
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
M arch 2, 2006 , 9:30 AM
CyberCenter Meeting Room
The Meeting was called to order at 9:25 AM 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
Linda Walke, Secretary
Gael Miller – Past President
Absent
Grady Manley, Training Director
Agenda Changes
New Hardware will be discussed as Other Business
Approval of Minutes
A motion was made by Dick Smith on February 27, 2006 to accept by e-vote and to publish on the Computer Club web site the revised minutes of the February 9, 2006 Board Meeting. The motion was seconded and passed by e-vote.
Financial Report
Linda Shanhouse presented the February 2006 Financial Report. A motion was made by Gael Miller and seconded by Nelda McQuary to accept the report. The motion passed. The Financial Report will be filed for audit.
Highlights:
DISCUSSION OF DIRECTORS’ REPORTS RECEIVED BY E-MAIL
Communications - Dave Hanna
Traffic going to the Club's URL address was rerouted to our new server sometime in the afternoon of Feb 27, about a week to ten days earlier than we had expected. We had had access to the new server for a few weeks now and copies of most of the Club's pages were already in place with only minor updating being required to make them current. Web pages for most of our SIGs and those of other Sun City groups with Web sites on the same server were not so fortunate. They had to reload their entire sites but everyone had local copies to work from.
Most everything is now working except for some mailing lists and many of the form functions. We were not able to check the working of these functions in advance because of not being able to use our domain names in multiple places. We expect that everything will be operating normally by week's end.
CyberCenter - Don Snapp
"The TANK" is ready to be placed into service. Most of the programs have been installed and items will be added as required . It would be hoped that most of the presenters would put their material on a flashdrive. There are about 10 USB ports on the system. Those presenters using unique software will still need to use their own laptops.
There is a remote 'PowerPoint' unit that can be used anywhere in the room to move the presentation along without being tethered to the Computer. There is a USB 'External Floppy Drive' for those still needing one. It can also be used in the lab as older PCs are changed out. Most of the new ones will not contain an internal floppy drive.
Thanks to Dick Smith and associates, the newly acquired pc units are being installed. Some of the old units will be retired to the great beyond. One unit is scheduled to be taken over by COPS. They are in dire need of a newer unit
It is a continuing struggle trying to obtain quality Audio/Video in the Computer Club Meeting Room from the Atrium. There is something being done wrong. Tom Dargis will try to assist in solving the problems. He suggests that our mixer (the 3 units stacked) could be one of the culprits. By the time we return to the ballroom, we may have solved the problems. And then we can sell the information !
Membership - Peggy Uselton
The number of club members as of February 28, 2006 1,741
The number of new members who joined in February, 2006 50
The total number of new members who have joined in 2006 177
We now have 86% of 2005’s membership.
Membership activity is returning to a more normal level. The next new member reception is scheduled for 9:30AM on March 28 th in Rooms 1 & 2. Those interest group leaders wanting specialized information from their members will be asked to consider posting a request for the information on the weekly Computer Club email.
Programs - Rex Davenport
March 6: “Ask the Experts” (Koffee Klatch)
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)
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, SBC)
May 29: Holiday
June 5: Vector Vest (Investment SIG)
June 12: “The Magic of Photo Restoration” ( Burton Anes)
The next meeting of the Program Committee will be March 14, 4:00 PM .
Training - Grady Manley
In Grady's absence, Jan Miller reported the statistics for the February classes.
12 Classes scheduled
5 Classes were full
0 Classes canceled
A total of 91 students were registered.
Special Interest Groups – Nelda McQuary
The leader of the Kaffee Klatch, John Polich, was asked if they had enough space in the meeting room to accommodate their meetings. 51 attended the two meetings in January and 55 attended in February. Even though they use tables for coffee and note taking, so far they are not too crowded. Their SIG will be presenting the first Monday program in March. At that time they will be promoting the SIG. If they experience a surge in attendance, we may be asked to move them to a larger space.
Some of us are attempting to put together some procedures to use for Media Conversion, specifically, VHS Editing using Premiere Elements Version 2.0. Each person, with some knowledge, is adding their experience to the procedures. Dave has been searching for a Leader for editing workshops or for a Teacher for classes using Premiere Elements 2.0. At this point, no one seems qualified. The second copy of the program (Version 2.0) will be installed on a new computer. Since Version 1.0 is on #L13 Dave, that station will be used primarily for capturing, although Version 1.0 can certainly be used for editing.
As announced in Monday’s meeting, the Investment Education Club will have their first meeting on March 24 th at 1:30 p.m. in the Atrium. 80 have signed up as being interested in the Club. As you will remember, this group will replace theInvestment Education SIG.
Attendance to all SIG’s in January totaled 256; in February 255.
The Adobe CS2 program for the Digital Camera SIG has been purchased but not yet installed.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Status of Web Portal – The on-line actions have presented the most problems primarily because of the interface with the software used by the CA named JONAS. Otherwise the project is on-track.
NEW BUSINESS
Training for the Community Web Portal - We will be expected to make the CyberCenter available for training of, first, content-providers (people from clubs, other organizations, and CA staff); and later, residents who will use the portal.
Content-provider training will probably be needed in the May-June-July time frame, with resident-user training coming a little later (June through early fall). (These approx. dates were clarified at a meeting on Feb 24.) There may be a few earlier small-group training sessions to figure out how to train. Some of the training will be presentation and discussion in larger groups and some of it will be hands-on in smaller groups.
Most of this will likely be done in evening sessions, with a few fitting into unused time during the day, so as to avoid interference with regular Computer Club training classes. This training was mentioned in the meeting with class instructors on Friday, so Grady Manley and most of the instructors know it is coming.
Windows Vista - If our experience with the Windows 95-98 and 98-XP transitions is any guide, this event will have a major disruptive effect on Computer Club activities and services, and on our members. It will affect the equipment we buy next year and when we buy it (esp. replacing Classroom computers); on the training program, the mentoring program and the mentors, on the Lab equipment and how we maintain it, our budget, etc. etc. It should be reflected in some of our Monday programs, beginning with a few later this year. We should have 1 or 2 computers equipped with Windows Vista on about Day 2 after its release -- but not more until we learn more about it.
This impending event was mentioned at the Instructor meeting on Feb 24. Peter had a little more discussion of it with Dick Doane and Jim Hackett after that meeting. Our first need is to know more about Windows Vista as soon as we can. We do know there will be six versions of Vista . It is expected that as soon as newly purchased PCs are shipped with Vista the Mentors will begin receiving questions. Most likely the best time to upgrade the Lab to Vista will be in the summer of 2007 and the new computers in the classroom sometime in 2008. Since Microsoft has not yet given out requirement specs it is unknown if currently owned PCs can be upgraded to Vista .
OTHER BUSINESS
Junior Camp 2006
Joan Keith will be attending a meeting about this years’ Jr. Camp on March 3. Last year the Computer Club made copies of more than 125-150 CDs for the Camp with little prior notice. It is hoped we can be prepared for this years’ camp.
Mentor Appreciation Luncheon/Workshop
The luncheon/workshop will be held on March 15.
D-Link Wireless test – Don Snapp
At noon on Feb. 21, we tested the D-Link with our projector and a computer in the Atrium. After firing up the unit, which is located adjacent to the projector, loading the software and tweaking things, it worked just fine on my laptop. Dick brought an adapter he uses for his laptop, installed it in the club laptop, and again with tweaking it worked as well.
We used the wireless connection on Feb. 22 for the presentation. It was a pleasure not to have to string cables from the projector up the aisle to the presentation computer.
New Hardware – All the hardware has been purchased that was scheduled as replacement hardware in 2006. There was a discussion about the best methods for moving licensed software to the new units. The possibility of purchasing a color laser printer is being researched.
The next Executive Board Meeting will be 9:00 A.M. Thursday, April 6, 2006 , at the Sun City CyberCenter Meeting Room.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:25 A.M.
Linda Walke
Secretary
Accepted by e-vote of the Executive Board, March 12, 2006
3/12/06