Wednesday, March 7, 2001
Begin Meeting begins at 6:35 PM
Attendance Bruce Robertson, Joyce Schowalter, Dick Carter, Susan Oldham, Phil McCrain, John Livingston, Dana Klein, Mark Jacobson, Ken Winkenweder
Bruce Introduction: Personnel changes
* Portage Bay is not renewing their lease leaving, approximately May. Our current rent $733, they pay us $250, but pay utilities, and some other *large* expenses, our income from them is aprox $500-$750/month.
* Jack McKean will be taking on the role of Internet Cashier for NET OS, subject to change if servers are moved out of here.
* Cashier change
* Webmaster change.
Bruce An uncertain state exists now, it's hard on people. We're still alive, doing middling well considering we drop the ball in so many ways. There's still a need for a Computer User Group, though. How well would we do if we improved our systems?
Joyce Reminder of posting calling upon people to be kind to volunteers while undergoing learning curve.
Bruce Think about what you're doing and do it as well as you can.
Susan Publications Manager Newsletter costs more than rent, thought about producing good online format that people can print out for themselves -- balanced against the need for people to have something they can hold.
Main meeting. We don't have David Krafchick or Jim Reppond now. Needs a meeting promo with info about it, for website and NL. Need information about promo for upcoming meetings, someone to review upcoming meetings.
Let's make MacNews more online oriented, more Web access.
New webmaster doesn't want to get involved in content choice for site, he'll code it all. Keep dBug look and feel.
Please also find the report of the Publications Manager posted to the Board Minutes Conference.
Joyce Volunteer Coordinator. Paperless (submitted report online to save time discussing at meeting, save trees.) Log onto dBug to read.
Would like to say thank you to the following:
* Cherie Nickell, spends half an hour to an hour and a half a day dealing with info line (answering miscellaneous questions phoned to dBug.)
* Bruce, who took over dBug at a time when we're going to have to go through some transitions, identify issues and work on them instead of ignoing them.
* John L, who is following through in the publicity position. Wonderful to have that going for us.
* Mark (instead of serving a year and vanishing, took on a position with more responsibility.) Has put on 2 Main Meetings, is Apple Ambassador, follows through with projector, etc. etc.
* Dick Carter for doing three open houses a month. (Nine hours/month.) On E-Plan committee for 5 years. Also sending out new member packets, forwarding our mail.
* Phil McCrain for doing membership manager stuff, which is more complicated than it appears.
* Susan for her service as publications coordinator , especially with MacNews, and taking on the duties as editor, though wants replacement (hint, hint.)
* The people acting as Main Meeting Hosts, setting up the tables, putting out our stuff, doing the raffles. Robert Brumfield. Nancy Siberg, et al.
Mark Vice President Re Newsletter ads, last month's main meeting. MacNews Ads -- we have (three going into April issue.) Tech Smith, Adobe. Adobe is $135 (discount because they are supposed to do a dozen), Tech Smith $165, 1 page single insertion Abo (? on name here) = $165. They are doing a test to see how it is. (Corrections welcome here.) Production of newsletter and mailing it costs the club around $1,000 a month.
Mark Updated board on status of free loaner projectors from NEC. Current projector needs to be returned for another model.
Susan Wants to go over past advertisers during last six months to see who was advertising and if billing was paid. *Bruce to get these records for Susan
Phil McCrain
Membership Coordinator Phil has not yet received any membership forms and would like to get those for record keeping. He has received spread sheets indicating numbers, but it's been three weeks since he's received any of those.
John Livingston Publicity Manager Is adding outlets for advertising and working with Mark Jacobson to identify and contact places for promoting dBug. Scheduling is done by the SIG Coordinator and will take that info and publicize it, leaving the content to the affected dBug leaders. Calendar distribution should be published by the 15th of each month. It should be up to each dBug leader to submit and manage their information.
Dana Klein
ExChange Manager Don Arbow will be the new web master. He doesn't do design work, but will implement the design and content he receives. He knows HTML coding well. Susan Oldham will be responsible for content on the web site and Don and she will implement the content. She is looking for an editor to help with this.
POP email problems for dBug's internet customers was discussed. These customers need to use mail.netos.com as their SMTP server. Various billing methods were discussed including adding setup fees for new dBug internet customers.
Some people have suggested getting another free email account from hotmail.com and others. Please don't recommend this because we have blocked these accounts from sending to dBug. The reason being that these accounts are where most of the spam comes from.
Old Business
Fund Raiser: Goals were discussed and last meetings vote was reviewed, which is the G4 733 and a more portable solution (iBook, iMac or Cube) for meetings. An end date for the fund raiser was discussed. Mark motioned to have the fund raiser end at the June board meeting. Dana seconded and motion passed. Dana said that he may be able to get a MIMIO collaboration tool at a reduced price. Dana suggested that we get a couple web cams to record and broadcast dBug events.
Susan would like to get some new Adobe products for our SIGs. Mark related that Adobe will give us software in ExChange for a review. Susan volunteered to review Photoshop and Mark will contact Adobe for arrangements.
Mark suggested we buy training CDs for our members. They are a big draw for some user groups and could work as well for us. Bruce discussed how it may be difficult to implement this.
Portage Bay: Portage Bay may not be renewing their lease with us for business hours.
*Bruce will contact Portage Bay.
New Business Near Term Financial Changes:
Dana discussed the fact that we are losing money and that he doesn't want to see dBug dissolve while in debt and owing bills and utilities. (Would cause damage to our good name, and to the wider community.) He feels that we need to explain to the membership that we're bleeding financially. That we need to make drastic changes. Dana would like to see us get away from service and evolve into a co-op where each member would be required to perform some task to help the whole. Since we are at a financial crossroads, we need to make a commitment to change. (Changes of one kind or another.)
Discussion was in agreement. All Board members understand, as does the E-Plan group (ExChange Planning group), which discussed these issues Saturday March 3, that dBug must change in important ways to survive. It is clear that if we do not change we will not survive. This can be seen as an opportunity to do new things, it is that. In another important way, it is a necessity. All present discussed these ideas thoughtfully. Many good comments were made.
John Livingston was involved with the Mid Columbia Macintosh Users Group and they came to the same crossroads a few years ago. They decided that a published newsletter was too expensive for the general membership so they offered a basic member rate and a deluxe rate to get the newsletter. Was twice as expensive to be mailed the paper newsletter.
Dana said that since we are so service oriented our volunteer base is shrinking every day.
Dana made a motion to suspend the printed newsletter in May to cover the loss of the sublease from Portage Bay. Phil seconded. Motion passed.
End 9:05 PM Dana motioned to end board meeting. Susan seconded. Motion passed.
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Minutes typed by John Livingston & Mark Jacobson, who posted them to Joyce Schowalter, to clean up and post to dBug. Apologize lengthy delay.
Please also find the reports of the Publications Manager and the Volunteer Coordinator posted to the Board Minutes Conference.
