Tuesday, May 3, 2005
The meeting was called to order at 7:28 p.m.
Present were Board Members Allan Swensson, Karen Lindner, Cathy Doser and Caryn Roberts as well as members Curtis Snow and Gordon Modin.
Before tackling the Agenda Gordon made a presentation about a proposed Final Cut User Group. He attended the National Association of Broadcasters conference in San Francisco and met the head of the San Francisco Final Cut user group. That person recommended starting an official User Group for Seattle and Portland. Also attending that meeting was Ed McNichols, a video producer at the University of Washington. Mr. McNIchols was very keen to lead such a User Group in Seattle, but based at the UW. Gordon wants to organize professional video editors for such a UG (as opposed to wedding photographers and iMovie/iDVD amateurs). Gordon and Ed will meet later this month to discuss cooperation between the UW and dBug on such a venture. While the UW has classrooms, they are in use many evenings and parking must be paid for. We have a good room and free parking.
Gordon also said he was willing to teach classes on Final Cut Pro, but the hardware requirements are very demanding. A weekend class with hands on practice could charge $500 a student, but renting a G5 dual processor machine with high end video card and software might be difficult. Cathy suggested we approach Clark about borrowing hardware. Gordon could do an introductory class without hands on, but after that he would need G5s for the students.
- The April minutes were approved unanimously with no changes.
- Treasurer's Report - Karen reported that new memberships are up a little over last year at this time, and we are down a little on renewals.
- Old Business
- Capital Improvement: A letter went out, and Mike made good suggestions. It is time to put the letter out to the membership via US Mail. Karen moved and Allan seconded to send the letter out. Bruce will provide the mailing list.
- Exchange Update Project
- It's coming along, Curtis is still moving things across so that we can take our DNS from NetOS over to ELI. We will manage the DNS ourselves, through ELI.
- Cathy proposed that admin rights on the RC computers be restricted in the interest of better resource management.
- Our domain name (dbug.org) is registered through Network Solutions until 4/8/05. Karen L. will renew with Network Solutions through Network OS for the minimum of time while this issue is being settled.
- Fundraising - We are charging admission to classes such as the recent Web Objects seminar. People are coming from a long way away. Profits to dBug were still very small. Curtis was going to host a LAN Party on Sunday 4/24 but nobody showed up because publicity was insufficient.
- The Website looks good, but Dick and Mike are not in attendance to accept our congratulations tonight.
- Newsletter - The date of release should be the last day of the month preceeding the publication month. Sandro has been having problems getting his email notice through.
- New Business
- dbug.com - we lost the domain a couple of years ago because NetOS screwed up. Now someone is squatting on it. We will have to demand its return to us, since they do not have a legitmate reason to hold it and we do.
- Access Online - we pay $25 a month so people can access the help line via the Internet. Caryn suggests we look into web-based free service. A VOIP company such as K7.net is another possibility.
- Volunteer Coordinator - Cathy will talk to Michelle Honey, who has offered to do the job.
- Caryn has donated a .Mac membership to dBug.
- Adam Engst has donated some coupons for his books.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:35pm.
- Allan Swensson, Scribe
