Outgoing President Frank Leonard opened the meeting and greeted first-time visitors, then discussed the free Bullet software contributed to the club that was given out with the raffle tickets. This software won't work with Internet Explorer 5.5 beta. Frank said the bandages on his scalp were from banging his head trying to make the two work together. He finally got through to tech support, which realized that he was using the IE 5.5 beta. Bullet, Frank said, is neat software, and works with both IE 5 and Netscape. It's a search utility, has some nifty features, and is free.
Frank introduced Milt Hull, the newly elected President, and presented him with the symbolic Horn of Office. Milt thanked the group for voting for him and said, "I've already started working quite hard on trying to save the group."
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| Frank Leonard passes the "horn of office" to Milt Hull. |
| Click the thumbnail for full image. (25K) |
Milt asked members to renew at the meeting if their memberships would expire soon. The meeting room, he commented, "is a huge expense." Milt is working with the Sacramento Association of Realtors to try to get a reduced rate for the room on condition of only using half the room. If necessary, a partition could be used to divide the room, but "I'd hate to have the partition go up, and if we need the room, we could expand. It would save us a considerable amount of money."
Milt and Ken Hopkins went to CalWeb and proposed a new email system to take control of our group e-mail. "We'd like every member to have a firstname.lastname@sacpcug.org address," Milt said, "and that would get them on the listserv and would be the address of the organization." The account would simply be a relay and switch right back to the member’s e-mail at home, so nobody would know what the member’s actual e-mail address.
"You won't be flooded with a whole lot of mail. It looks like we're forced to go electronic for a little while, at least until we get an editor (for a paper edition). We're working on getting a newsletter and have an engine in place, so it will still happen, but we will be getting Sacra Blue out electronically."
Milt and Ken went to Robert DuGaue, the manager, who is running the SPCUG site at CalWeb for us, and discussed some alternatives for new e-mail setups. No decision has been made yet.
Milt also acknowledged the help given by volunteers at the Steering Committee. Anyone is welcome at that meeting, which is the second Wednesday of each month at the Sizzler on Fulton. The meeting runs from about 6:30 to around 8:30.
A suggestion was made by a member that everyone at the general meeting wear name tags, to facilitate meeting and talking to other members. The funds to purchase name tags were not available, but the idea is considered worthwhile and will be pursued.
Chris Graillat, outgoing editor of Sacra Blue, was unable to attend the general meeting because of work pressures. Plans to recognize her term of service were put on hold.
Future of Sacra Blue
Ken Hopkins repeated that Chris Graillat has stepped down as our editor, but he and Tom Anderson want the newsletter to continue. Next month, the newsletter you get at home will be a postcard because we have no Editor-in-Chief for Sacra Blue. Ken and Tom will lead the production of an electronic version. Tom will be the lead copy editor, then send articles to Ken for layout as an electronic version. It will be a downloadable PDF file, and if you have signed up for one of the lists, it will automatically be e-mailed to you. You can sign up for the eBlue list or the Sacra Blue list and you will get the PDF. The articles will continue to be on eBlue, and at some time in the future, the paper version will hopefully be re-started.
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| Tom Anderson and Ken Hopkins talk about the new Sacra Blue. |
| Click the thumbnail for full image. (26K) |
Tom Anderson said all articles should be sent to him, and he would coordinate the copy editors and the proofreaders. "Regular columns, Chapter and SIG reports, should all come to me. There are links on the Web site so you can send them on that way."
Ken added, "If you are thinking about an article, send it in! Our goal is to have a consistent Sacra Blue. I'll be editor of our first color issue."
"And because it's not on paper, we can actually have a much larger issue," Tom noted, "if we can get material."
Ken pointed out that a PDF file is laid out in page format, and can be easily printed by those who desire a hard copy.
Milt interjected that contributors who are not regular volunteers write many articles. "If you learn something new, write it down and send it our way. We'll put it into an article and put your name on it. Then pretty soon you find yourself wanting to get involved, showing up at the Steering Committee and making decisions, and kind of steering the group in the right direction and making us a louder voice in the community and recognizable in the PC industry."
Future Meetings
Ken, who shares the meeting coordinator job with Milt, presented the schedule of presentations for upcoming meetings. Next month is the CE Roadshow, with portable (handheld) computers from Compaq, Casio and others. At our June meeting we are going to look at the stars with the telescope from Meade and software from The Sky. As soon as it gets dark enough we will go outside. July is our birthday meeting and we should have cake and East Bay Technologies, who will show some Internet applications. A possible second speaker may be from a training company; we haven't decided yet. Microsoft wants the October time slot to show us Windows Millennium or 2000 edition, or possibly both.
Other Matters
Frank Leonard announced a $1,000 gift to the group from Robert DuGaue, founder of CalWeb, the largest local ISP. Frank met Robert when Robert was a state employee and had a BBS as a hobby. One day he decided to start an ISP, and a year later he had a staff of 3 and was doing half-days at a place called CalWeb. Recently he sold it to a Denver company. He is still the general manager.
Recently he called Frank and said he'd been reading about the problems with Sacra Blue and would like to donate $1000. "I'm hoping other companies in Sacramento may decide this is a good idea and join in," Frank said. "Ken Hopkins created an award and we hoped Robert would be here tonight, but he's not and I'm not surprised." Robert will also donate a lot of CPU time to the e-mail server the group is setting up. CalWeb houses the current listserv for SPCUG, and does it for nothing, although he receives an ad in Sacra Blue.
Stan Morris, Volunteer Coordinator, announced a need for a volunteer to relieve Tim Cardozo of the slide show presentation. Tim uses WordPerfect Presentations, but it could easily be done in PowerPoint. "I have also thought about turning it into an HTML presentation," Stan commented. "You'll find the information for this position on the Web site (www.sacpcug.org) along with information on other positions like the Editor-in-Chief and educational training coordinator."
Milt noted that SPCUG was involved with the last auction at KVIE, Sacramento’s PBS station. SPCUG volunteers collected the bids from phone volunteers and entered the information in a special Microsoft Access program that put the price on the air. SPCUG’s volunteers were not seen on the air until Sunday night.
