The first speaker was Brian Smither, running unopposed for Secretary.

Brian Smither: I'm not going to give a speech. I just want to inform you that if, come next year, you are thinking about running for office, that the position of Secretary is the easiest to hold. Thanks.

Gary Sloan, running for Vice President: I think you should cast one of your votes for Tom Anderson so he will be Executive Vice President. If he's crazy enough to want the job, let him have it. He's done a lot of work for the club and for our online publication. Make it between Tim and me. I've spent a year as your vice-president and three years as president of the Roseville group and one year as vice-president. I record the meetings here and those kinds of things. One thing I've done lately that I hadn't done before—and I've been a member for about 15 years—is to attend the Steering Committee meetings, which I would urge you to do also and put in your input as to things you want the group to do. I want to put in a plug for our Roseville Digital Imaging Group, which spawned about 4 months ago, and I think it's going to take over the main group there. We meet at Nerd Books in Roseville. There are some pretty informed people meeting there the first Tuesday of the month. During the coming year I'd like to work on getting some new members in, and hatch some members-only benefits. Thank you very much.

Tom Anderson for Vice President: After listening to Brian, I think I want to run for Secretary instead. I'd like to thank Gary for giving my speech for me. I think you know who we all are, you see us at the meetings and read about us in Sacra Blue. I'd like your vote again. Thank you.

Tim Cardozo for Vice President: Howdy. I think you should vote for Gary, or Tom, or me. I think Gary and Tom have done a very acceptable job this last year and it wouldn't hurt me if they won. I've served as vice-president for several years, but if you vote for me I'll work as hard as I can. One thing I would try to do, however, is to try and reduce the dues. We raised dues when we were losing money and membership, and now we're still losing members, but we're making money at it. (Laughter) So we can afford to reduce dues even further. If we can't do that, I'd want to increase benefits to members as much as we can. I hope for your vote and promise to work for you.

Don Frieze, running unopposed for Treasurer, did not feel the need to take up time by making a speech.

Milt Hull for President: First off, I'm the one who nominated Tim Cardozo. He always shows up at the Steering Committee meetings and I think he's doing a wonderful job. On a personal note, I think he has the same goal I have—to help the users. I personally can't take credit for everything, since it was done with the help of a lot of other people. I decided to run again for President because I'm not done yet. There are a lot of things I have planned. We'll see what we can do with voice mail. I personally bought a voice mail box system for my own company, and I'm willing to do the same for us this next year. I have lots of ideas, but they are not only mine, they are also from the Steering Committee. I want to promote anyone who will show up at the Steering Committee meetings and come up with ways to help the members. That's my speech, thank you.

Milt: Now up on the stage are just a few of the people who help members and explain things. Let's give them a big hand. The more people we do get here, the easier it is to get vendors, and to convince them to send their top people.

Milt: Is Harry Lewis here tonight? He used to work for the user group a lot, and worked at McClellan Air Force Base when they used punch cards. The first day he showed up at a meeting, he had a stack of punch cards in his pocket that he would use as notepads. Then he retired, and I asked him what he would since he didn't have punch cards anymore. He said, "Oh, yes, I do, I have 67 boxes in my garage." I don't think he'll ever buy an organizer, he's set for life.

Brian Smither: As Product Review Editor, I need a BASIC language programmer. C'mon, admit to it. Not Visual Basic, just regular or QuickBasic. A company in Great Britain sent me a program called Dark Basic, which is a version of BASIC with keywords specifically constructed to make writing games easy—card games, racing games, any kind of games you want. So I am looking for someone experienced in BASIC to review it.

Milt: We are researching a way to join the group to a credit card company. This will be continued. By the way, how many here would be interested in joining through the group to an online secure credit card? Some said yes. Our research continues.

We've tried various e-mail systems and had them blow up on us. I need to thank Calweb, especially Robert DuGaue, who has always has supported our group. He even donated a thousand dollars last year when we were really in the red. (Applause) We’ve tried different systems, and we came up with a solution that only handled 200 users. So that went down the tubes.

We’re currently on a new system which seems to be working. I want to thank Dennis Duffy who was doing training sessions on it. There are lists that we’re testing, and we have changed the name so that it's http://email.sacpcug.org:81. If you don't put the :81 you won't get into our free system. The newsletter explains it all.