In his final meeting presiding over our group as president, Larry Clark opened our St. Patrick's Day meeting to an assembled group of about 150 people. The St. Patrick's Day celebration may have contributed to the lower turnout, but the crowd's enthusiasm made up for it. The audience had two good reasons for its high energy: our officer election and a presentation from Microsoft about software piracy.
    Larry welcomed all the guests by leading a round of applause and asked guests to visit our membership table if they were interested in joining. Before the evening's presentation, however, there was some business to take care of. As this was the annual meeting of our non-profit corporation, Larry called the annual meeting to order and asked secretary Gordon Adams to record the election results and any other official business that would be conducted.
    That said, Larry recused himself as presiding officer and turned the microphone over to elections officer (and past president) Ken Hopkins. Ken took over from Diana DeMuth, who was unexpectedly nominated as a vice presidential candidate at the February meeting. Ken had the written ballots passed out to the members in the audience so that members could vote to elect the officers who would take us into the year 2000 (but not, Ken pointed out, into the new millennium). After a brief election tutorial, it was time for candidate statements, and Ken called Mary Clark to the stage.
    Mary was running unopposed, but she wanted to introduce herself and discuss her qualifications for the position. Mary has been an active member of SPCUG for about eight years, having past experience as a managing editor of Sacra Blue and as a deputy treasurer. Professionally, Mary has been a facilities manager for 15 years, so she is well acquainted with office procedures. Mary's top priorities as secretary will be to ensure that we fulfill our corporate responsibilities by ensuring we send in our required forms on time and to keep our important documents up to date in our safe deposit box.
    Don Frieze, the unopposed treasurer candidate, said he was running on the "shared campaign." Don felt that he has received a great deal of help from the group, and he was giving back by asking the audience to serve as the group's treasurer. Don said he would work hard to continue the good work done by the outgoing treasurer, Chuck Benward.
    Tim Cardozo, one of the two vice presidential candidates, suffered an injury at home on the day of the meeting and wasn't able to make it. Tim asked Mark Naber to deliver Tim's brief statement, which included a brief explanation of how Tim hurt himself and a desire to continue contributing to our users group as a vice president.
    Diana DeMuth, the other vice presidential candidate, said that she's been a member for about eight years, and has volunteered for various projects during that time. When Diana was unexpectedly nominated for vice president, she saw it as an opportunity to serve the membership and attract more women to our group.
    Milt Hull was the first of two presidential candidates to come to the microphone. Milt said he's been involved in computing since 1978, and has been involved with our user group for quite some time. In fact, Milt pointed out that his renewal notice stated that he's been a member for 17.6 years. Milt added that he's been representing SPCUG at every Fall COMDEX since 1983 as part of his desire to keep giving the members what they want, and that desire was why he was running for president.
    Frank Leonard, the second presidential hopeful, started by saying that four or five years ago we couldn't have meetings at the Sacramento Association of Realtors meeting hall because we were too big. If current membership trends were to continue, Frank said, in four or five years we would be meeting in a phone booth. To keep our group viable, Frank declared that we would need strong leadership to make important decisions, and concluded his statement by saying he was the best person to provide that leadership.

Announcements
With the conclusion of the candidate statements, Ken asked the members to fill out their ballots to be collected, and Larry adjourned the annual meeting until the results were announced. With the regular meeting underway, Larry noticed that there were a lot of people at our pre-meeting tutorial on Windows. Tutorials are great for users who are just getting started in Windows and the Internet, and the topics alternate every month. Dennis Duffy conducts the pre-meeting tutorials from 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in a corner of the meeting room, and feedback indicates the tutorials are a big hit.
    Larry mentioned that time was running out to submit an application for our annual college scholarship, which we award to a graduating high school senior every June. Scholarship chair Don Mongeau looks at dozens of applications every year to pick the best candidate for the award. This year, we're giving a $500 scholarship, though we may get more donations to award a second scholarship. For more information, contact Don, whose contact information is on the inside back cover of Sacra Blue.
    We always need volunteers, and Larry pointed out that volunteer coordinator Stan Morris is always at the meetings ready to talk to you about volunteering for our group. Our group runs on volunteer power, and we are always in need of more help. You can read "The Volunteer Page" in Sacra Blue to get a clear idea of what we need. Our most important need is an editor for Sacra Blue as editor Eric Butow will step down after the July issue. Larry called Eric up to the stage to talk about the future of Sacra Blue and to introduce its new eBlue counterpart.

Sacra Blue and eBlue
Eric began his report by noting that our March issue was the 200th issue-our group has produced a newsletter every month since August 1982. The March issue was also the end of Sacra Blue as we knew it. Beginning in April, Sacra Blue would be delivered in more of a "multimedia" format with a smaller version of our printed newsletter coupled with an online version. Sacra Blue would continue to have all the articles members have come to expect, but all the articles would be in a "digest" format. Members who want to read the full text of the article can read it on our eBlue Web site.
    The eBlue portion of our Web site has been under development for several months, and as promised Eric had a live demonstration for the audience. Before starting the demonstration, Eric introduced the eBlue team, including Stan Morris, Ron Gothberg, and Chuck Harris. Eric thanked the eBlue team for their work in putting the site together, and also thanked our Webmaster, Dave Eden, for working to incorporate eBlue into the SPCUG Web site.
    With Stan Morris at the laptop's keyboard, Eric pointed out eBlue's feature as Stan moved from page to page. Eric declared that eBlue "will enhance our sense of community with PC users," and that one of the ways eBlue would do that was by having links to regional and national computing Web sites. Eric continued, "The great thing about eBlue is its flexibility, especially from an advertising standpoint." Eric mentioned that we offer both print and online advertising to companies wishing to reach our membership, and we could definitely use someone (or a group of someones) to reach out to those companies and tell them what we have to offer.
    The demonstration clearly piqued the audience's interest, and Eric fielded a flurry of questions. There were plenty of good ideas floated around, and we're going to add them to eBlue over time. As eBlue is a dynamic medium, it will keep changing to meet the needs of our members, and if you have any suggestions for eBlue, contact Eric or Stan. There was a lot of positive buzz after the demonstration, and eBlue comes online starting with the April issue.
    Eric concluded by mentioning that eBlue will make production of Sacra Blue much easier, and with the support of eBlue and many other Sacra Blue staff members, the new editor's job would be much easier. However, we have yet to find a new editor, and we need one soon so Eric can train that person, and that person will become editor with the August issue. If you're interested, contact Eric or Stan.

Departures and Arrivals
With the counting of ballots completed, Larry reconvened the annual meeting and asked Ken Hopkins to announce the results of our 1999-2000 elections. Mary Clark was elected secretary, Don Frieze was elected treasurer, Tim Cardozo was elected executive vice president, Diana DeMuth was elected vice president, and Frank Leonard was elected president. Ken asked the winners to come up to the front of the room, and the audience welcomed the new board members with a round of applause. With the annual meeting at an end, Larry thanked Ken and his team for conducting this year's election.
    As Larry was presiding over his final meeting as president, he took a few moments to thank all of the people who supported him during his two-year term as president. Larry started by thanking the outgoing Board of Directors, then he thanked the various outgoing appointed officers and volunteers who have made the group go over the past two years. There are too many people to list, but you know who you are. Larry does, too, and he's thankful for your support.