Membership: Marsha Leonard reported that our membership stood at 1209, with 14 renewals and five new members during the month.

eBlue Trademark: Larry Clark presented information about trademarks and service marks. The cost of a service mark would be $245, plus any attorney fees or artwork costs. However, eBlue is already used as a domain name and registration can take from nearly a year to several years. We can also use the (SM) symbol without registration. Based on the cost and the limited value of the protection, the committee voted not to proceed with registration of the eBlue name.

Policy and Procedures: Larry Clark reviewed the proposed update with the Committee. The revised document was approved as proposed.

Chapter Report: Tony Brower has reported that the Yuba-Sutter chapter is closed.

Public Relations: Eric Butow is the new public relations coordinator. Eric is attempting to increase the group's visibility through smaller publications.

Microsoft Xtreme Event: The next event will be November 6, from 9:30 a.m to noon. The featured product will be Windows 2000. Milt will coordinate SPCUG participation and volunteers are needed.

Sacra Bytes BBS: Frank Leonard, the BBS's sysop, reported that the system was retired on 9/9/99 at 9:09 am.

Sacra Blue: Chris Graillat reported that columnists are needed. The Committee is considering acquiring a low-cost copy of PageMaker for the Webmaster's use to asure content is transmitted smoothly to eBlue.

APCUG: At least three are interested in attending the APCUG sessions. As ranking officer, Tim Cardozo will lead the SPCUG delegation, but Frank asked him to see that the opportunities to attend sessions are distributed equitably.

Meeting Presentations: Several members commented that questions in the midst of speaker presentations are disruptive. The committee decided to have the meeting coordinator ask speakers whether they wish to field questions on the fly or have them held until after the presentation. All questions are to be presented via the microphones.

Communications: Now that Sacra Bytes has been discontinued, it was noted that we have no place to post major documents such as the bylaws and the Policies and Procedures. Larry will distribute copies of the P&P to the officers' listserv and circulate a message on the members' listserv indicating that copies are available. Frank will attempt to list all documents that require easy distribution. The Webmaster may make them available as HTML documents.

GIF Files: It appears that the threat by Unisys to charge for use of GIF files is aimed primarily at sellers of graphics formatting software. Files that are created by programs that have secured licenses from Unisys (including Jasc) are not affected. We do not foresee any problems with our operation.