Board Members Present:   Jim Peterson, Bob Mugge, Dick Schmeling, Jan Schneck, Vince Alline, Dean Miller and Warren Sanders

Board Members Absent:  Karen Brown, Joyce Knouse

Also in attendance:  Victor de Groote, Bob Foster, Frank Fritchman, Howard Jones, Dennis Malcolm, Don Stieghan, Dale Noll and Norris Shake

Warren Sanders motioned to approve the minutes of the January 8, 2008 Board Meeting; Dean Miller seconded; minutes were approved by the Board.

Warren Sanders motioned to approve the minutes of the February 5, 2008 General Meeting; Vince Alline seconded; minutes were approved by the Board.

OFFICER REPORTS
President, Jim Peterson

• Announced that the Club’s 10 new laptops are on their way.  They have 17” matte-finish monitors, 250 GB hard drives, 2 GB memory, wired optical mice.  No word processing or office programs, but we’ll get site licenses and get those too.  The laptops run on the Vista Home Premium Operating System among many other features.  We can expect to receive this new equipment within the next 2 weeks.  We will have internet access through the POA connections.

Vice President, Bob Mugge

• Nothing to report.

Secretary, Janice Schneck

• Nothing to report.

Treasurer, Dick Schmeling

• Distributed the financial accounting for the month of January. The Club received $240 in dues, $30 in gifts, $25 in scanner fees and $0.89 of bank interest during the month.  Operating costs included $87.05 for meeting expenses and $31.20 for supplies. There also was $25 designated as income for the Non-Operating Pass-Through Account and $383.85 was used for Technology Access supplies, leaving that account with a balance of $468.53. All of the combined activity left the Club with a Bank balance of $10,290.40
• The annual audit was concluded by Marty Hulett and Charlie Shubeck.  Their audit letter dated 1/12/08 is on file.  There were no major deficiencies reported.
• A year-end financial summary will be provided for inclusion in the Club Newsletter.
• The necessary board members went to the Bank during January to up-date signature cards.
• We received a couple more gifts which will show up on the February monthly report.

Past President, Warren Sanders

• Nothing to report.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Membership

• Kutschera reported that, in the past month, we received 13 new memberships and 36 renewals memberships (24 members).  For the months of October 2007 through January 2008, we have received dues for 27 new memberships and 126 membership renewals.
• The General Meeting had 84 attendees plus the 2 guests from BB&T who were presenting the program.
• The number of people paying 2008 dues was overwhelming for the reception table. It appears that $15 was under-collected or $15 was inadvertently given as change rather than $5.  All money is accounted for with the exception of one gentleman who is shown on the sheet and claims to have paid, but no dollar amount is shown for him.  Kutschera recommended the Board approve a write-off of this $15 error.

• It would be much more convenient if members would pay their dues by check and not cash.  This would serve many purposes:  correct spelling of names, correct home addresses, occasionally telephone numbers, occasionally e-mail addresses, elimination of change errors, easily reconcilable and the checks would serve as receipts for the members.
• Three members overpaid dues by $5 each.  Two members will be reimbursed.  The other member has instructed us to keep the excess $5.
• The Membership Committee should seek new members and especially members who will be willing to take over the leadership of the Committee and/or have knowledge of Access software.

Programs

• Bob Foster said that the General Meeting drew great attendance.  From the feedback he received, the audience enjoyed the topic, but missed large parts of it because they weren’t holding the mikes properly. The system is not working properly and we will have to repair it.  Jim Peterson said it is being worked on now.  Foster believes, too, that we need to try out the system before the meeting and to practice with it.  The same applies to the video projector.
• Sanders suggested that when someone in the audience has a question, he should be asked to stand and face the rest of the audience in order to be better heard and understood.
• Foster had one comment that the person does not want to hear stuff unrelated to computers and equipment.  This comment was, of course, specifically directed at Jan Schneck’s presentation regarding the proposed Covenants & Restrictions amendment coming up.  Bob Mugge expressed his opinion as to the importance of the issue to the community.  Jim Peterson said that he felt the information was important to the community at large and when it’s something important, we’re going to continue to impart the information.
• For the March 4 General Meeting, we will have Police Officer, Steve Bobo, of the Knoxville Police Department’s Safety and Education Unit to speak on the topic of identity theft, focusing on computer usage.
• At the April Meeting, Don Stieghan will give an orientation presentation on genealogy.
• Foster will contact Smart Computing to see if we have free subscriptions to award as door prizes.  He does have a couple of memory sticks, a box of DVDs and 2 subscriptions to Windows Live One Care.

Communications

• Frank Fritchman has received the Club’s award certificate from APCUG.  He will scan the certificate to put it on the website.
• Victor is very weary of running the website and hearing complaints that the information is out of date.  He gets notice of upcoming Programs too late to publish them. Administration List is obsolete.  Club leadership must provide the proper information.  It is only the webmaster’s obligation to post those items that are provided to him.
• Sanders said the Executive Committee needs to get together and nail down the mechanics of getting information to you in a timely manner.  Jim Peterson agreed to have such a meeting in about a week with Victor in attendance to clear up these issues.
• Victor asked that someone take over the payment of the website bill.  He gave Schmeling the billing statement for $210 covering the 2007 year through January 2008.  Schmeling will reimburse Victor for the full amount.

First Level Support

• Dennis Malcolm said he had nothing to report.

Computer Education

• Bob Mugge stated that we have to put a course together.  He’s working on “Computer Zero.”  Karen Brown and Joyce Knouse have given him some good suggestions.  Some classes he’s currently working on are (1) How to Set Up the Display Monitor, (2) How to Organize the Desktop, (3) Naming, Saving and Finding Your Files and (4) How the Computer Actually Works Inside.
• Mugge spoke with Tom Gondoly, director of Information Technology for a hospital.  He has offered to help with teaching.

Special Interest Groups

• Don Stieghan reported that he’s putting together a very small committee to work on SIG ideas with a tentative meeting scheduled for a week from this Thursday.

OLD BUSINESS
Bylaws

• The Bylaws amendments were approved by membership at the February 5 General Meeting.  Schneck is to forward the entire revised document to Victor for the website.

NEW BUSINESS
Technology Access Program

• Sanders stated that originally this Program was established as self-sustaining. The March garage sale was cancelled so the TAP Committee will not get the approximate $800 of expected revenue from that sale. At the end of January 2008, there was $468 in the Pass-Through Account.  That is probably not enough to get us to September when the next garage sale occurs.
• Sanders proposes that we hold any XP and Windows 2000 machines until the fall garage sale and hope they will all sell and will generate enough income to mostly offset what we lose from not having the spring sale.  The main problem is that, in the interim, we would either not purchase needed items or we would have to use Club funds to make such purchases.
• To offset some of the impact of this situation, Sanders has already applied for a Wal-Mart grant and is working on a couple of other grant possibilities.  One is Western Digital, maker of hard drives, etc.  They want a copy of our 501(C)3 designation, a copy of our financial statement, a list of the Board of Directors, a list of corporate sponsors and a budget for the program.  The Board members readily agreed to allow use of all of that information for the purpose of grant application.  Schmeling would present the budget as it currently stands where the Technology Access Program is not a line item.  He can explain the Pass-Through Account.
• Bob Mugge made a motion for the recently received $250 APCUG award to be specifically designated as funds for the Technology Access Program.  Dean Miller seconded.  Board approved.

Meeting adjourned at 4:30 P. M.
Next General Meeting Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 7:00 P.M. at the Yacht Club
Next Board Meeting Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 3:00 PM at Chota Recreation Center