AZacc Meeting Minutes   

October  2004

The meeting was called to order by Patricia Hill, President at 1:45 PM in the Theatre at the University of Advancing Technology.

Patricia thanked Sandy Hart for communicating with the University scheduling staff and rearranging the meeting time when they notified us that the room would not be available at our usual time.

There were 30 in attendance.  All the attendees introduced themselves and their user group affiliation. The following member groups were represented:

Arizona society for computer information Inc (ASCIi)

Computer Booters of Sun Lakes

Computer Club Trilogy at Power Ranch

Computers West

Dreamland Computer Club

East Valley Association of Computer Clubs

Grand Computers

Greenfield Village Computer Club

Happy Trails Computer Club

Las Palmas Computer Club

Leisure World Computer Club

Paradise Computer Club

Sunflower Computer club

Sunland Village Computer Club

Sunland Village East Computer Club

Sun Village Computer Club

Viewpoint Computer Club

Patricia reported that we now have 34 member groups representing 17,000+ members with Hacienda de Valencia being the newest. They have 15-20 members and want to join not so much for presenters but to learn from us and have use of our website.

Minutes of the March 19, 2004 meeting were read by Sandy Hart, Secretary and approved as read.

Dolores Bruno, Treasurer, reported a balance of $1274.01 as of April 29,   2004.  One check was paid on 8-14-04 for Siteplot Hosting – 25 MB in the amount of $99.95 leaving us with a balance of $1174.06.  The invoices in the amount of $25 dues per year for the year 2005 will be sent out during the month of November with payment due by December 31, 2004.  All Presidents will be receiving the electronic invoice.  Please forward the invoice to your treasurer.  The Treasurer’s report was accepted as read and placed in the minutes and on file.

Ed Zarr, VP & Program Chairman:   We have changes for this season’s presenters.  For November, we have the Digital Photo Guy.   December has been changed as the management changed at CompUSA and the agreement with the old management didn’t stand.  So, we have Gene Barlow speaking on Hard Disk Maintenance.  January is Microsoft.  Microsoft Mindshare also has new management and our schedule has been a problem.  We have been scrunched down to two weeks. This was not something we wanted, this was what we had to do to get Microsoft. Some groups moved once and could not move again. There is currently no attendance requirement.  (Ed checked/verified the schedule for several groups). If you check the website, all of the calendars are there. February is SmartComputing Magazine.  March is Family History on DVD.  April is Web Working Services with Dave Whittle. 

Ed brought up an idea about finding giveaways for all of our member groups, purchased at reasonable price from a wholesaler.  He suggested 64 MB Thumb or Flash drives.  His is looking for this item at $2- $3 each.  Some groups were very interested.  Ed will let us know the results of his research.   Adding the AZacc logo was suggested.  Newcomers don’t know what a thumb drive is and that is why this product is being suggested.

A question was asked about CompUSA and the discount.  The discount is different on each item.  When the store advertises an item, the store ad is   cheaper than the Commercial Desk price.  Management has changed and the deal is just not the same, it isn’t working nearly as well as the original agreement.   A person who bought from them was inundated with spam email after giving them their email address when purchasing.  This is sort of a buyer beware.  If you give out your email, expect companies to use it. 

A member group reported that some of the speakers were indignant   because they didn’t have two hours.  Patricia and Ed reiterated that AZacc tells the presenters that they have ONE hour.  If you have more time at your meeting and allow the presenter more time, that is between you and the vendor.  Don’t let the presenter bully you, make sure they know when they start that they have only one hour.  Gene Barlow and Dave Whittle represent 3-4 vendors and they will take as much time as you allow them to have.  It is difficult to get presenters because of budget cuts.   AZacc officers need to know the good and the bad feedback concerning the presenters that come in.  Ed asked that each of the coordinators send email feedback to Patricia and Ed and let us know what happened at your meeting.

Tom Kostelac, Trilogy,  complimented Ed Zarr on what he does and how much we all appreciate it. Everyone applauded.

Website:  Joe Zager showed us some of the new items on the website.  Currently there is a box on the home page with news on the new “Google search” for your machine.  On the member group pages, the series of boxes has been standardized as a single unit and a table added with equipment available at each club.  There is a link to a pdf file at the bottom of each page that allows you to print all the club information.  Joe was complimented on a job well done. 

All changes should go to Patricia who reviews them for commonality.

There is a Presidents and Coordinators list that Patricia updates and also sends out to the other Officers.  If you change email addresses, we have 5 pieces of paper to change.  We asked several months ago that you get a unique club email address (ie: Pres@ xxxx.com.), then when your president changes, we don’t have to change the address.  Your webmaster should be able to do it for you. The mail is just directed to a different address.

A question was asked if Patricia is sending all communications to both President and Coordinator.  Patricia did send some mail to just the President because she wasn’t comfortable asking the coordinator to respond to certain items.   She felt she was asking two people to do the same thing when it came to hardware information.   Some clubs have good communications between the President and Coordinator and some prefer that only one person get the information.  In most clubs the Coordinator is the consistent member that attends AZacc meetings.   One Coordinator said that whenever he responded to an AZacc communication he carbon copied his President. 

 There were comments on the fact that Carey Holzman missed a meeting. The problem was solved and he is booked by that club for a later date.

Old Business: None

New Business:

Communication:  Discussed earlier in meeting.

Attendance numbers:  We realize that many things affect how many you have in attendance at each meeting.  Starting in November, in order to help us grade our speakers, let Patricia know how many people attended your meeting.  Add comments on the quality of the speakers.   Please be sure you include your complete name, club name, etc. 

Paradise Computer Club announced that Don Crowley has updated his book with new SP2 information and his Basic Class slides.  He also has a CD with 53 slides on SP2.  There were many comments concerning sales of updated books when the groups just bought last spring. 

Patricia asked if everyone got their Microsoft boxes with SP2 information and t-shirts.  Someone didn’t get a box from Mindshare.  It was recommended that the club go back and check the mindshare website and make sure all the information is correct.  If it is and you didn’t get a box, send an email to mindshar@microsoft.com.  They do send it to the president, so if your president changed, it could have gone to the past president.

The Microsoft Class Action suit information was brought up.  Patricia wrote an article for Computer Booters and will send it to all the member groups tomorrow.  There is a website listed in the article where you can download all the claim forms.  You get vouchers if you fill out the forms.  Ed told us that if you don’t submit or opt out of the claim for any funds, the schools will get the funds.

The Secret Guide to Computers has also been updated and is available from Bud Rolley. 

Bud Rolley, East Valley Association announced that if XP SP2 installation/download is interrupted --    Take everything back out and start over.  Trying to start in the middle could cause big problems and hang up your computer.

Whether we get our morning time back for our next meeting depends on the school and their class load.  We won’t know until the spring semester is set up.  Next meeting is scheduled for January 28, 2005 at 9:30 am.

The meeting adjourned at 2:45 pm.   The Door Prize drawing followed.  There will be more software for door prizes at the next couple meetings. 

The winners today are:  Logitech Mouse  - Sandy Hart, MS Plus - Tom Kostelac, Publisher – Ric Fisher, MS Office 2003  - Dolores Bruno

Respectfully Submitted,

Sandra Hart, Secretary