Monday March 22, 1999
MINUTES of the BOARD MEETING:

The Board of Directors’ meeting of the 1960 PC Users Group was held on March 22, 1999, at the Lasagna House III, 217D 1960 West, Houston, Texas.

Attendance: Lynn McLeland, Paul VanDreal, David Padgitt, Mike Flanagan, Linda Genaw, Jerry Genaw, Bob Argo, Alex Dumestre, Mike Kelly, David Stoll, Betty Hesketh, Ed Hesketh, and Diana McCants.

Lynn McLeland called the meeting to order at 6:40. The first order of business was to approve the minutes from the previous board meeting on 2-22-99. A motion was made and seconded to approve those minutes. The motion passed by voice vote.

 Officer Reports

Treasurer:

Bob Argo reported that the club’s current assets as of 3-22-99 were $7,121.26. This represents an increase of almost $2,000 during the month of February.

The club netted approximately $1,103.00 from the Computer Fair on 3-6-99. This does not include the additional increase in club membership. Membership renewals were over budget by $485 this month. This is due to so many early renewals of members wanting to avoid the dues increase in April. New memberships were off a little probably due to an overly optimistic plan for gain from the Computer Fair; however, we may see an increase next month after the general meeting.

The contract with NAM has been signed and payment was made for $600 to cover the first three months in rent for this fiscal year.

On the YTD Actual/Budget Report, Bob Argo stated that things were looking good over-all. We should still see a positive gain over budget after expected additional bills are paid this month.

President:

Lynn McLeland reported that the NAM lease has been executed and signed. The exact premises we have access to were delineated in the lease as we requested last month. The agreement to waive the $200/month rent when we provide computer classes remains "loose" and is not included in the written lease.

Alex Dumestre agreed to be our liaison for the club’s computer classes. Several volunteers have already offered to teach these basic computer literacy classes for NAM.

Our insurance company has requested an updated list of equipment owned by our club. Mike Flanagan agreed to provide this.

 VP-SIGS:

Paul VanDreal made a motion to request that Cheryl Floyed be formally approved as the new leader of the Internet SIG. This motion was seconded by Mike Flanagan and passed by voice vote.

Paul reported that Leon McGraw from the Computer Professor will lead the Software SIG on Microsoft’s Word ’97 beginning April 20^th. This Word '95 SIG focus will last for three months and will meet on the third Tuesday of every month.

 VP-Programs:

Mike Flanagan announced that Dragon Systems will be the speaker for the April General Meeting. No speaker has been booked as yet for the month of May. Time Warner is confirmed for June, and a virtual Internet Bank will address the club in July.

VP-Communications:

David Padgitt reported that he felt our best advertisement for the Computer Fair had been the signs we put up at various locations around the FM 1960 area. This is how most people heard about the fair. He thinks it was a very effective tool and recommended it as a good promotion for next year’s Computer Fair.

David announced that he had managed to obtain a new advertiser for our newsletter. Show Me PC’s from Conroe has committed to a half page ad.

Unfortunately, we lost TIC who has been a big advertiser for the club in the past. A general discussion was held concerning the need to inform our membership about our advertisers.

Ways to advertise our club more effectively to the public were also discussed. We have 5000 new tri-fold flyers that need to be distributed to FM 1960 area businesses. Lynn McLeland requested that a new webpage site be included to emphasize our club benefits. She also wants Ryan Kelly to add a page to the newsletter emphasizing this information.

Membership Chairman:

Linda Genaw reported that $1,655 had been added to our club treasury this past month. This total includes both new members and membership renewals. Our club membership now stands at 228.

The membership renewals due for March were 29. The actual renewals for the month were 16. Ten new members were signed up. Four members were removed from the membership roster for January.

Old Business:

David Stoll graciously thanked everyone on the board for their efforts to insure the success of the Computer Fair. Then he gave the final Computer Fair report. The club grossed $1,444. Our expenses were $340. We netted $1,104. The proceeds from the silent auction and the garage sale were approximately $900.

Mike Flanagan made a suggestion for next year’s Computer Fair. He recommended that we have a float in our local St.Patrick’s Day Parade and set the date of the Computer Fair for the Saturday following the parade. He felt this would be an effective advertising tool to reach a maximum number of people. We all agreed to discuss this suggestion in detail at a later date.

 New Business:

Advertising in the newsletter on a prepay basis was generally discussed by the board.

A motion was made by Mike Flanagan and seconded by Paul VanDreal to purchase a new integrated 150 watt sound system for our club not to exceed $550. This motion was passed by voice vote. This new sound system was thought to be essential to improve the quality of sound at our general meetings.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting. It was passed by voice vote.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:44pm.

 Respectfully submitted,
Diana J. McCants
Secretary

March 24, 1999