Williamsport Area Computer Club Meeting minutes I newsletter - January 1997
Kathy Kolb, President called the meeting to order, followed by an introduction of new guests. Last months meeting minutes were accepted as circulated.
Willis Beaver, Treasurer reported $107.00 in our account, having 19 paid members.
Committees: Club Advertising / Awareness / Public Relations / Membership / Home Page: Home Page News: Kathy reported that our web site exceeded over 5000 visitors in 1996 (spanning 3 URLs). http://www.sunlink.net/wacc The counter was zeroed on 1/8/1997. Our new club logo was added and our site was listed with "Looksmart" Search Engine.
Newspaper ads announcing our meetings will began in January. They cost $8.70 per month.
There was a request for ideas on a small button ad for the club for use on web sites. Wayne Palmer offered to design one for us.
1997 membership dues are now due. To support the club, please send $12.00 to Willis Beaver, RD#1 Box 193W, Watsontown, PA 17777 or see him at the meetings. Willis will send you a membership card that will be your receipt. Details will be posted on the WACC web site soon.
Kathy has included our wacc poster on our web site. She has requested us to test it out by downloading, and printing it out to check out how well it is rendered on different systems. Please circulate copies of the poster to your area computer stores. Thank you!
Please Note: Our mirrored wacc site on Pennet is currently down.
We are still looking for a volunteer to search AOL, Compuserve and ATT for local computer users to let them know about our club. If you can help with this, please e-mail Willis Beaver at wcom@pennet.net or call Sharon at 321-0659.
Computerfest: No news reported.
Computer Recycling: (giving old computers new homes): Please see this months Program Topic: SCROUNGE
A computer was requested for a 60 yr old Cerebral Palsy victim with writing disabilities. Bob Garrett has offered a IBM XT system and a bunch of 386 parts. We need a volunteer to pick the equipment up from Bob's place, and take the working system, along with a printer the club was given previously, to the person who requested a computer. Anyone?
North Central PA computer networking / Freenet site: Jim Shaffer reported that csrlink customers were banned from cris.com due to one user misbehaving. IRC News: wacc needs reregistered with dal.net - Jim offered to re-register us. NASA Television Coverage is now on the net via CU-SeeMe Software. This videoconferencing software is available free from Cornell University. www.cornell.edu Video sites for the US: 139.88.27.43 at the NASA Lewis Research Center. 128.158.1.154 at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center 143.232.17.132 at the NASA Ames Research Center 131.123.5.1 at Kent State University 128.2.230.10 at Carnegie-Mellon University 129.186.112.242 at Iowa State University
Andy Hughes reported on the JVB Computer Literacy Program for Seniors (Ages 50 and up) will begin soon, after the phone lines are installed. Volunteers are being requested for the project. This involves one-on-one tutoring for Windows 95, MS Works Word Processing, Spreadsheets and Database and the Internet. Scheduling will be determined between the senior and the tutor. At present, there are 11 tutors and 16 students signed up already. Call JVB at 326-0536.
The Sunbury Daily Item is now online. www.dailyitem.com Ottaway Newspapers parent company is Dow Jones. Online Educational Courses are available from www.zdu.com for under 5$ / month. www.digitalthink.com offers a free course on using search engines.
Help: (offering help to computer users who need it) Bill Twaddell is in search of information on graphics monitors. He also made us aware of a UPS/Winsock incompatibility issue.
Local BBS + ISP / Computer Retailer news: Leading Electronics has moved from the Hepburn Plaza to the 100 Block of East Third Street, Williamsport. NAC beta testing for US Robotics Web TV sales disappointing to manufacturers. Reasons discussed included no capability for saving, printing and chatting. For the local access number available in our area. Check out http://www.webtv.net
AOL is reportedly having a rough time. Following their flat rate unlimited access promo in December, they were inundated with logons. Reportedly 8 million in one day! Needless to say, AOL is working feverishly to increase their capabilities, but members having a hard time logging on aren't being so patient. Legal litigation is ensuing. The AOL tymnet service and 800# will be changed. You will need to use the local AOLnet 494-5600 for number as both the primary and secondary numbers. This brought up an issue of how long ISP's can continue charging a flat rate as well.
Other Concerns: Ideas are requested for 1997. Committee leaders are needed for some committees. We need to think about what we would like to be involved with and what kind of things we would like to do. Comments are appreciated!
In the case of inclement weather on meeting nights, please check for wacc-announce e-mail, check our web site or listen to KISS-FM for cancellations.
Programs: Our guest speaker for January was Robert Van Allen, from BLaST Intermediate Unit 17. Bob educated us on the SCROUNGE (computer recycling) Project. SCROUNGE stands for Students for Computer Recycling to Offer Underrepresented Groups in Education. Its purpose is to provide electronic equity and environmental responsibility by keeping equipment out of the waste stream. The goal is to gather donated computers and place them in needy institutions such as inner city and rural schools, community centers, libraries and non-profit organizations. The SCROUNGE volunteers maintain a database and broker the computers between the donor and recipient. When this newsletter gets exported to the web (in a couple of days) it will contain a picture of Bob at the Club meeting. December's web version of the newsletter has a picture of Mike Lacher.
Instead of a usual program in February, we will devote the time to helping computer novices. We've received several messages from people who are very new to computers, who would like to feel more at ease at our meetings, and be able to ask very basic computer questions. This appears to be a growing need, from the feedback we hear. We'll try to set aside some time every 3 months or so, to specifically deal with this need. If you are new to computers, these meetings are especially for you! If you are a computer wiz, you need to come to the meetings to help the novices. Remember that we all got help from someone at some time - this is a way to carry on the tradition of "Those who know helping others to grow". So, for February, everyone please bring either a question or an answer :)
John Ramirez from Susquehanna Communications will speak for our March meeting. A James V. Brown Library network tour is pending for April.
We are recruiting a Chairperson to organize our monthly programs. If anyone has ideas or suggestions for future programs, please let us know! Willis Beaver, Treasurer will take care of purchasing the speaker gifts.
Meeting Adjourned. - Minutes taken by Sharon Souter, Club Secretary, send comments, news to disc@sunlink.net.
Next meeting date: Tuesday, February 11, 1997 - 7 pm, Lycoming College Academic Center, Williamsport.
Local Internet Service Provider (ISP) info SunLink 326-4781 www.sunlink.net Prolog 1-800-804-5783 www.prolog net Uplink 327-8000 www.csrlink.net Microserve 1 -800-380-I NET www.microserve.com Voicenet 1-800-835-5710 www.voicenet.com
Williamsport Area Computer Club contact info:- home page: http://www.sunlink.net/wacc Kathy KoIb - 326-7529 (voice) - kkolb@kolbweb.com (email) Local BBS: Lycoming Link 321-6440 IRC channel Tuesday and Sunday evenings on irc.dal.net ( /join #WACC ) wacc-chat mailing list- send a message to wacc-chat-request@sunlink.net with the word subscribe in the subject.