President's Message
by Dave Dockery
July Monthly Meeting
We were stood up by our guest speaker this month. This
is the second time in only 3 months. I spoke to him the next day, and found that
he had made it to the parking lot of the Largo Cultural Center, but was late
because of the rain. We'll see about possibly giving him another chance in the
future.
Resource Center Updates
Our outside lights have been staying on at night lately.
This was a big complaint when we first moved into our new home. Whatever the
problem was seems to have been permanently corrected. Next we would like to get
some more light in the parking lot, but that will probably take a little more
doing. We have the request in to the landlord.
The other important issue that needed attention was the
wheelchair ramp in front of one of our doors. The previous one that we had was
dangerous. The contractor built one that is angled and seems to do the job well.
I think it's a lot safer than the old one.
There's always more to do. We have other improvements in
store. I'll let you know when they take place. Feel free to make suggestions. We
try to consider everything that we hear about.
New Seminar Series
Boy did the "Skip Tracing 101" seminar surprise
everyone. Over a 100 people showed up for this one. It overloaded the new SIG
room, and 10 or more people didn't hang around. We ended up with an audience of
about 90 people for this one.
While I don't expect that overflowing the room will be a
frequent problem, I guess it's time for us to work on methods for dealing with
this situation when it occurs. One solution to this problem would be to
pre-register participants, but that's some amount of trouble for someone. I'm
leaning towards simply stopping people from joining us once we have 60 people
show up.
We decided to hold a troubleshooting course as part of
this series. Jim Boynton, Chuck Vroman, and I are going to each take a Friday
night and share some of our troubleshooting expertise. We've already had one of
those as of this writing. Once again, the attendance was about 50 people.
If you know of speakers that might be interested in this
smaller, but very enthusiastic audience, please send me an email and let me know
about them.
The Clearwater Seniors PC Users Group
Recently, we absorbed this user group that used to meet
at the church on Keene Rd. I couldn't be more pleased with how that move is
turning into a win-win situation for everyone. I think we provide them with a
friendlier atmosphere - we even got a new coffee urn cuz these folks LOVE to
drink their decaf. <grin>
I said before that they would be bringing 2 experienced
teachers with them: Carol King and Phil Sullivan. I had guessed that their SIGs
would quickly become popular, but they exceeded my expectations.
On Friday mornings from 10 'til noon, Phil teaches his
8-week Basic Windows course. He has over 40 people attending each week. For
those of you who really need to learn the fundamentals of Windows, you need to
spend some time with Phil.
Carol teaches intermediate-level Windows on Friday
afternoons from 1 to 3 pm. She also draws audiences of over 40 people. These are
both excellent, ongoing programs that are very popular. Drop on down some Friday
and you'll see why.
Security Faire
We have a new date for our security fair: all day
Wednesday, October 18th of this year. Exciting things are beginning to happen,
and we have some new players to help out. I'm beginning to feel comfortable that
we can attract the resources necessary to make this a first-class event. We'll
be letting you know more soon.
So much is happening, but I must bring this to a close
for now. A whole bunch of people pitch in to make this club a success. We invite
you to bring your talents and your inspiration and join us.
Doc (Dave Dockery)
President, Tampa Bay Computer Society (TBCS) www.tampa-bay.org
President, Florida Association of Computer User Groups (FACUG)
www.facug.org
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