COMPUTER USER GROUP NETWORK March Minutes 03/11:

       Present at the meeting were Dave Porter, Kelly Pierce, Tom
Jones, Dan Neuwelt, Albert Anderson, Cindy Brown, Peggy Butow,
Steve Zielinski, Dan Duffy, and Carlos Hranicka.

       The first item on the agenda was the reading of the February
minutes which had a correction from Peggy who said that the author
of the book, Young@Heart is really Mary Furlong.  This lead to a
statement from Dave that the tape book-lending library idea looks
like it will really happen;  Just a few minor details have to be
worked out.  He noted that as improved tracking of books recorded
by BSA become a reality, and as Dave becomes aware of a relavant
book being taped, he may claim a copy for the network.  The main
idea behind this is that in order to borrow a taped book from the
library, one must be a current registered member.Peggy wondered
about how this affects the seniors; Dave clarified that the seniors
are by definition members once registered.  Jim will be the contact
person for requesting taped books (no Braille, please).  These will
be handled as a library book--complete with an expected return
date.  So, effective April 1, 1998, plans will be made to make the
newsletter announcement about its existance.

       another way that would help expand the library, along with
books, Dave added that consideration is now under way for the
trading of seminar tapes between the various networks around the
country.  And, about seminars, the March seminar of Audio On The
Net was rescheduled for April.  The cancellation of both the March
seminar and the Lynx Squade was deceminated by phone calls to
members by BSA, but was not updated on the event hotline until at
least Thursday morning, two days before the March meeting was to

have occurred.  The immediate question of event-line usage and the
lack of current complaints of antiquity was best answered by Cindy
who related that while she was checking its messages when it was
first instituted, she got a number of angry people about old news.
As the hotline continued to lack currency, these people, along with
those other noncomplainers have quit calling.  She pointed out that
Jim is the point person to contact between the network and BSA for
any communication questions or problems with the event hotline,
etc.  Dave restated that it is his responsibility to inform Jim
about future events, and then Jim is to write the script which is
to be read on the hotline.  This should be in place by the
following Monday after the cognoscentae meeting.  A reccommendation
to Jim should be made to check the hotline a few days after
submitting the script for reading to follow up on the updates.

       Next on the agenda came praise from Dave to Steve Zielinski
for his efforts in one-on-one training, getting several people in
the network more familiar with various programs and computer tasks
to accomplish the goal of getting on line.   In conjunction with
that, the father of  a ten-year-old child called Dave asking if the
network could assist in setting up a list serve for blind children.

After some discussion, the board thought that it was not a good
idea to become involved with it at this time, but encouraging the
pen pal concept where each child would have a pen pal to join in a
web exploration would be a better approach.  Dave also related a
story about a blind parent with a sighted spouse and other sighted
children.  But, she also has a  blind child.  The sighted family
members would give a pictorial description of what they were doing
an what they saw, but would often leave out the existance of
important text information.  With children who are blind, it's even
more important to encourage them to check out sites with text
information they can read and understand.  This is often missing.
A possible way to work with this situation is that April 18, 1998,
there will be an NFB-sponsored seminar dealing with these issues in
Dekalb which, if adequate arrangements can be made, a couple of us
may be able to attend.  Dave will report on this in April.

         Thanks, in large part to Carlos Hranicka and Dave Mclain,
machines are rapidly disappearing from the former posse closet on
the twenty-first floor.  Dave has indicated that, for a fifteen
dollar donation, machines may be given on an "as is" basis.

       On to the senior team which had 9 in attendance at the last
meeting.  Recipes were examined and it was a positive experience as
four people contacted Dave, saying that they are trying to get a
system together.  He advised that the senior team may be
contributing articles to the newsletter.  A potential problem is
that the team is associated with a retirement home called the
"Breakers" and one of the people would like to have some people
come to talk about the internet.  This presents a problem of
accessability for some who are partially blind, deaf, or otherwise
impaired.  Kelly wondered if we are talking empowerment or social
service?  Dave agreed that we need to resolve that issue.  He
indicated that people would visit the group, find out how to do
what they needed, and visit again when a new topic of interest or
need surfaced.  Cindy, too, said that we learn by doing, and that
although we can learn some things by listening to others, the
majority of learning happens when we actually do it., ourselves.
Kelly said that, because it would be difficult to do well, maybe we
should wait a bit and plan two demonstrations, one for more sight
impaired and the other for more hearing impaired.  Dave hopes that
perhaps the seniors, themselves, could pull it together, and
anticipate needs of their potential audince.  Prhaps we could
assist, but it would be better to let them handle the event.  Cindy
also pointed out that, especially for those who are mobile,
attending our functions is quite possible So, Dave recommended that
we table the idea of involvment a while, so we did.

       Computers for dummies appeared to go very well.  8 people
came and examined a machine and got a hands-in look at how they're
put together.

       Regarding the cognoscentae, Dan Duffy and Maurice Tanter
have been to 3 consecutive meetings, so the board voted to include
them as voting members.  Dave made a motion that, even though Peggy
Butow has not achievd 3 consecutive meeting status, she should also
be added because the only meeting she missed was due to a six-inch
snowstorm, and she called to indicate she would be missing.  Kelly
seconded the motion.  Steve Zielinski, due to his team leading
status, was also officially added.  Cindy mentioned that very few
board members had registered, as of yet.  Steve admonished that
board members really should register.  although it is not necessary
to make it a rule at this point, it is really important for board
members to be paid up.  Dave reported that, because we waited until
we had fifteen members registered, it held the newsletter back a
bit.  He proposed that we begin releasing the newsletters to the
internet within 1 week after the tapes are mailed.  Several reasons
for this exist:  the time-sensative nature of things we do, coupled
with the need to establish a sense of currency and stability on the
net, and the presence of new benefits of registration, delaying
internet release is less preferable.  So, because it received
little opposition, consent was given.  Benefits of (local and
national) registration are to include the availability of seminar
tapes for a dollar a tape which would contain two seminars on
Library of Congress format (four-track slow speed).  This would be
on the condition that tapes not be copied and passed on.  Albert
Anderson asked if the newsletter could publish a list of the
available seminars, and Dave suggested that we also publish
pertinent info about the various vicugs (visually impaired computer
user groups), giving this a more national presence. Kelly reported
that he was approached by a person in Wisconsin needing advocacy
assistance in getting computer access available at her school.
Since we have success stories locally, he wondered if the board
supported involvment in this venture.  Steve thought that as long
as there's a volunteer willing to provide ideas for implementation
by the requesting person, it would be okay.  And, Dave added that,
as long as the person understands their rights and
responsibilities, then he saw no reason why the network couldn't
become involved.  Tom said that he saw this as an opportunity to
aid in the development of that spark of interest there which may
lead to the organization of a network similar to our own.

         Cindy indicated that she was contacted by a representative
of the NFB who requested permission of the network to reprint one
of our newsletter articles in the Monitor.  After getting
permission from the author, Deborah Kent-Stein, she released it to
NFB with the understanding that our newsletter would be credited.
Dave also related that another agency tried unsuccessfully to use
a series of articles from our newsletter by Kelly Pierce as a
source to fund a grant.  Because someone saw this developing, it
gave us an opportunity to untrack this plan.  it shows that
original ideas cannot be claimed and fraudulantly represented
without getting caught.  All of this serves to indicate how well
our efforts are being received and how much of a national presence
we are attaining, and only underscores the need to get our
newsletters out there.  Steve explained that there is a procedure
of creating a digital signature for anything we publish making our
articles tamper-resistant, empowering us to protect the integrity
of our product.
       Under old business was a question from Albert Anderson about
the status on the membership cards.  Dave said that he had not yet
gotten that together and said he needed help with it and asked
Albert if he would assist.  Albert agreed.

       Steve asked if an agenda item could be set for next month
about board members being on-line, because, he said, intra-board
communication is as important to him as his own internet
capability.  At that point, Cindy made a motion for adjournment,
Tom seconded it, and we adjorned.