The meeting was called to order at 2:40pm by Vice President Jon, who assumed the Chair pending the arrival of President Earl.  There were 31 people in attendance.

 

Announcements from the September meeting were brought back up for discussion and action:

(A)- Raising the membership dues from $20 to $25?  In discussion it was said that the AHCS, through the VCFSE, makes minimal money overall and that raising dues would only add about $300 to the club coffer, but our outstanding debt demands that we make an effort to raise capital.

 

 A motion to raise the annual dues was made, seconded and the vote was held with unanimous approval.

 

The annual Dues for the AHCS have been raised from $20 per year to $25, starting with the 2027 membership year.

 

(B)-Raising the VCFSE Table price from $20 to a yet to be discussed price?  This question was combined, during discussion, with the question, -Do Exhibitors at VCFSE need to be Members?  It was quickly suggested that the table price for VCFSE be raised from $20 to $30.  Adding in the thought that Exhibitors should be Members, led to a motion to have a dual table pricing schedule:  Raise table pricing from $20 to $30 per table, for Members and $40 per table, for non Members.  This does not preclude a person from paying membership dues at the time of table registration and enjoying the lower table rate.  

 

 

(C)-Do Exhibitors at VCFSE need to be Exhibitors or can they be Vendors?  The leadership of SFGE makes such a distinction, should we?  The overarching issues are that many items are sold by exhibitors compete with the consignment items being sold and that the club has no way to gain income from the items sold by vendors, other than the table cost.  Consignment at the show has the best return on effort, but we suffer from the lack of a rules enforcer and coordinator.  Poorly marked items and bad handwriting contribute to the problem.  A volunteer Consignment check-in coordinator is needed at the VCFSE.    

 

This means that if an Exhibitor sells a computer, kit or peripheral at their table, the consignment form should be filled out and that the consignment percentage fee must still be paid to the AHCS on that item.  Small items sold by Exhibitors do not need to be individually accounted for throughout the show, but can be settled at the end of the show on the honor system.

 

 

(D)-Should we spend funds to buy a microphone for meetings and presentations?  It was pointed out that an Amazon.com listed karaoke machine may perform the task adequately for $50 to $60.  Two members said that they would look at things that they already have and report back to the Membership on selling or contributing the items to the club.

 

 

(E)-Should we buy another IPad for a second checkout at VCFSE?  In discussion, it was noted that the checkout line could be long and frustrating with only one register to take payments.  Treasurer Dave volunteered that he may have an older iPad that he could contribute to the cause.  President Earl said that we already have most or all of the additional hardware needed for a second checkout register. 

 

President Earl asked the Membership for input on Speakers at the VCFSE next year.

 

Andre presented a Sony Vaio PCB-70 and an Windows XP era Pentium 5.  The Vaio used an overlay on top of Win 95 and a rather unique User Interface.

 

Dave (Grizzly) showed off an Intel RISC machine I960 X Terminal with BSD 4.4 as the Operating System.

 

New Members: George – His first computer was an Apple II, and he volunteers with a local Apple II user group.

 

A Presentation is scheduled by Logg for the November meeting.  He will be selecting from a mere 3000 photos taken at VCFMW.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 4:40pm.