VICUG Steering Committee Meeting
April 8, 1998

Present: Peter Altschul, Tom Dekker, Jay Leventhal, Gregory J. Rosmaita, Janina Sajka, Ruth-Ellen Simmonds, and Vita Zavoli.

The following issues were discussed:

1. Membership Dues
   1. Ruth-Ellen indicated that a separate account would be established for dues which will be collected at the end of the meeting. Receipts will be provided via the Perkins Brailler. Names, addresses (snail mail and e-mail), and telephone numbers of members will be collected.
   
   
2. General Membership Meetings
   1. The April VICUG NYC meeting will focus on screen magnification programs for the Windows 95 platform. The presenter will be Mr. Hervee Blumers of DeWitt and Associates.
   2. All General Membership Meetings will be recorded on audio cassette; those interested in obtaining a cassette of a meeting should direct requests, along with a blank 90 minute cassette, to:

      VICUG
      c/o Ruth-Ellen Simmonds
      The Associated Blind
      135 West 23rd Street
      New York, NY   10011

      Gregory Rosmaita will be responsible for dubbing cassettes. Peter will contact Rachel to solicit her interest in making transcripts of selected meetings.
      
      
   3. Vita and Jay discussed the activities of the Standing Planning Committee (SPC), concerning topics for future meetings. They, along with Fernando Botelho and Vivian Yacu, who are also SPC members, discussed possible topics for future meetings, including:
      1. May: A summary of FCC recommendations regarding adaptive technology (Janina), as well as a presentation about "computer gismos and gadgets" (Anne Morris);
      2. June: Discussion of OCR software;
      3. July: Computer games demonstration, as well as possible summaries of happenings at ACB and NFB conventions;
      4. August: No meeting.
      The SPC is actively seeking a fifth member, preferably a novice computer user. Jay indicated that he is working with Bob Brown on this matter.
   
   
3. A National VICUG?
   1. Peter broached a subject proposed by Jim Vaglia on the VICUG-L list concerning the possible formation of a national VICUG group with local affiliates. The Executive Committee expressed unanimous opposition to the idea, since a key component of the VICUG concept is peer-to-peer support in an intimate and local setting. While the Committee decided to keep an open mind on the topic, it expressed the belief that VICUG-L served as a de fact national VICUG, as well as a virtual VICUG for those without a VICUG in their geographic vicinity. There was, however, general agreement with Gregory's suggestion that the Executive Committees of the VICUGs which participate in VICUG-L should meet either via conference call, IRC, or NetMeeting, at least four times a year.
   
   
4. Bringing Novices Into the Fold
   1. Presenters should be alerted to the existence of new users, and new users should be encouraged to take responsibility for asking questions throughout presentations.
   
   
5. Establishing Regular Executive Committee Meetings
   1. Gregory suggested that the Executive Committee hold regularly scheduled meetings, and proposed the first Wednesday of each month as a time. The motion carried unanimously.
   2. The next Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for 5 PM on Wednesday, May 6

Submitted by Peter Altschul, April 8, 1998
encoded by Gregory J. Rosmaita

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this page was created on April 8, 1998
last modified April 13, 1998