VICUG Steering Committee Meeting
December 3, 1997

Present: Tom Dekker, Janina Sajka, Peter Altschul, Jay Leventhal, and Vita Zavoli.

The following issues were discussed:

1. Getting VICUG "out of cyberspace" and into the community.
   1. Resources to be explored include:
      1. Upcoming TAB telephone newsline (to be installed in the near future)
      2. TAB's newsletter (Tom will work on this)
      3. Library for the Blind newsletter: (Peter will work on this)
      4. Using phone trees
      5. Encouraging those who receive training from the Lighthouse, Baruch, etc. to attend future meetings
   2. Fund-raiser for VICUG (February Theatre by the Blind show)
      1. Committee likes the idea, and suggested that a short play be written for the occasion; Tom will contact George Ashiotis to discuss this matter further.
   3. December meeting
      1. Participants will meet at TAB at 6 PM during which participants will pose computer-related questions; at 6:30, the meeting will move to the Malibu Diner (on West Twenty-Third Street) for a holiday get-together (Tom will make necessary arrangements with the Malibu staff)
   4. Topics for upcoming meetings:
      1. January "Using RealAudio" (Tom, Janina, and Gregory will coordinate)
      2. February: "The Latest and Greatest in Speech Technology" (Jay will contact Doug Geofray from GW Micro)
      3. SIGS:
         1. Are we launching the Lynx SIG?
            1. Probably not; insufficient interest at this time
         2. The first meeting of the MIDI sig
            1. Summary posted on VIC-NYC, VICUG's emailing list
         3. BNS/Students/Whatever SIG
            1. Is this a SIG of VICUG? Should it just be a BNS group, or a broader scale technology and information issues group for students? Is there a need for two SIGS: a Blazie Products SIG and a Students' SIG?
            2. Committee agreed to invite Iris Torres and Pratik Patel to take part in steering committee meeting to discuss these issues. Possible dates: 12-11 or 12-16.
      4. Newsletter:
         1. Jay agreed to spearhead this effort, with many members consenting to write pieces for it. This matter will be discussed during future meetings.
      5. Other business
         1. Peter described the possibility (that Greg brought to his attention) of Columbia University providing VICUG a fee to assist them in making their website more accessible to persons with print disabilities. The committee expressed interest in this proposition, and hope that Greg will be able to negotiate such an arrangement.

Submitted by Peter Altschul, December 4, 1997
encoded by Gregory J. Rosmaita

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this page was created on December 5, 1997
last modified January 28, 1998