Since it’s halfway through the calendar year, I’d thought I’d do a quick summary for you of where we are and how we’re doing as a club. This is something I don’t recall any of my predecessors having done, but it’s equally your club as mine.

Financially, we’re just holding our own-taking in almost as much as our expenses. We just obtained a new insurance policy to cover liability for damages at a reduced cost thanks to our diligent treasurer, Jenny Lind Olin. Insurance cost is now our highest single item. Printing the newsletter used to be by far the most expensive item, but that has been dramatically reduced through the generosity of a club member. Our newsletter costs have dropped to just the cost of the paper and the post office bulk mail rate. If our newsletter expenses had stayed the same as they were at the beginning of the year, we’d be looking at the financial end to the club by year’s end.

Another big change-the quality of our monthly presenters-is due to Mary Sheridan's efforts alone. We have now booked past the first of next year. Just an outstanding achievement. All we had to do was give her a job title. What a woman!

We dismantled our BBS, further reducing our monthly costs. The BBS just wasn’t being used enough to justify the cost. And rightly so. The Internet has just taken over that function completely. If you’ll look at our web site, you’ll see a very, very good example of what can be done by a club. There isn’t praise enough to describe William LaMartin’s contribution, doing the newsletter AND the web site. For those of you who lament the passing of the BBS, go to the web site and post something of interest on the discussion group, won’t you? We have excellent facilities on the web, with chat and threaded messages and more.

Our membership level is suffering, unfortunately. Please come to the meeting and bring a relative, friend or neighbor. And we need to discover the kind of services that will bring in new members, so please send in your ideas. All the officer email addresses are posted in this newsletter and on the web site. See you at the meeting.

For those of you who couldn’t make it to the June meeting, IDT has given us four motherboards for review. We’re taking names for the moment for volunteers to take these boards, assemble a complete computer from them and submit an article to the club newsletter. The boards and processors are yours to keep. The two 225’s will be upgraded by IDT as new processors are available, and mailed to the current owner

There are two ATX motherboards with 225MHz CPU’s and two 200Mhz, one an ATX and one a baby AT.

You’ll need to either upgrade an existing computer by replacing the motherboard and other needed items or build a new computer from scratch. It may take as much as an additional $800 to complete the project.

One thing, if you’re not aware, even if you have a Pentium now, chances are good that you don’t have an ATX case. The ATX motherboard is taller, with the peripheral connectors built onto the motherboard where they’re exposed through a large rectangular opening in the back. An ATX case is significantly more expensive than a baby AT.

In exchange for the articles, TPCUG will receive a full, completed computer for club use.