XCOM Meeting 24 November 2008

meeting called to order

~7:10 pm, present & accounted

[from Oct - not discussed in Nov] Stefan has talked with MacHighway. He will fill in some details here.
[from Oct - not discussed in Nov] Smythe suggested MacHighway as an alternative host for TMUG.org to RTMX & our G4 server, in case we need to replace the server Mac. The price is much less. Stefan has written them asking about what is involved to moving tmug.org to their hosting service, but has gotten no response as of 9.28.

December Meeting:

We will have a "raffle extravaganza" with several items. We decided (tentatively) on an iPod Touch, an AirPort Express, & an iPod Nano. Chips will contact Norm & Mark at the local Best Buys & Steve at Ten Plus to see if they can give us discounts on the costs.
Q & A – Bob Chandler (Stefan will double check?)
food, beverage, fellowship…
Smythe has talked with a Targus rep, who has sent us a box-o-goodies to give away. There are ~6 items in the box. The requirement is that we review the items. The reviewer gets to keep the item he reviews. 6 people signed up to review the items at the Nov mtg. Chips suggested that perhaps we can have mini-presos of some of these as part of the program. The consensus was that we not.
Smythe has talked w/ Trish Huffman about doing a chat room for Q&A & the meeting. She has a standing meeting on our meeting day, so would have to teach someone else to manage this. Allen live blogged the Aug & Sept meetings' Q&A. Hopefully he will continue this.

January Meeting:

Apple preso by Frances Shepherd - Apple update and future directions (podcasting, pro apps, Apple TV / iTunes, MobileMe). Our Jan 12 meeting is the week after Macworld.
He agreed to this in early October and has it scheduled.

February Meeting:

future meeting suggestions:

Members in good standing: 93, with 11 renewals due & 3 in grace.
There were in 39 attendance at the November meeting – 31 members & 5 guests; 4 joined / renewed. 1 other has joined by mail this month, for a total of 107 memberships.
There are now 247 entries in the TiGA, including 56 renewals & new memberships since June 1.
Cash in bank: $6033.83
[reported by Chips & Fred, as of 11.24.08]

[from Oct - not discussed in Nov] Fred brought forth a discussion about "the membership" - Should we try to grow it? Is the average age higher than we would like? Should we try to aquire more younger members? Should we redirect the group's focus?

[from Oct - not discussed in Nov] Smythe will look into a compact, integrated PA amp / speaker system in the $300 price range & will report back to XCom.

at ~8:30 pm by Stefan. Velomac 19:35, 25 November 2008 (EST)