VIBUG Minutes for February 13, 2016

Where: MIT, 77 Mass AVE., Building 5 Room 134, Cambridge MA
When: February 13, 2016

President Jerry Barrier called the meeting to order at 1:00 PM. everyone in attendance introduced themselves. The minutes were read by Secretary Fred. They were accepted without change.

Announcements

Jerry said that he believes we now have at least 70 members. Jerry mentioned that he and Bob tried to add him to the bank account but were unsuccessful because they did not have any signed minutes. A motion was made to establish Jerry Berrier as president and Bob as treasurer on the VIBUG bank account and credit card. The motion was seconded and accepted.

Jerry asked if anyone had ever heard of NARALO, (North American Regional At-large Organization) and no one present had. It is a group that monitors behavior on the internet. They invited a VIBUG member to serve on their committee because they have poor representation from the blind community. They meet five times a year in various parts of the country and do not have funding to support a representative to attend their meetings. If anyone is interested in serving, please let Jerry know privately.

Committee reports

No one from the bylaws committee was present.

Programs and demos, Maria asked if anyone would be interested in a presentation on UEB Braille and the membership said yes.

In March we have a presentation on the Surface Pro.

Brian Margi gave a report on the Mac Class held earlier in the day. He said that they focused on key strokes to manage email and spell check in Text Edit.

Jerry updated the membership on a recent officer’s call. It was decided that minutes would be continued to be read at meetings. We also agreed that the officers will meet twice a year.

There is a guy from western Mass named Richard Eli. He is going to get people of western Mass together and participate in VIBUG meetings via online. They also may do presentations from time to time.

Anyone sending a general email from the VIBUG website will go to president@vibug.org.

Jerry and I agreed that we would talk outside of the meeting about the Google Voice phone number set up. Once the Google Voice phone number is set up, the officers agreed that Ginette will monitor it.

Tim Frank and Jerry will get together and make some audio changes to facilitate online participation.

We are considering having a podcast for VIBUG. If you are interested, contact Jerry and let him know.

The holiday party was a success. Everyone enjoyed themselves.

The meeting in March will be on March 13.

After the technology question and answer period, we moved on the presentations.

Presentations

Antonio demonstrated an IPhone app called Omni Focus which is a task managing app.

Tim Cumings demonstrated the Amazon Echo.

Jerry Berrier did a brief presentation on Apple News.

The meeting Adjourned at 4:00 PM.

Secretary Milissa Garside