President Maria Rueters called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m. After introductions, Barry Scheur demonstrated a radio which can be used to access items on the Internet, talking prescription bottles, a talking thermometer, and a hand held mobility aid. After his presentation, the President announced that beginning with this meeting, she was interested in having members provide short presentations or demonstrations of software programs they may have recently discovered. She also indicated that she would ask any presenter how much time would be needed for any given demonstration, and that any member who was interested in giving a short presentation should call or e-mail her.
To that end, Steve Dresser gave a short presentation of a program called Text Monkey Pro, produced by Boxer Software. He pointed out that the two best uses for this program are that it has the ability to convert text into an HTML document, and it can also be used to clean up e-mail files. The cost of the program is $29.95, and any person interested in downloading a trial version of this program can go to the website at www.boxersoftware.com. Steve invited other members who discover anything on the Internet that might be useful for us to consider making a mini-presentation at a future VIBUG meeting.
After latecomers were allowed to introduce themselves, the business meeting commenced with the President explaining the decision to cancel the March 12th meeting due to the inclement weather conditions expected for that weekend. She reminded members that if a meeting was to be canceled due to weather conditions, a message would be left in the VIBUG mailbox at the National Braille Press, 617-266-6160 extension 48, and anyone that can receive e-mail would be notified in that media. Next, the President indicated that she went to the 2nd session of the focus group study conducted by the Fidelity Corporation which was soliciting opinions from visually impaired users as to how they can make their website more accessible. She indicated that she was very pleased with the outcome in that Fidelity was seeking opinions from users directly to determine what they really want in terms of accessible features. The minutes of the February 12th meeting were read by Vice President Jeanette Kutash for Dennis Brady, VIBUG Clerk who was absent because he was working. An amendment was suggested to change Cd Identifier to CD Ripper. The minutes were approved as amended.
Steve Dresser offered to host the VIBUG pool party on July 23rd with a rain date of July 30th. It was also suggested that as a small but fun fundraising activity, that an auction of old software and other related VIBUG equipment be held at the party. Items would be auctioned as is to the highest bidder on any item. Anything not auctioned off would be tossed out. We would also be looking for any member who would be good at being an auctioneer for this event. Members who are interested in providing liquid refreshments should contact Steve at 781-944-4044; a motion was approved to hold the VIBUG pool party on the dates indicated by Steve Dresser in lieu of holding the August monthly meeting.
The old VIBUG computer finally went to an organization run by Tom Rowan, which basically recycles old computer parts.
Steve Dresser, VIBUG Webmaster, indicated that he would like to clean up the website because in some instances it contains dead links, and other links which have outlived their usefulness to anyone. He asked other members for help in this project. Members should periodically check out the site, provide suggestions as to any new items of interest that should be included, or other items that should be removed from the site.
Bill Kilroy from Freedom Scientific will be the presenter at the May 14th meeting. It is hoped that he can demonstrate the talking GPS system, which would run in conjunction with the Pack mate, and their new stand-alone scanning device. In June, the speaker will be Aaron Leventhal, a software engineer for IBM who will be demonstrating another web browser with speech. The presentation that was supposed to be done by Joe Lazarro will be rescheduled for a future date.
Jeanette Kutash indicated to members that they should've already received a notice regarding the payment of membership dues, and that if these dues have already been paid, they should ignore this notice. She also indicated that members who haven't provided updated information regarding their address including their e-mail address should contact her as soon as possible with this information since there are some names on the current e-mail list, which only contain bits and pieces of the information which is necessary for the maintenance of an accurate membership list. A strategy will be developed to remove persons from the list whose information remains incomplete. It was suggested that if members have any doubt whatsoever as to the validity of their current information, they should update their information, even if they think that some of the information is correct. When the membership application asks for "alternative formats", it refers to any other accessible format you may use besides e-mail such as Braille or large print. This is so that presenters who want to provide additional information can produce documents in these formats because we can tell them how many users of these alternative formats we have. It also makes it easier for us to send out information in these alternative formats if we have to. Jeanette can be reached by phone at 617-376-6341, or by e-mail at jmkutash@earthlink.net.
Ed Gilbert handed out CD's of a program, which converts images to sound, which he got from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He will conduct a mini-demonstration of this program at a future meeting.
Computer questions then followed, and the meeting was adjourned at 4:10 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dennis Brady,
VIBUG Clerk.