The meeting was called to order by Maria Rueters, VIBUG President, at 1:10 p.m. After the usual introduction of members and other attendees, the minutes of the VIBUG meeting held 06-12-04 were read by Dennis Brady, VIBUG Clerk. A brief discussion of the minutes followed and a correction was made to reflect the correct e-mail address for Jeanette Kutash. The correct e-mail address is kutsh@theworld.com. The minutes were accepted as amended.
The president asked the nominating committee to give its report. Cheryl Cummings, representing the nominating committee presented the following slate of officers:
Maria Rueters, President, Jeanette Kutash, Vice President, Dennis Brady, Clerk, Jim Roberts, Treasurer, and Steve Dresser Web Master. Elections are to be held in October, and nominations may be brought up from the floor at that time.
The laptop committee was asked to present its report which Amy Ruell did on the committee’s behalf. After several teleconferences and after checking various notebook type computers, the committee decided to recommend that VIBUG purchase a product called the Portico, made by Comp Solutions, VA which produces products for use by the blind. The machine has blue tooth keyboard and capabilities, premiere program software, and a 40 gig hard drive and 512k memory among other features, and it is very light weight. The company has offered to sell the equipment to VIBUG for the previously budgeted price of $2,000 plus an additional amount for a window eyes add on. Microsoft Office may also be included in the $2,000 price tag. Amy detailed the many advantages inherent in having an extremely light weight machine that we can easily transport if it is necessary. Many questions were raised from the floor and were answered by all members of the laptop committee who were present. After a lengthy discussion, the membership was advised that VIBUG did win the auction bid to buy the Jaws for windows xp professional system for $470 auctioned off by the National Braille Press. This price is much cheaper than the going rate for this product. Two motions were introduced and passed, authorizing the purchase of the portico product, and authorizing the laptop committee to spend an additional amount not to exceed $400 if the vendor can include window eyes in the package. Both motions were passed by voice vote without objections, opposition, or abstentions.
A demonstration of the equipment will be provided at a meeting held after we purchase the computer.
Options will be explored as to how the computer will be stored.
Next, the president advised the membership of a letter that John Mattioli wrote to Microsoft pursuant to an article in the most recent issue of PC World which invited members of the public to provide input to Microsoft on how its Windows products can be improved. The VIBUG officers at their last teleconference decided to adopt a position on this matter similar to the positions and suggestions made by John who is a software engineer by profession. A letter was prepared by Jeanette Kutash with input from others indicating that the issues John had mentioned in his correspondence were well documented, that the solutions proposed theirin were reasonable and plausible, and that it accurately addresses the many problems faced by blind and visually impaired users of windows products in employment and personal situations. Minor changes were recommended to the draft and a motion was approved asking the organization to send out the revised letter with John’s letter as an attachment. For the complete text of both letters, go to the VIBUG website, www.VIBUG.org.
Christmas party, 12-11-04. The membership voted to return to the Red Hat Restaurant for this event due to last year’s favorable reaction by those who attended. Rhonda and Sheryl agreed to work on the arrangements for this year’s event.
Brian Charlson of the Carroll Center invited VIBUG to hold a meeting at the Carroll Center so that he can demonstrate their new distance learning programs. After a lengthy discussion, the membership voted to have Brian Charlson come to the meeting at NBP to demonstrate this program in January. If after the demonstration, Brian feels that the demonstration wasn’t adequate, we would consider whether we would go to Newton at a future date for a more in-depth demonstration.
Maria announced that at the October meeting she would be doing a demonstration on the use of web radio with the use of media players, and at the November meeting, Melissa Garcide, a student at U Mass Boston will demonstrate the Sprint Toshiba GM 4050. Since this will be a short demo, this will be followed up by computer trivia.
The raffle of the old VIBUG computer was postponed due to logistical issues.
A motion was approved to have VIBUG donate up to $100 to national Braille press for the coffee that we use. Members who get a cup of coffee are expected to contribute some monetary amount for each cup used. This motion passed with one person voting no.
A short period of time was allowed for computer related questions, after which Brian Margie from the Carroll Center demonstrated the Portabooks product of the American Printing House for the Blind. The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted:
Dennis Brady,
VIBUG Clerk.