The July meeting of the TI-Chips was called to order, and the minutes from the June meeting were read and accepted. There was no Treasurer's report, and John Parken reported that membership has remained unchanged since his last report. Les Kee said there was no activity in the club's software library.
There was a short trip down memory lane by some of those attending. The subject discussed was just when various members first joined the TI-Chips. I said I was enticed to pay the TI-Chips a visit through a post card that Harry Hoffman sent to all registered Cleveland area TI'ers listed as users/owners by Texas Instruments in the 1983 - 1986 time period. (My first memory of the first meeting I attended, in June of 1986, was all the schematics on the tables and John Parken's huge, open case of cassette tapes with programs for the TI-99/4A. I knew I had found a home.)
The reminiscing was followed by a lengthy discussion of the direction that the TI-Chips was heading as a TI-99/4A user group and home computer club. Several opinions were voiced regarding the "TI-Chips Options" letter I had sent out to our members. It was explained that we will hold discussions on this subject, including the six options, over the next three months. We will then, after all opinions and input have been heard, make a decision in October as to the direction and future of the TI-Chips. As was stated in the concluding sentence of the Options letter, "What ever we decide, it has been a wonderful 19+ years, and we've gained life long friendships through our membership in the TI-Chips."
John Parken talked about a memory re-allocating routine called "GOODMEM" that can be downloaded from the Internet. John said this routine allows the user to regain memory used by large programs. He said this routine, in freeing up system memory, enables the computer to regain some operational speed. (Thanks for the tip, John.)
Harry Hoffman won this month's 50:50 drawing. Congratulations, Harry.
The next meeting of the TI-Chips will be held on Saturday, August 16, from 10:00 'til noon in the Storytime Room at the North Royalton branch library.