The August meeting of the TI-Chips was opened, and the minutes from the July meeting were read and approved. Lin Shaw gave the treasurer's report and stated that he had recorded the two membership renewals in July. At this time, the proceeds from the 50:50 July raffle were turned over to Lin.
Our membership chairman, John Parken, reported that our membership had grown to 19 members. Les Kee stayed aboard by renewing his membership at the meeting. John then handed out copies of what was humorously dubbed as his new/obsolete membership list. It was also noted at this meeting, that John still uses PR Base software on his TI-99/4A to maintain the TI-Chips' membership database.
Once again, Les Kee had to report there was no activity in the club's software library during the month of July.
I reported receiving confirmation of the TI-Chips' reservation of the meeting room in the North Royalton library from August 2000 through July 2001.
Harry Hoffman talk about several methods considered to publish and distribute an electronic form of our newsletter. One format, which was considered, was the PDF file format. Harry stated that the main objection to this type of publication was that a PDF writer had to be purchased. This, of course, requires no small investment. Another consideration was a generic text file format. The newsletter could be typed into a word processor, such as Word, and saved as "text with line breaks". The finished product could then be easily copied and pasted to the body of the e-mail message. Harry said the MAUG (Milwaukee Area User Groups) electronic newsletter is an example of how our newsletter could be published and distributed.
Talking about newsletters, Harry informed us that he had received the last issue of the SCUG (Southern California User Group) newsletter. However, we agreed with Harry that he should continue to send copies of our newsletter to Woody Wilson in recognition of the courtesy he had shown us by advising us about the demise of his newsletter.
Harry Hoffman and myself will be attending the planning meeting for CCAG 2001. The meeting is scheduled to be held Monday evening, August 21st. It was agreed, by the Chips in attendance, that we would recommend June 30th for the CCAG 2001. It must be noted that this date is solely a recommendation, and that the final date will be set by the CCAG 2001 committee. It was also agreed that the club's TI-99/4A system would be set up and running at CCAG 2001.
There was some discussion about Rich Polivka's CD projects. I reported that Rich had placed Volume One (1983 - 1986) of our newsletter collection onto a CD.
In place of a demonstration, I offered some hints on how to make sure ink jet print heads will work as expected. It seems that the ink jet print heads have the same contact problems that we have grown to love on our TI-99/4A. These are pressure contacts which are susceptible to dirt, oil and corrosion. The best way to keep them working is to keep them clean. Therefore, I suggested that the electrical contacts be cleaned with rubbing alcohol after handling and before insertion into the printer. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?) The ink jets themselves tend to get clogged with age and/or lack of use. An easy way to restore their function is to pat the ink jets with a water dampened cloth or paper towel.
John Parken won the 50:50 raffle. Congratulations, John.