Archive for the ‘Group Business’ Category

Instead of a regular monthly meeting at the library, the Kachemacs decided to party it up for the 4th of July and had a cookout at Bishop’s Beach. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but the stiff sea breeze made it a bit chilly.

Ole, Brent, and Ron keep the hot dogs protected. At one point while we were all eating, a raven swooped down, landed on the grill, and stole one of the dogs.

Julie and Ginger huddle for warmth.

Diane shows off her hula-hooping skills. Anything to keep warm!

Julie takes a turn with the hoop.

Michael, expecting an inside meeting at the library and finding a note to come to the cookout instead, shows us what happens when you come under-dressed to a mid-summer barbecue in Homer.

Diane tells everyone a story about an encounter with a mad squirrel.

If you missed it, we’ll do it again next year!

Thanks to all who came to the Kachemacs meeting in December. I hope you are all keeping touch with everyone using the social networking skills you all learned. Thanks, Mob, for leading our discussion this month. As you all may know, this website incorporates a WordPress blog into it. It’s easy and free to join many of these services, so why not try?

There are still a few more Kachemacs t-shirts available. We have another order placed, and will soon be getting new ladies’ slim fit cap sleeve t-shirts! Ladies, look sleek as a Leopard (or Tiger, Panther, or Jaguar) in your Kachemacs baby tee! Shirts are screened right here in Homer at Mananaprint/The Sweat Shop. All shirts are $12 for short sleeve, $14 for long sleeve. Here is are photos of the long sleeve front and back…

It seems it’s better late than never to post the minutes from the last meeting. We had a surprisingly good turnout for the evening of our Presidential election. Kachemacs member Ryan Ridge of Bigwoofs Technology taught us all how to do preventive maintenance on our Macs. Hopefully all our machines are running smoother after Ryan’s presentation. We also had Kachemacs t-shirts for sale so that members can get the word out about Mac and the Kachemacs!
Next month we will be learning about social networking from teen member Mob Sirijaratwong. Mob will show us how to keep in touch and share media with our friends and families using the internet on our Macs and iPhones. We hope to see you all there on December 2nd!

Despite fierce competition with the political debate on Tuesday the 7th of October, there was a full meeting room at the library for the Kachemacs guest event. Andrew Welch, president of Ambrosia Software came all the way from New York State to show and tell some of the products available from his company. It was such an opportunity to meet a Mac developer in person at one of our meetings way up here in Homer.

Andrew provided us with many copies of the demo DVD with all the company’s software on it to use for free for 30 days. I have plenty of extras if anyone missed out. When any of the Kachemacs choose to purchase Ambrosia Software products for the Mac from the website, use coupon code AKMUG20. The code will be valid for one month from our meeting date, or just long enough to get addicted to the demo software.

We also discussed the need for another drop-in session at the library. On Saturday, October 25, the library opens at 10AM. We will occupy one of the group study rooms along the perimeter of the main library. Anyone who drops in will be able to discuss Mac in a less formal setting than the Tuesday meetings. This is a perfect opportunity for Mac beginners to get some hands on help. I personally will be there until 3PM, but other members can stay until the library throws them out at 6PM.

Any thoughts?

I just got a call from a potential member who saw an ad in the Tribune about our club. It seems they have posted our ad this month. This a desperate message to all members and potential members that there will NOT be a August meeting. We will resume in September, the day after Labor Day. Please spread the word.

Thanks to all who attended the June meeting of the Kachemacs! I hope everyone has instituted a backup procedure for their Macs. The foremost point I wanted to make is that hard drives DO fail an one time or another, and to be ready for it saves a lot of aggravation.
We have decided to adjourn until September, which will be the day after Labor Day. Macs are great, but I hope the Kachemacs have other interests outdoors during the summer.
If you missed the meeting, you can find the Keynote residing on the /Public folder on the Kachemacs dot Mac account. If you get a login prompt, just cancel it out. You will then be able to download archives of Meeting Companion Guides by clicking on the little arrow on the right. Unpack the archives using StuffIt Expander (free download.)
See you in September!

Thanks to all who attended the May Kachemacs meeting.
In business, we discussed taking July off. This sounds reasonable to me. If the Kachemacs want, we can just have fun and have a barbeque for those who are not busy working. June event will be backups.
We also have a bit of money. It is sitting on a PayPal account which is accepting donations. Due to the library contract I sign to get the room, we can’t charge in the meeting so if you want to donate use the PayPal.
If we become an official non-profit, we can get a break on bank fees for our account. Ginger has offered to help with the process. The first thing we need to do is have officers. We will be holding elections in June, so anyone who would like to lend a hand get your name in there. We need a president, treasurer, and secretary (webmaster) at least.
We learned all about managing a home office with shareware Mac applications. The green aspect of eliminating paper in the home office coincided nicely with Homer’s push toward recycling and Earth Day recently. After the seminar, there were a number of prizes of the software I highlighted. Winners were:

Ron Hess: Yep!
Auberon Harrison: Circus Ponies Notebook
Cheryl Riley: PDFpen
Marilyn Hess: MaxEmail 1 year / $25 in services account
Sara Jackinsky: Cha-Ching

Thanks to all who came and see you next month!

The success of the study session we had today leads me to propose to the group a possibility of continuing this practice.

In order for study sessions to be a success there need to be enough varying levels of proficiency so that we can get a lot of one on one. I’m hoping all sorts of people can attend in the future.

I work every other Saturday, so scheduling won’t be as regular as the meetings themselves, unless you want to do this without me. Also, in the summer every Saturday brings some sort of activity (Farmers Market, Concert on the Lawn, Borough Fair, etc.) and people are notoriously busy. Perhaps doing it again in the fall would be an idea.

I’m opening this to feedback. Anyone?