Space meeting opened at 7:30 PM. Space president Terry Streeter welcomed members to the meeting.
Terrv Streeter asked Space's Treasurer, Greg Leitner, for a treasurer report. Greg reported the auction held last month did great. He thanked Space's newsletter, Mike Schmidt, for donating several 8-bit software and hardware items to the auction. Bills that were paid were newsletter cost and Video 61 BBS SIG rental. Income above expenses were $146.30. The Space Treasury balance stands at $779.52. Greg said this is GREAT! Greg commented 3rd quarter room rent is coming up.
Terry then asked the Space's secretary, Mike Weist, for a recap of the Space meeting minutes for August 8, 1997. After this Terry made a motion to approve both the treasurer report and the secretary report. Approved.
OLD BUSINESS- None
NEW BUSINESS-Greg Leitner reported he was at the Computer Show at the fairgrounds and ran into Jerry Dunn, formerly of Budget Computer. Any Space member interested in purchasing Atari ST stuff can talk to Greg to get his address. He lives in Blaine, MN. Greg said Jerry Dunn was surprised to find out that the Space computer club was still around.
A member asked if any other member could log onto Video 61 BBS. Several members said they were having no problems.
Terry Streeter announce that Space club officer elections are coming up in November '97. Terry said if members have the talents and desires to be a club officer, they should think about running. Nominations will be taken at the October Space meeting. Terry Streeter mentioned that because of his job situation, he might have to step down as club president. He said he might have a full time night job offer with benefits and he will let the membership know next club meeting in October.
CompUServe has dropped all their Atari software files. The reason why isn't known. Stay tune for future updates!
Hamfest is coming up, October 25, 1997 at the St. Paul Civic Center.
Tony Walsh, club member, thanked Mike Current, another club member, for his work on his Atari Home Page on the Internet.
Terry Streeter welcomed some old Atarians back to the Space Meeting. Mike
Fitzpatrick (form Space club president) and his wife Earline Fitzpatrick. They promised to join us in the future. Glad to see you both back, the club missed YOU BOTH!!!!
Club member, Brian Little, talked about his Atari articles on the Video 61 BBS. Urged membership to check out his articles.
Greg Leitner talked about a person who found out about our club at the West St. Paul Library. He wants to join the club as a member.
Lance Ringquist, club software and hardware vendor, talked about Internet access for the Atari 8-bit He is working on it. Maybe possible by Christmas. We will be updated next meeting. No graphics, just text.
Lance was asked about a update on the possible buyout of Atari Corp. Lance reported he hasn't hear anything new. No new news about a CD ROM Development for the Atari 8-bit.
Al Noble, club member, said the Salvation Arrny needed voltmteers at its Minneapolis store. Al said several computer items are donated and processed at the store. Free meal at lunch.
Last of all, club president, Terry Streeter, noted that this maybe a year of several changes for the Space club. He said think about seeking election for a officer position or trying to volunteer time to help the club keep running.
Meeting adjourned at 8:05 PM.
Mike Weist Club Secretary
Well, it was great to see Mike and Earline back in Minnesota and especially back at a SPACE meeting. I sure hope to be able to catch up with them both in the next few months so we can fill each other in on what's been happening in our lives. The time at the SPACE meetings goes by so fast that there is never enough time to really visit all the members present. I apologize if it seems that I may have ignored any of you at the last meeting but there is only so much time to spend.
Anyway, here is the financial news for the month ending September 1997. Our only expense paid out was for the monthly BBS which is S10.00. Our income included two membership renewals, a small payment from a member who owed money from the August auction, and DOM sales of another great monthly disk of the month. The total for these came to S57.00 and now our treasury has a balance of $826.52.
It almost seems unbelievable that our treasury could continue to rise like it has with only about 25 current members. This just goes to prove that we have the best members that a Club could have. Not only do most of you still join us for the meetings, but when you do come most of you buy the DOM. Our current membership base has not changed much in the last couple of years and it may even grow in the next few. It seems that Atari is not completely dead outside our group. We just got a letter from a young man right here in my neighborhood about our group that he read about at the local library, and I plan on contacting him and having a nice chat with him. He says he has been an Atari user since 1984 and now is interested in joining our Club. I also was in a toy store the day after our September meeting. I was just hanging around the games counter waiting for my wife to get done with her shopping for my grandson when a lady saw me standing there. Out of the blue she asks me if I knew if there was any place in town that she could still by an old Atari 2600 game systern. Well she knows now and I hope she follows through and gives Video-61 a call. I didn't have Lance's telephone number with me but she seemed desperate enough that I hope she will pursue it and find it. All she wanted was a simple system for her grandkids to play just like she had done with her old 2600 game system of too many years gone by.
I guess you never know how things are going to turn out, but when I hear stories from Lance and other members present at our meetings I wonder if there is not going to a rebirth of sorts for Atari and even some of the other older computer and games systems.
Enough rambling on for this month. Hope to see you all there at the October meeting. Now that summer is almost over maybe even more of you will be able to fmd the time to join us.
Published by the Saint Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts (SPACE), an independent organization with no business affiliation with ATARI Corporation. Permission is granted to any similar organization with which SPACE exchanges newsletters to reprint material from this newsletter. We do however ask that credit be given to the authors and to SPACE. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of SPACE, the club officers, club members or ATARI Corporation.