Newz From The Prez
October of 1992
The Bob Puff visit was a wonderful experience for me and anybody else who was there Friday night. All I am going to say is if you missed it, BOY DID YOU MISS IT.
I am feeling a little bit discouraged by what I saw last Friday night. I think that this will be made clear if everybody takes time to read my article that can be found elsewhere in the newsletter. I would like some feedback on this and will take all comments at the next meeting, if you decide to attend.
What is in store for the coming months? October will be back to business (and place) as usual, we can unwind a little bit and talk about future events (Bob Puff II?). In November, it will be elections, and there WILL BE THINGS TO DISCUSS AND ELECT! There are big changes going on RIGHT NOW behind the scenes, a rather lengthy restructuring of the officers is going on. If you want to find out what is going on, plan on showing up in November. December will be, as has been in the past, Christmas party! We will start planning the festivities at the next month's meeting.
I have no further news, I am a little depressed and weary at the time of this writing. I have just returned from my business trip to Michigan, which for those of you who attended Friday night's meeting, will remember was the major thorn in my side that night. I am also a little anxious at returning to school in less than two days, so I have a lot of things about to hit me rather soon.
I will however, look forward to seeing everyone in October. I will say one thing, I sure would like to see attendance pick up. Once a month, are we really all that busy? What is the point of being in a club if you are not ever there? The only way things get done is if everybody is around to participate. Otherwise, we can just sell everybody modems, forget renting the halls, and just call the BBS.
I really hope to see everyone at the next few meetings. November and December will be big ones, that is for certain. October may not be big, but it will be interesting. If you are wondering why, read my article.
Take care and keep
on computing,
Nathan Block
Of Mice and Meetings
An Article of Thought and Speculation
Ever since May when the Bob Puff visit was being considered by the officers and the general membership, I had high hopes for the outcome. I had been constantly thinking about this club's direction and seriously wondering if we were serving the needs of the membership. I figured that a visit from somebody in the business would be of general interest and would attract a huge crowd.
At first, I was very excited about what I was seeing. The membership seemed interested in the idea and many fund raising ideas were discussed. At first, it seemed a rummage sale would be the main event, but later, by a membership vote, we decided on a raffle. Tickets were purchased and distributed and the only thing left was the waiting.
This was the point where I started to get very concerned. Nobody seemed to be selling tickets. Membership attendance at the meetings also began to seriously drop off. I couldn't figure out why and I still haven't.
Finally, just a month before Mr. Puff's visit to our club, things came together. It was discovered that the raffle had indeed given us a secure treasury that could support the large debts incurred by the visit. Among the small membership that was attending the August meeting was a feeling of anticipation and excitement.
Then came September. My life was in utter turmoil. I had been staking the reputation of the club, as well as a large amount of money on one big night. At the same time, I was expected to be on a flight to Michigan, only seven hours after the meeting, to work an 8 day long job which could well determine whether I could afford my college tuition this coming quarter. I was very nervous.
I arrived at the hotel accompanied by my always supportive vice- president Sherm Erickson. No crowd. What did greet me were five familiar smiling faces of faithful members who I know very well. I walked over to the front of the meeting hall and saw a large table piled high with top of the line ATARI 8-BIT computer equipment. Standing behind it was a man, not much older than myself, grinning from ear to ear. Mr. Puff had not let us down, he had enough equipment there to take over control of the greater Minneapolis area.
Meeting time grew near and still no crowd. I noticed a lot of regulars missing. Surely no one wanted to miss this meeting. We had only spent six months planning it, raising money for it, and discussing it over and over again. Surely everyone would be here for this one. We had advertised it everywhere. The newsletter had been running a full page ad on it for the last two months.
Right around 7:40PM, after waiting as long as I felt necessary, I addressed the crowd of around 30 people that had attended. I felt absolutely shattered and I think it showed. I didn't think anybody was interested after all. I felt like I had made a terrible mistake.
But then, things seemed to come alive. Mr. Puff dove right in with one of the most interesting introductions to his company I had ever heard. I hung on his every word. He told us all about himself and how he had started out with ATARI, right from day one. I knew many members in the audience could relate to what he was saying: ATARI 800 computers for $1000, tape drives and software on cassette, the slow compiling speed of the ATARI assembler compared to MAC 65. This was great stuff. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying it too. I heard a lot of knowing chuckles and saw nodding of heads. From my seat at the back of the hall, I looked around. Not one person seemed bored or restless, everyone was listening intently to what Mr. Puff was saying.
Then question time came around. I felt I was going to cry. Mr. Puff was absolutely swamped with questions from the few gathered there. Many types of questions were asked: what was in store for ATARI? What new products would be made available? Is ATARI big in Europe? The room came alive with audience participation, it was an experience I won't forget.
Now that the Bob Puff visit is over, I have very mixed feelings about it. I felt anybody that was there had a great time and will doubtlessly consider it the highlight of SPACE's year. But on the other hand, I am very discouraged at the lack of participation by the better half of the membership. I noticed a lot of faces missing in September, faces that were at the raffle, that had purchased tickets, that had voted "yes" to the whole thing. I will not name names, it is not necessary, you know who you are. My question is why?
What more does this club need to do? Are we doing enough? Can we do more? If so, what? My surveys went unanswered and I am still not sure what more I can do, other than try and improve and improve some more. There are a certain choice few who enjoy telling me that I am not doing enough for this club. Well, I would like to think that trying to get this whole visit off the ground was a step in the right direction. Was it worth it? I need to know.
It only goes to show me, I guess, that this club needs dedicated, enthusiastic members to keep on growing and going strong. There are several very key members in SPACE, the faces that I have seen every month since May and that I saw Friday night, September 11th. Those few are the heart, the core, the energy of this club. I am convinced right now that this club can do great things because we have some unbelievable people providing the drive, motivation, and energy that is needed to get things done. Quality, it so appears, is far greater than quality.
This club has a lot of potential folks. We are going places. Are you on the boat or off it? If you are on it, start showing up. Start getting involved. Share the burden and lighten the load for others. If you aren't, well, we'll send you a postcard. We're moving on...
Your President,
Nathan Block
A Visit From Bob Puff
by Mike Weist
You know one of my favorite things I like doing with my computer is getting on the SPACE ATARI club bbs. And other ATARI BBS's like Greyhawk, Warp 10, and Starship Enterprise. This is all possible because I have a 1200 baud modem and my favorite modem program, Bob-Term.
When ever I use the Bob-Term program I would sit back and think about this Bob Puff person, while my modem program was loading up. I would ask myself who is this person who made a great modem program like Bob-term. Well it was announced months ago that Bob Puff could be a possible guest to one of our meetings by our president, Nathan Block. Boy, this was exciting news to me. I would be able to meet the person I always was curious about. But in order for Bob Puff to be our guest, expense money to bring him would have to be raised. Many ways were discussed at the meetings before the visit and it was decided to have a raffle and other fund raising events. Well by the hard work of the officers of the club and the hard work of the other club members, the expense money to bring Bob Puff to the cities was raised.
There was a lot of anticipation on my part. I couldn't wait to see Bob Puff and have a chance to talk to him and see his products. I had to work until 6:30 pm the nite of Bob Puff's visit. I jumped into my car and hopped on 35W south to 494 to get to the Bloomington Radisson.
Upon arriving at the event, I had a chance to look over several products of Bob Puff's. Interesting table of things to use with the atari 8 bit. A black box, super archiver, and other nice items. Boy, if I had a big pocket full of money I would have gone home with a lot of nice items. Well I just will have to save some money, so I can buy some of Bob's products.
Bob Puff had a audience of about 50 people who came to listen to him talk and buy some of his products. I think everyone there had a very enjoyable evening. Bob gave us a background on himself, talked about the CSS products available, talked about his commitment to help keep the atari 8-bit alive, future applications for the atari 8-bit like faxing. Talked about making products for the atari that seemed impossible, but made them possible.
After talking for a while, Bob Puff let people ask him questions. Some very interesting questions were asked. After this Bob Puff let people come up and look over the CSS products and the opportunity to buy some products.
Since I had to go back to work, I had to leave, I wish I could have stayed. It was a very rewarding time for me, maybe bob puff can visitng our club again some day. Bob, thanks for being such a good friend of the ATARI community. Lots of luck in the future. And once again thanks to the officers and everybody is the club for making this possible. Great job.
MIKE WEIST
Here's the answer to the Sept word search. Title: PAYDAY - - - - - - D O O M S D A Y U - - - K P - - - - H O L I D A Y - N - - - C - A - - - - Y - - - - - - D - - - A - - Y - - - - A - - - - - E - - - B - - D M - - - - D - - - - R - - F Y - - E - A - - - - R - - - P - - R A - - B - R S - - - - E - - A - - I P - Y Y - - E T - - R - T - Y - - D - - A A - - - M E H - E - S - - - A - - D D - - - - A R E - Y - E - - Y - - D - - - A - P E - Y - A - Y - - - - I - - Y - - R - R A D - P - - - - - M - A - - - E - - D L A - X - - - - - P - - - - P - - - Y O Y - A - - - A - - - - - A - - - - A Y - - T - P - - - - - - Y - - - - - D A - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - P - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Words in puzzle: DAYDREAMER HEYDAY FRIDAY PAYMASTER YESTERDAY MIDDAY PAYOLA TAXPAYER UNDERPAY DAYBED PAPAYA DOOMSDAY PAYBACK PREPAY HOLIDAY Here is this months installment of word search. This month it is HOMEWORK. K L X K H T E K T K C B L Y S M P X V V O X K E Q A P I H B F O M X F C D I X B T T S M E T Q F K Y Q S J H B L C H O R E U U J T U O R Y E D A M L K H C V O A O R Y V B U H V S T X A W R U H R D T H B Z Z O H W Y E M B F Q J K U J D U T P F D Y Z O A L O A G L N P J N J O N B J O B W U W X D E I J G G L N O S E U C W Y Y K O N O W P A Q A J G B Y P B B Z N S R E H Q L T G B L L P S R B N O T A C I T O X F D O J V L J N U I S B T F C W M B E U R Y U I D K S U Q A O X A O J K P F A O L O Q N I T D E D Z H T L I K Q J R F T A N N K W O X P N E L T S A C X J M E F E S P I I D N N K J E S U O H F N F S A Q K M M X V W H R C A C P V S Z S P H A Words in puzzle: PENTHOUSE BUNGALOW VILLA CHORE HACIENDA BUSINESS HOUSE LABOR CHATEAU MANSION TOIL TASK ODDJOBS CASTLE JOB
The following photos were from the Computer Electronics Flea Market at Aldrich Arena, submitted by Mike Weist.
The following photos were from the SPACE Birthday Party, submitted by Mike Weist.
The following photos were from the Bob Puff meeting, submitted by Mike Weist.
