Another excellent SPACE Christmas party last month, thanks for coming!
Often around Christmas I try to make sure to buy some stuff for my Atari. This year, I decided to try out those European games from ZTM Software Manufacturers, as described in the December Newsletter. I bought them all! Turns out they're all from L.K. Avalon of Poland. Here's a quick rundown of them:
Robbo--Nice! A 2-D maze/puzzle game, reminds me a little of Boulderdash.
Robbo Konstruktor--Robbo Construction Set, haven't really tried it yet. Looks like it works, though.
Lasermania--A "European puzzle" type game, but a very good one at that. Deflect the constant beam with movable objects in order to hit the various targets spread around the screen.
Misja--Mission Shark, the best platform game I think I've seen on the 8-bit Atari. A hard game, but worth working at it. Great music, too.
Fred--Another platform game, I don't like this one as much as Mission Shark. The animation is less fluid and it's too easy to die.
Dagobar--More of a typical "European puzzle" game. Flickers some on my North American Atari, but entirely playable. Put together the pieces of the charge correctly to win. Easy to lose!
Change--Doesn't even work, the flickering causes my guy to hit the wall and die before anything else happens. Bummer.
In other business, as you know I'd like to try and "modernize" our Club Bylaws. As it stands, however, this would be a difficult process because of the current amendment process:
"These bylaws can be amended at any regular meeting of the club by a 2/3 vote of the current membership, provided that the amendment has been submitted in writing at the previous regular meeting and has been printed in at least one issue of the newsletter."
In order to streamline the process, I'd like to suggest this section be revised as follows:
"These bylaws can be amended at any regular meeting of the club by a 2/3 vote of the current membership or by unanimous decision of the Executive Board, provided that the amendment has been printed in at least one issue of the newsletter."
This would have the effect of making the President, Vice-President and Treasurer more powerful, but it would also allow us to revise the Bylaws much more easily. Come to the meeting with your opinion!
And keep using that Atari!
Another year flew on by and here we stilt are. We are smaller in number but stronger in resolve. I thank the members who contributed to this year's Christmas party. We had a good time and the meetings have become more of a social outing than a computing one. But that's OK because we're there and we share our time and ideas with our fellow members.
Michael Current, our new President of SPACE, resided over his first meeting and did a great job. He is in a learning process about the position but after talking to Michael, I see he has a lot of ambition to get the Club back on the right track. We have been running the meetings informally for a while and Michael has plans to see that the By-Laws of the Club are met or are changed to agree with the way the Club is doing things today. We are so lucky to have him for our President because with this kind of leadership our Club will continue for years to come.
Which brings me to another topic of support for the Club. I have to eat crow on this one. I thought more members would purchase some of the Atari items we were auctioning off if I marked these items reasonably and just sold them without bidding. I brought about twenty-five items with me to the December meeting and the only sale I made was to a member who would normally win the bidding in the auction anyway. So, I guess we will go back to the auction in January and let the bidding fall were it may and if these items go for a song then so be it. I need to get this stuff out of my basement and into yours. I would have hoped that the Club would make more on the auctions but now I know that the Club members are so saturated with a lot of this stuff that there isn't a lot of interest in the bidding.
Our Club is doing well financially. So much so that our Treasury balance is as high as I have seen in all the years I have been a member. We only had income of $25.00 in December but our expense was only $18.00 for the BBS phone bill. I do need to get a check to Mike Schmidt for the last three Club Newsletters but that expense is nominal. Our balance now sits at $1,046.03 and with the fourth quarter room rental due in January 1999 our balance will probably be reduced next month depending on the Auction and DOM sales in January.
One of greatest anticipated items of income is our membership dues which I have noticed has fallen off slightly. Please renew your memberships and don't let them get in arrears. I know the Club is doing well now but we still need your support through your dues. Believe me when I say there will come a time when the dues will be our main support and survival. I an open to suggestions and I hope Michael will be too about changing the amount of our dues and also the DOMs. I wasn't a great supporter of the last increases we had and if the Club members think that a change will increase interest and help the support of the Club then I am all for it.
Come to the January meeting and let's all discuss where the Club is heading and now under the Leadership of our new President I see a bright future for this Club.
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.