At the February meeting we had a fairly lengthy discussion about club bylaws, club membership, and advantages and disadvantages of making it "easier" to change the bylaws than it is now. For your convenience, here again is that particular bylaw under review:
ARTICLE IX
AMENDMENT OF BYLAWS
Section 1. 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.
I had suggested that this be replaced with the following text:
"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."
There was not unanimous agreement with this particular suggestion at the February meeting. Furthermore, with Glen unable to make the meeting we weren't quite sure just how many of us might have consituted a 2/3 majority. So, we decided to put off any attempted changes for another month.
In order to push along the discussion, let me point out other portions of our bylaws which I think we need to discuss. For example, the section on club dues.
ARTICLE III
MEMBERSHIP
Section 3. The annual dues shall be 15 dollars, payable on the anniversary month of a member's joining date. The Treasurer shall notify members two months in arrears, and those whose dues are not paid in one month shall be automatically dropped from membership and forfeit all benefits incurred. In lieu of services rendered, elected officers shall not be required to pay club dues during their term in office.
Should we change anything about this section?
Another bylaw to discuss at some point, relating in part again to dues:
ARTICLE IV
OFFICERS
Section 4. The President and Vice-President of SPACE shall actively seek volunteers to fill the following positions: Secretary, Disk of the Month (DOM) Librarian, Paper & Educational Software Librarian, Bulletin Board System Operator, and a Newsletter Editor. These volunteers shall be subject to approval of the club membership. For service rendered, these volunteers shall not be required to pay club dues during their term of office.
On another matter, concern has been expressed on a number of occasions about our treasury getting so large, and whether this presents a problem with the IRS. I'm not a tax lawyer, but I have satisfied myself that we don't have to concern ourselves with this issue.
According to the US Code, I believe we are a Section 501(c)(7) organization, the definition of which is:
(7) Clubs organized for pleasure, recreation, and other nonprofitable purposes, substantially all of the activities of which are for such purposes and no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder.If the Club was required to keep the IRS informed of our financial activities, we would use Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. On Form 990, it is clearly stated: "If the organization's gross receipts are normally not more than $25,000, the organization need not file a return with the IRS." I think we're safe!
Finally, I just wanted to quickly mention, I bought a copy of the Solitaire cartridge game, programmed by ChildsPlay Software and sold by vendors such as Video 61. While the graphics obviously aren't as detailed as the Windows-95 version, the gameplay really is. I quickly became hooked, and couldn't quit until I won!
See you at the next meeting, and Keep using that Atari!
Space meeting opened by Space club president, Michael Current, at 7:35 PM. Michael asked for report of Space minutes for the month of January 1999. No report was given since secretary was excused and not present at January meeting.
Mike asked for a treasury report. Greg Leitner, Space club treasurer, reported that much went on at last month's meeting. The club, however, did take in $234 clear profit from club auction after the January meeting. The club has not received a bill for room rent. Greg Leitner did say that at next meeting many 8-bit cartridges will be available for sale. Greg stated that the club treasury stands at $1300.
OLD BUSINESS- Michael Current stated that not much went on at last month's meeting.
NEW BUSINESS- Greg Leitner talked to the membership about the upcoming Mid Winter Madness Show. (Note: Show will be in April instead of February) Michael Current, club president, talked about the club bylaws. Asked the membership what they thought about the bylaws. Mike stated that the club should have reference when needed.
Michael stated that a 2/3 vote will be necessary for bylaw changes. One possible bylaw change is to go to simple majority vote, Another idea is to do away with the Robert Rules of Order . The executive board will meet to consider changes to the bylaws and have a clear idea of total club membership. These items will be brought forwards to the Space Club March meeting.
Greg Leitner expressed his concern about the Space club's high treasury balance and possible IRS concerns.
Greg Leitner talked about the Disk of the Month.
Meeting adjourned at 8:05 PM.
Once again we had a small turnout for the monthly SPACE meeting and I am sure the weather played a part in that, but considering the storm we had the day before I guess we really lucked out. We took a count of the current paid up members and found that to have two-thirds of the total we only needed around ten members present at any given meeting. This means that we only have about fifteen paid up current members of SPACE, and if at least ten members are present at any given meeting those members can vote on changes to the by-laws. Since there are some changes that we need to implement or at least discuss it is very important that you make the March meeting. Mike, your President, Mike, your Secretary, and myself would very much like to take care of this Club business at the March meeting. Let's get the Club back on track so that we have current by-laws that we can all go to and be assured that the Club is being run properly and fair to all it's members.
The Club treasury continues to grow due to the enormous amount of auction items I have to bring each month. Next month will be no exception and you will just have to be present to get in on the good deals. I am still waiting on the fourth quarter room rental expense and because of this our bank balance continues to get stronger. The expenses for the Month of February were for the BBS phone and the last four months of Newsletters. They came to $45.83 and was more than offset by our DOM sales of $20.00 and the Auction which took in another $157.00. So our treasury grew another $131.00 to leave us with a nice bank balance of $1,441.20.
I know the Auctions won't last forever and I don't want to get your expectations too high that our balance will be this strong in the future. I do want you to know that whatever comes along in 1999 we will be financially strong and probably even in the year 2000. Eventually we will need to look at our revenue in the membership and DOM departments for the survival of our Club. Right now we have the members who are willing to support the Club and with our shrinking membership it is something of great concern for the future.
Let's bask in the good times we have now with an ever watchful eye on the direction we are going. We are a real white elephant in this day and age and we have defied all claims that the ATARI is dead. We live to see another day. See you all next month.
Subj: New ATARI-FileManagement Date: 99-02-21 22:07-55 EST From: HCRBurk@t-online.de (HCRBurk) Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 05:34:53 +0100 Hi atarians! A new release of the Filemanagement (1.5 0128 - Windows 9x) is complete. Features: - Freeware - Management of XFD/ATR files - Lists directory structure (DOS/MyDOS/SpartaDOS) - Import/Export (ASCII, Binary) for DOS/MYDOS/SpartaDOS - Management of tools for work with other programmes. - Serial communication (like SIO2PC) between PC and ATARI, it simulates up to 8 floppy disk drives .. and much more. For the ATARIMAN.ZIP file look at my Homepage: http://home.t-online.de/home/hcrburk/hpatari.html or http://members.aol.com/MacFalkner I soon make a DOC available. Please give a feedback if you find bugs or if you have other suggestions. thanks, bye, Burkhard EMail: HCRBurk@T-Online.de HP: http://home.t-online.de/home/hcrburk
Subj: A-ONE... A New Atari Online Magazine
Date: 99-021-21 22:23:05 EST
From: jmirando@portone.com (Joe Mirando)
Date: 21 Feb 1999 15:52:37 GMT
For Immediate Release
Former Atari Editors to Debut New Online Magazine
[February 19, 1999, Boston] Former STReport Atari Editors Dana Jacobson and Joe Mirando announced today that they have begun work on a new Atari online magazine. A-ONE (Atari Online News, Etc.), which will likely debut on Friday, March 5, will be a magazine primarily aimed to serve the Atari community, according to Jacobson. "Our goal," said Jacobson, "is to focus on a magazine which covers material of interest to fellow Atari users. We'll do our best to cover all facets of the Atari experience - computing and console gaming. But, we'll also cover topics that are of a general interest to Atari users: general industry news items and other gaming platforms."
"Joe and I have been using and writing about Atari computers for a long time," says Jacobson. "Between the two of us," he added, "we've probably written for most of the commercial Atari magazines of yesteryear such as Current Notes, Atari Interface, ST Informer, and Atari Explorer. And we just completed a lengthy stint with STReport, an online magazine. We have both considered doing an Atari online magazine on our own for quite some time now. The talks became more serious the past few weeks and many of our STReport readers were asking. The timing was perfect."
Jacobson states that A-ONE readers will see the same coverage as they did with STReport, but more. "Columns such as 'People Are Talking' will continue in A-One," states Jacobson, "and the Atari news items, various announcements and product descriptions will continue. We're also going to continue with the computing and technology industry news section, as well as Atari and other platform gaming news. All of that will remain unchanged, except cosmetically."
When asked what new things A-ONE readers will be able to see in the magazine, Jacobson reported that "we have a lot of new ideas; and we're going to be able to resurrect some old ones! We've talked to Michael Burkley, of Suzy B's fame. A-ONE readers will be happy to learn that Michael has agreed to bring back his "Unabashed Atariophile" column - a column devoted to Atari public domain, shareware, and freeware software. We're also looking to get more involved with Atari internet news. We're working on 'guest columns.' We'll be talking to a number of people to help us make A-ONE the #1 Atari online magazine worldwide."
According to Jacobson, A-ONE will be a text-based magazine. However, he stated that an HTML version hasn't been ruled out as an additional format. "We're in the process of establishing distribution points for the magazine," Jacobson stated. "We'll maintain our e-mail distribution lists as well as making the magazine available on online services such as Delphi and bulletin boards. We'll also make it available for downloading via numerous Internet web pages. The best way to do this, and make it accessible to all readers, is text. But we realize that some of our readers may want to read A-ONE while on the Internet. The 'plain' text version will be available initially, but we're also considering adding an HTML version, with all the 'eye-candy,' for those who might want it."
To contact A-ONE regarding e-mail subscriptions or other inquiries, send e-mail to dpj@delphi.com . For submissions and related information, send e-mail to jmirando@portone.com .
Subj: CELEBRATE ATARI AT JAGFEST '99
Date: 99-03-06 16:50:07 EST
CELEBRATE ATARI AT JAGFEST '99
February 26, 1999
ROCHESTER, MN -- Carl Forhan, well-known hobby developer for the Atari Lynx and Jaguar, has agreed to host this year's JagFest event in Rochester, MN, on June 18, 1999. This third annual event will broaden its focus to encompass all Atari systems, from the classic 2600 VCS to the ST line of computers to the Jaguar and everything in between.
"The theme for this year's show is 'Celebrate Atari', and that's exactly what we're going to do," commented Carl Forhan. "I encourage every Atari fan to bring their collection for the 'Rare & Unreleased' exhibit or possibly to trade and sell to other collectors. I know I'll have my 150+ piece collection for the VCS and 7800 present, as well as a number of one-of-a-kind items for the Jaguar and Lynx."
The event will include an exhibit of rare Atari items, tournaments on consoles ranging from 2600 Warlords to Jaguar BattleSphere, prizes for tournament winners and attendees, demos of unreleased games, a trading area for collectors, and opportunities to purchase recent releases for all Atari platforms.
Details are still being worked out, but the projected cost for the event is $10-12 per person. An additional fee may apply to reserve a table for the express purpose of sales.
Be sure to visit the official JagFest '99 website at http://jagfest.atari.org. Carl Forhan may be reached via email at forhan@millcomm.com.
Copyright 1999, Songbird Productions. This message may be reprinted in its entirety.