Minutes of Dreamland Computer Club
November 3, 2004 Meeting

President Judy Gardner called the meeting to order at 9:15 am in Farnsworth Hall. There were 46 people in attendance.

Secretary Al Hainje read the minutes of the October meeting. There were no corrections to the minutes.

Treasurer George Rauch announced that we have an ending balance of $479.82. The report will be filed for audit.

2005 club dues are now being accepted.

President Gardner thanked all those who so unselfishly gave their time and talents to the computer club. Without these people the club would not survive.

There is a need for additional instructors.

A special thank you to Ramona and Bob Summers for continuing the club’s computer web site.

The club now has 6 new XP machines. We appreciate the generous donations by some of our members and the $1,000.00 worth of items given to us from Microsoft. We also now have wireless networking that was paid by one of our members. All of our computers are constantly being updated.

The projection screen problem is being investigated. More information is forthcoming.

The 50/50 drawing was held and Don Wika won $17.50.

The nomination committee has announced the following members to serve on the Dreamland Computer Club Board of Directors: Gail Henderson, Sonja Miller, Annie Province, Fred Ruth, and Paul Quinney. There will be 5 vacant positions to fill. The election will be held at the December meeting.

If anyone is re-subscribing or ordering a new subscription from Smart Computing magazine they should use the code number #12061 so our club can receive credit towards a free subscription.

Our guest presenter in November was Mr. Lee Otsubo. Mr.Otsubo has been giving presentations for many years on Digital photography. His topic was "Getting the most out of your camera and photos". First time camera purchasers will have many choices confronting them. They are: How big, how expensive, what are pixels etc? A low range camera for beginners with 3 to 5 mega pixels can cost between $100 and $200 dollars. A mid range camera will cost between $200 and $400 dollars. A Pro camera can cost into thousands of dollars. Remember this. "Big is not always better". To keep from depleting your camera’s battery power, you should use the optical lens instead of the LCD viewer. Take lots of shots and delete the unwanted one after you view them on your computer.

To print good photos use printer photo paper that matches your computer. Example; use HP paper in an HP printer.

Resize your photos to 800 x 600 mega pixels to send them by e-mail.

Mr. Otsubo had CDs for members to purchase on how to print great pictures and how to choose a good camera. Mr. Otsubo gave away two door prizes. The lucky winners were Janet Harbaugh and Don Wika.

One word of caution given by Mr. Otusbo was to store your camera batteries properly to keep them from shorting across each other because they can cause serious heat and maybe even a fire could result.

The program was very informative and entertaining.

President Gardener closed the meeting at 10:45.

Respectively submitted by Secretary Al Hainje