NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, February 2007
President's Corner
by Bill Moeller, President
wmoeller@arkansasusa.com
(click to email author)


The end of an era? Not quite.

John Clark announced at the last meeting that he is resigning as Chairman of the Library Committee, but he assured me afterwards that we will continue to see his smiling face and benefit from his incisive comments as usual on the third Saturday of each month. We will also be reminded of his continued presence every time we visit our website, which he will continue to manage.

What is changing is that the very low level of usage of our library during the past several years has persuaded John (and your Board) that it is no longer worth the time and effort to haul all of that unused material, much of it obsolete, back and forth to our meetings once a month. He has suggested that we dispose of the bulk of the library materials in whatever manner would not violate the trust of the folks who gave us that material in the first place, and place the remainder on a short list from which people can borrow on demand.

Disposing of the excess and obsolete material presents no great problem, but dealing with the remainder, plus new materials as they are received from folks like Microsoft, will require some minimum effort to log the materials in, store them, and arrange to get any items to people who might want to use them. The volume of materials should be small, and the traffic slight, but it will require a Chairman to manage even this small effort.

The alternative is to give up the library completely, keep newly received materials only until a program on that subject is scheduled, and turn the materials over to the person presenting that program to do with as he wishes.

Your officers can do the second as part of their current activities, but the first will require one of our other members to step forward and chair the effort.

We will be discussing this and making a decision at our regularly scheduled EBoard meeting on March 10th. Please make your views know to us before then, attend the meeting if you like; and above all, if you have strong feelings that the library should continue as such, volunteer to take over the job.

See you on the 17th (of February, that is).

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