Meeting Highlights
BY GENE DURNIN
The first meeting of the Society following the summer recess was opened by President David Bailie welcoming all those all present. David spoke to a concern shared by him and the Society’s Executive regarding the Society’s financial status. He emphasized that there is no immediate concern that the financial position of the Society places it in jeopardy, however he noted that for a number of reasons, including declining membership, our financial position is not as strong as it once was.
He pointed out that the Society needs a minimum of one hundred paid members at any one time to comfortably sustain itself. As of this meeting, there are exactly (and only) one hundred paid members. Recent generous expenditures on annual meeting draws and prizes account for some of the reduction in the balance. This whole issue is under review by the Executive and will be a topic at future general membership meetings.
On the computing front, David spoke to the introduction of Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) by Apple and provided members with information on some of the many new features of this upgrade. Of note is the fact that this upgrade dramatically improves the speed of Intel-based Apple computers. The President also noted that on behalf of the Society he has set up a Twitter account. Twitter serves as a means to enhance communication among members and hopefully may serve to attract additional new members. David’s announcements were followed by a Q and A, a regular feature of
every ABC meeting.

file management. Of special interest was the added benefit of using it in conjunction with Bento 2—a complementary application. When used with Bento in this way , FMP enables the integration of iCal and Address Book. In jointly using the two, work flow of FMP becomes even more effective. El noted that the full version of FMP cost approximately $400 with upgrades running at $180, and Bento costs $70.
As there was no raffle held tonight the meeting adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
The ApplesBC Computer Society has been able to attract some of BC’s, North America’s, and the world’s top presenters. ApplesBC’s active and talented membership of over 200 residents of Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and Delta, over 50 of whom attend each of our monthly meetings, are a superb draw for the world’s top product vendors, local Apple representatives, and experts in many areas of home and business computing.
