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.

       Following the evening coffee break, the President introduced the meeting’s guest speaker, none other than our own El Lamb. In addition to being a member of ABC, El is also employed at Design and Digitel, his subject for the meeting being FileMaker Pro (FMP). El

provided an introduction to the basics of this application and then spoke about many of its features. This software is designed to facilitate, organize and simplify the management of data stored on a computer’s hard drive. In addressing its many features, he presented some great examples of applying this program in everyday

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.