Dear ACGNJ member, and guests (see below)

The single biggest benefit of your membership in the Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey is education. Our organization has always had education as its cornerstone. Whether the discussion is lead by a fellow member or a speaker from outside of the ACGNJ, our primary mission is to disseminate information to the public about computing for both personal uses at home as well as in the business world.

It is imperative that a slate of talks be created at the beginning of each meeting year (September-June) so that sufficient lead-time can be had to arrange to get quality speakers as well as let the public know of their scheduled appearances. So that we can avoid the problems in this area that we have suffered in the past, we are asking for your help.

You are invited to attend a planning meeting on Thrusday, August 21st 2008 at 7PM where this year’s slate of talks for the Main Meeting and hopefully also for the bulk of the Window Pains meetings will be established. The meeting will be a dinner meeting at Scotch Plains Rescue Squad (SPRS), in Scotch Plains, NJ.

The dinner is being prepared by Alfredo's (Hershey's) of Scotch Plains;

Your price for admission is two topics of discussion for one of the 20 meeting nights (Main and Window Painis). It will be your responsibility, should your topic win by a vote of those attending the planning meeting, to make arrangements to either provide a speaker or be the speaker yourself on the approved topic the night that it will be scheduled. You will be expected to host the meeting, meaning you will provide introduction of the speaker and see to it that the speaker gets whatever assistance he or she may need to give the talk. The time for a talk should be about 45 minutes to an hour plus a Q & A session. Any topic beats none at all, so don’t think it has to rocket science level stuff. Actually, the simpler a topic, the better public appeal will probably be.

Guests are welcome as long as they join ACGNJ for at least 2yrs. prior to or at the meeting.

Unfortunately the club has suffered a loss in active membership because of frequent lack of scheduled and announced topics of discussion listed in the newsletter and on the web-site calendar. We must try to make this a successful meeting so that we may get the ACGNJ back to its previous status as a well recognized and respected source of information for the computer user.

Please mark your calendars, Thrusday, August 21st 2008 at 7PM and bring at least two topics for a meeting night. This is the single biggest thing you can do right now to help the ACGNJ. By e-mail or the form below, please respond to Facilities and myself ASAP so that we can get a head count for final reservations at Scotch Plains Rescue Squad (SPRS).

Thanks and hope to see you on the 21st.

Mike Redlich, President, ACGNJ