Past Presidents – December 1989
Newsletter
by Robert E. Moss, M.D., July 1985 to
December 1986
It doesn’t seem
like three years have gone by since I stepped down as president. I am
encouraged to see how nicely things have grown since then. You must have
better leadership.
I took over from Richard Reynolds after being duped into
the job by Saul Lowitt. Richard gave me a two page note explaining all I
needed to know to perform the task. In my first newsletter the third order of
business was "a blatant plea for help from the president."
There was a great deal of help however. Saul and Richard
contributed greatly in keeping us supplied with speakers and demos. Bobby and
Dick Hartman continued their jobs as treasurer and secretary. Chuck Entwistle
maintained the library until it was taken over by Norm Rohrabaugh in October
of 1985.
For me it was an ulcer generating job just trying to line
up a program; type, print, and mail the newsletter before the first of the
month (boy did I hate the months that started on Wednesday); hold our loose
collection of computer lunatics together; and still show up for work.
We were blessed with excellent presentations. Chuck
Entwistle built an entire PC for everyone. Saul Lowitt did rBase 500.
Fred Lugar demoed Supercalc3 and Fastback and
afterwards Jack Winberg discussed keyboard macros (Keyworks). Jim French demoed
Draftsman and Jim Van Osdol showed how to split large 123 files.
In January 1985 Ashton-Tate presented Frame-work and Nick Maffei
(Tab Books author) showed some financial spreadsheets for 123. Later that year Fred Hillier did Turbo Lightning
(remember this?), Richard Reynolds showed Automenu, and Lee Frank did Savy PC
vs. Cornerstone. April ‘86 was a landmark for us, Saul (assisted by Richard
Reynolds) began his legendary beginner sessions while Diane French discussed
the Dialogue information service.
June ‘86 was the combined meeting with the Apple and
Macintosh groups to hear GTE introduce the concept of User Sensitive Service.
Fortunately it’s not here yet.
In July cordless PCs were in. Howard Hilton presented his
proposal for a Re-broadcast Demonstration to use VCR technologies in
developing government data libraries locally. Al Matlock and Ken Gifford
demonstrated packet radio communication. The following month, Anne Parker
from Manatee Community College gave an exhaustive review of computer
languages for the PC. I did a review of DOS shells. Fred Lugar came back with SuperCalc IV
and Cruise Control and Saul Lowitt reprised with rBase System V.
My last meeting featured Dana Campbell demonstrating the
Kodak Datashow. We were fortunate to have someone this knowledgeable to show
us the way to future presentations. At that meeting James Hancock presented
Mark William's C.
Before I left, Roberta Hartman had finally badgered us into
laying the foundation for incorporating the club as a non-profit educational
entity. At the last meeting the library was meshed with the new Manatee group
by Barton Koslow which led to a virtual explosion of disks.
It was a lot of work and, with a busy practice and family, I simply didn’t
have the flexibility of time that was required to do the job correctly. The
present style of separate committees and a board of directors is really the
way to meet the complex needs of the membership. I’m only grateful that the
club survived my tenure and I am honored to have served such a distinguished
group. I would like to thank everyone who contributed, but especially Saul
Lowitt. Without him, we would have never made it.
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