The fall meeting of the Florida Association of Computer Users was held at the Sunlight Community Church, 477 SW Cashmere Blvd, Port St. Lucie, FL on October 14, 2000. The Tri-County Computer User Group sponsored the meeting. As usual, it was informative, well planned and a great benefit to user group leaders.

Registration and check in for the event began at 8:30 AM. A continental breakfast was available until 10:30. Larry Tyler welcomed us at 9:00 AM, and then everyone went to the round table session of his or her choice.

During the morning sessions, the Board of Directors met and discussed the past and future business of the organization.

Lunch was Italian and just wonderful. There was tray after tray of lasagna, ziti, spaghetti and meatballs, plenty of fresh salad and loads of garlic bread. After the meal, I realized how reasonable the conference fee had been.

A short general meeting was held at 1:00 PM. Larry Tyler introduced the Board of Directors: himself as President; Hilda Frederico, vice president; Betty Shearer, Treasurer; Mary Sheridan, Secretary; Web Austin, Newsletter Editor, Murray Tiano, Dave Gerber and Bill McCabe. Bart Koslow has moved to California and will have to be replaced as the ninth board member for the upcoming year. Larry introduced Sharon Rump of the Venice Area UG. Sharon will replace Bart as the Webmaster. Larry also mentioned the importance of keeping all user group data current at the web site.

A Logo Contest will be held, chaired by Murray Tiano. There are hopes that Corel will sponsor the contest. The FACUG will also institute a Community Service Award. Betty Shearer will chair the award committee. The details of both these projects will be available on the web site.

Rose Lynn of the Gold Coast Mac UG announced that the APCUG membership dues were being waived if the user groups joined the APCUG through Rose. For further information you can contact Rose Lynn at roselynn@mac.com.

The Spring Conference 2001 of the FACUG will be held at the Kissimmee Civic Center in Kissimmee Florida. Larry has commitments from eight vendors. A new feature this spring will be Technical Sessions sponsored by Gene Barlow, Microsoft and Adobe. Larry explained that the Spring Conference is a big undertaking. He asked for help so the next conference can be as successful as the last spring conference was. Some of the needs are: panel leaders, round table leaders, and many volunteers. A task list will be posted on the FACUG web site.

The Polk UG in Lakeland will host the Fall Conference 2001. Bob Read, the President of the Polk UG asked the attendance at the current conference. There were 62 attendees representing 18 User Groups.

Larry Tyler introduced Betty Shearer and Tom Chambery as the coordinators of the Fall Conference 2000. Betty then introduces Bob Leonard, CEO of www.out2.com, the conference guest speaker. Bob’s company is Florida’s online Community Newspaper. Bob advises businesses to provide local information as well as advertising. To learn more check out the web site. Bob concluded his talk at 2:05 PM.

The afternoon round tables were followed by a panel discussion in the Sanctuary of the church at 2:50 PM The panelists were Bob Read, Rose Lynn, Betty Shearer and Larry Tyler. The topic was Community Service and Your Group. Items discussed were What is Community Service, How Can My Group Get Involved and the APCUG Jerry Awards. u