Bill Chin sends this treasurer's report for those
who want to know our financial situation. Here's
how it adds up as of May 1, 1981:
Income
Balance of SIG/M account $ 782.41
Deposits $ 1892.00
Total $ 2674.41
Expenses
Telephone $ 23.69
Postage 70.59
Diskettes 2452.89
Other 250.00
Bank Charges 39.84
Total $ 2837.01
Net position $ ( 162.60)
Note that this report does not include a number of
unprocessed prepaid orders which came in after
Bill wrote the report. When these are processed,
we should be solidly "in the black".
CATalog
The SIG/M post office box continues to be flooded
with requests for our catalog. With the library
up to 25 volumes and more on the way, the catalog
has exceeded the capacity of a normal letter-size
envelope and 1/2 ounce postage. We are therefore
requesting that a large (9 x 12) envelope and
fifty (50) cents postage accompany all catalog
requests. Without this, you're cutting into our
lunch money!
There are a couple of other ways of getting the
catalog. These are:
1. If you have a modem, copy the catalog from any
Remote CP/M system. Most of these carry our
catalog and the most recent SIG/M Report.
ACGNJers can check the staff page of the ACGNJ
News for the Cranford, NJ and Allentown, PA system
numbers.
2. Buy the combined CPMUG and SIG/M catalog
printed and distributed by the New York Amateur
Computer Club (NYACC). This may be ordered for
$10 (domestic) or $12 (overseas) from: NYACC, P.O.
Box 106, New York, NY 10008, or picked up at a
meeting for $8.
Disk Copying
If you attended one of the last few SIG/M
meetings, then you know how heavy the load has
become. Howard Fingerhut, our faithful at-meeting
copyer, has been taking home more and more
"homework" diskettes every month. Therefore, he
has asked that from now on, members should please
limit themselves to two disks copied per meeting.
If you need (?) more than this, you may buy ready-
made copies for $4 each or swap a NEW blank floppy
for a copy for $1. These last two apply to disks
picked up at MEETINGS ONLY.
SIG/M Elections
The big news this month is that SIG/M is holding
its first elections of officers. The terms will
begin immediately and run until December 1982.
After that time, SIG/M officer terms will run for
one year, similarly to the regular ACGNJ officers.
Elections will be held for the offices of:
Chairman
Vice-Chairman
Secretary
Treasurer
And about half a dozen assorted committee heads.
Nominations were held for Chairman at the June
meeting, and will be re-opened at the July 10
meeting. The non-winning candidates for each
office are automatically nominated for each lower
position unless they elect to decline. Additional
nominations will be taken for each office prior to
each vote. The present nominees for chairman are:
Bruce Ratoff Bill Chin Bill Earnest
Howard Fingerhut Henry Kee Ray Glueck
Getting Used by the Users Group
Last week, unofficial word reached our ears that
the CP/M Users Group run by Tony Gold and
sponsored by Lifeboat Associates was preparing to
incorporate SIG/M's software library into their
own WITHOUT OUR KNOWLEDGE OR PERMISSION. Since
that time, I have had several telephone
conversations with Tony, Ed Currie (also of
Lifeboat), and Jim Mills and Ward Christensen (of
CACHE SIG-CP/M, who does most of the cataloging
and abstracting for CPMUG. The CACHE people told
me that they were not involved at all. Tony and
Ed both insisted that no public announcement or
distribution would have been done without
consulting us, and asked that SIG/M supply an
official statement of our position on the subject.
The following letter is the result of our June 12
meeting, and was mailed to CPMUG Monday, June 15.
June 14, 1981
Mr. Anthony R. Gold
CP/M Users Group
1651 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10028
Dear Tony
First of all, let me thank you and Ed for your
quick telephone response to my inquiries regarding
CPMUG's use of the SIG/M Software Library. As you
requested, I have placed the question of an
acceptable method of distribution before the
general membership of SIG/M at the meeting held
Friday, June 12, 1981. After much debate, a
resolution was unanimously passed, authorizing the
CP/M Users Group operated by you and sponsored by
Lifeboat Associates to distribute the SIG/M
Software Library, subject to the following
conditions:
1. Each volume must be identified only by its
SIG/M volume number, in the diskette's contents,
on its external label, and in any mention in
printed or machine-readable catalogs. This means
that you are explicitly requested not to assign
CPMUG volume numbers to our material. We are
certain that this represents no hardship to you,
in view of the many organizations that currently
maintain both libraries with their respective
numbering systems.
2. Each volume must remain intact, as released by
SIG/M, with no files added, deleted, renamed or
altered in content. It is requested that the
files contained on these volumes be distributed
solely on their respective SIG/M volumes, and not
transferred to or incorporated into present or
future CPMUG library volumes.
3. The fee charged by CPMUG for these volumes must
not exceed the true cost of media, copying and
mailing. It is expected that this fee will not
exceed the fee charged for CPMUG volumes.
4. CPMUG is authorized to append a catalog of
SIG/M Library volumes to the catalog of CPMUG
library volumes, provided that the SIG/M titling
and numbering is retained as the only
identification of these volumes.
The above conditions are exactly the same as those
requested of the many other organizations who
currently distribute the SIG/M library. As these
other organizations have no difficulty or
objection in adhering to our wishes, it is our
hope that CPMUG will do likewise.
A second resolution was passed at our meeting,
coordially inviting you, Ed Currie, and any other
interested parties at Lifeboat, Lifelines or CPMUG
to become a member of ACGNJ and SIG/M. We believe
that your participation in our activities would be
of great mutual benefit, and hope that you will
consider our invitation favorably.
Thank you again for your time and interest.
Yours truly
Bruce R. Ratoff
Vice-chairman
I hope to be able to publish Tony's reply in our
next column. He has indicated that this letter
and his reply will also appear in a future issue
of Lifelines magazine.
That's it for this month. Hope your enjoying the
summer. Keep cool!
Bruce
