• President: Mike Cowper.
• Vice-president: Vicki Merriman, Chris Canary.
• Secretary: Lynette Cowper.
• Treasurer: Linda Dunn.
• Sergeant-at-arms: Andrew Happli, Andy Andrews.
• ConChair 2001: Lynette Cowper, Kathie Thompson.
• Chairbeing of the Board: Bob McGillem, Jeff Thompson, Andy Andrews, Vicki Merriman.

The biggest problem though is data. Some months ago I sent out a questionnaire asking for information that would be useful to club members. Here are the people who responded with data or: Andy Andrews, Robin Brunner, Chris Canary, Brian Davidson, Steve Easley, Vicki Merriman, Randy Porter, Kat Robertson, Brooks Rowlet, Jeff Thompson, Kathie Thompson, and Larry Ulrey.

Here are the people I need information from: Debbie Alger, Joanne Brooks, Keith Chike, Rebecca Chike, Bernie Cinkoske, Dennis Ciurej, Lynn Ciurej, Lynnette Cowper, Mike Cowper, Megan Cowper, Ren Cowper, Merce Crain, Steve Crain, Walt Daniels, Greg Dunn, Linda Dunn, Lisa Easley, Judy Eudaly, Ria Foxfell, Andrew Happli, Tom Henson, Gary Kitchen, Barbara McGillem, Bob McGillem, Bonita McGrath, Cheryl Miller, Gary Plumlee, Rob Pyatt, Susan Rati, Jullie Russell, Andrew Schill, Angelee Shepherd, Tim Simpson, Randy Smith, Jenn Smith, Randy Warkel, Lizette Weaver, and Jean Whitelaw. I think you can see the problem.

Some of these people may have sent the information and it could have been lost in the avalanche of E-mail. If so I apologize. Some will not renew their membership. Most of these people I know very well and could write something about them but the results wouldn't be as good as it could be. I would hate to get the years Greg was president wrong or forget one of the Con offices Lynne held. And I'm not sure Dennis wants me to mention the time I asked him to dress up as a woman. He did a pretty good job too.

At the next meeting I will have a rough proof of what has been done so far. I expect only the first list will be represented with text. The second will have only names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.

They are primarily gathering "children's books", but will also accept young adult and even 'grown-up' books for the benefit of the parents who have children hospitalized there. As Ria pointed out this would even fit into the club's mission of "promoting science fiction in the Central Indiana area", or however the Club constitution phrases it, as well as being A Nice Thing To Do.

I know there are several good "young adult" science fiction & fantasy authors which our members might have some books to spare, or might even like to buy copies to contribute. ('New or Gently Used', per HPB's phrasing.) Jane Yolen, Laurence Yep, Pamela Sargent, many Andre Norton titles, the Harper Hall Pern books, are just a few examples... plus I believe Linda Dunn has a stamp saying "Donated by Circle of Janus Science Fiction Fan Club Indianapolis" or something like that, which we used when we donated books to school libraries.

If anyone wishes to bring books to this Saturday's club meeting for this purpose, I will volunteer to gather them up (and stamp them if my memory is correct and I can get the stamp from Linda) and convey them to the appropriate person at Half Price, who can perhaps arrange to give us a little recognition or even publicity. To that end I have already inquired at HPB and got the card for their district manager.

1. Avoid acronyms. Net acronyms like PMJI (pardon my jumping in) used to be a way of saying "I'm too cool for words". Now they say "I'm too geeky for words." IMHO.
2. Avoid emoticons. Cutesy little symbols like :-) (I'm kidding) used to indicate net experience. Nowadays the only people who use emoticons are the ones who dot their i's with tiny hearts. Besides, how many people know that :-Q means "a cigarette is dangling from my mouth as I type this"?
3. Don't type In uppercase. IT LOOKS LIKE YOUR SCREAMING ON-LINE. IT WILL MAKE OTHER PEOPLE START SCREAMING AT YOU.
4. Speling kounts, stoopid. The internet has grown up; so should you. If you don't want people to think you're still in high school (even if you are), proofread your messages and use proper capitalization.
5. Lurk first, post later. Before piping up in Usenet newsgroupes or any bulletin board system, hang back ("lurking" in cyberspeak) and read other messages to make sure you're in the right area. Also look for the group's FAQ (frequently asked questions) file. A FAQ will explain that shouting "HOWARD STERN ROOOOLES!" in the alt.tv.snl newsgroup is not funny. (You'll get a better reception at alt.fan.howard-stern.)
6. Beware the forward feature. Remember that any e-mail you send can be forwarded to anyone else. So assume your every electronic missive will be seen by your significant other - or your boss. It can happen; take it from me.
7. Cross posting is verboten. If you can't decide which newsgroup you really want to send that message to, your recipients will decide by tossing it in the delete bin. This goes for CC'ing everyone and their dogs when sending e-mail. It looks like you're either desperate for attention or trying to cover your ass.
8. When replying, keep the original subject heading. It makes it easier to follow a bulletin-board discussion - even if you think your headings are wittier.
9. Don't include someone's entire message when replying. It wastes band width and it's just more stuff for people to scroll through. Besides, if the sender can't remember the original message, it couldn't have been that important in the first place.
10. Finally, take a cue from the President's predicament. If you mess-up on rules one through nine, APOLOGIZE IMMEDIATELY. Don't wait until the newsgroup tries to impeach you.

Are you still working on the Y zero K problem? This change from BC to AD is giving us a lot of headaches and we haven't much time left. I don't know how people will cope with working the wrong way around. Having been working happily downwards forever, now we have to start thinking upwards.

You would think that someone would have thought of it earlier and not left it to us to sort it all out at this last minute.

I spoke to Caesar the other evening. He was livid that Julius hadn't done something about it when he was sorting out the calendar. He said he could see why Brutus turned nasty. We called in Consultus, but he simply said that continuing downwards using minus BC won't work and as usual charged fortune for doing nothing useful. Surely we will not have to throw out all our hardware and start again? Macrohard will make yet another fortune out of this I suppose.

The money lenders are paranoid of course! They have been told that all usury rates will invert and they will have to pay their clients to take out loans.

Its an ill wind ......

As for myself, I just can't see the sand in an hourglass flowing upwards. We have heard that there are three wise men in the East who have been working on the problem, but unfortunately they won't arrive until it's all over. I have heard that there are plans to stable all horses at midnight at the turn of the year as there are fears that they will stop and try to run backwards, causing immense damage to chariots and possible loss of life.

Some say the world will cease to exist at the moment of transition.

Anyway, we are still continuing to work on this blasted Y zero K problem. I will send a parchment to you if anything further develops. If you have any ideas please let me know,

Plutonius