The LA Fox Developer

The LA Fox Developer Newsletter

Boardroom Notes (Con’t from page 1)

1/4 of 1998’s membership fee, or $12, since under the previous policy, that person’s dues would have expired in October’98.) Dues would then be payable every January 1 after that.

Effective January 1, all visitors will be charged a visitor fee of

$5.00 per meeting. (See also, “Badges”.)

Effective January 1, newsletters will no longer be passed out at meetings and they will no longer be sent to non-current members. So, after January’s meeting, if your membership isn’t current, you’ll no longer be receiving the newsletter.

Effective January 1, only paid-up members and paying visitors will be eligible to participate in raffles.

Effective Januaryl, the use of badges will be implemented as a controlling mechanism for the above policies. Each member will have a badge with his name on it. (“Generic” badges will be available for visitors.) The badges, at each members option, will become the property of the member or will be returned at the end of each meeting to a “badge box” for retreival at the next meeting. Should a member decide to take the badge home after the meeting, it will be that members responsibility to have it for the next meeting. Visitor badges will be available at each meeting for $5 and will include the current month’s newsletter. These badges will also determine the eligibility of a member or visitor for any raffle prizes.

A Little Web Humor...

Things You Would Not Hear a Southerner Say:

We don’t keep firearms in this house.

Has anybody seen the sideburn trimmer?

You can’t feed that to the dog.

I thought Graceland was tacky.

No kids in the back of the pick-up, it’s not safe.

Honey, did you mail that donation to Greenpeace?

We’re vegetarians.

Do you think my hair is too big?

I’ll have grapefruit instead of biscuits and gravy.

Cappuccino tastes better than espresso.

The tires on that truck are too big.

I’ll have the arugula and radicchio salad.

I’ve got it all on a floppy disk.

Unsweetened tea tastes better.

contributed by Russell Campbell

Out and About (Con't from page 2)

fax at (203) 261-3884. The email is vfpdevcon98@advisor.com. Stay tuned, right here, for more details. (You’ll know as soon as we do.)

August 20-23,1998-2nd Annual Southern California FoxPro Conference. Sponsored by Microcomputer Engineering Services, LLC, this conference was one of the highlights of the 1997 “conference season”, providing a chance to see nationally-known speakers in a somewhat smaller, more intimate setting. Last year, the conference drew attendees from New Jersey to The Phillipines. This time out, the conference is going to be held at The Doubletree Hotel in Orange County. The conference WebSite will be up and running shortly, providing all the details for this great cost-effective event. And, of course, you can follow all the details right here. So start making plans now to attend.

Since We Last Met...

Please read the lead article in this issue of The LA Fox Developer, “LA Fox Board Meets”. It outlines the new policies the Board came up with at their last meeting. I’ve been a member of LA Fox for many years. When I joined, the dues were $45. So the slight increase in membership fees should not come as a shock to anyone. LA Fox has survived, at least in part, due to the judicious, and sometimes clever, management of the funds available to the group. There is great value in belonging to this group - the meetings where you see speakers you would normally pay hundreds of dollars to see; a 10-page monthly newsletter that keeps you up-to-date on things going on in the FoxPro community as well as articles and code that can be used in your applications; the chance to network with other developers in the area to share techniques and solve problems; the LA FoxCast broadcast e-mail service - to name a few. This year, in an effort to give you even more value for your money, we developed a 30% discount pricing policy with MacMillan Computer Publishing. So there should be no question that it’s still a good deal.

The Board has departed from the former policy of paying dues on your “anniversary” date in lieu of everyone paying in January. We gain a couple of advantages by doing this. It makes bookkeeping a lot easier. It also gives us an indication of the funds we’ll be able to work with in the coming year and, guess what, maybe even develop a budget.

The remainder of the new policies that came out of the meeting are basically what I’d call “Fairness” policies. It didn’t seem fair to the Board that non-members could come to a meeting, listen to an outstanding speaker, pick up the latest copy (and some back issues, too) of the newsletter, and maybe even win the raffle prize(s) that evening without contributing to the group or its development. So, in fairness to the “paying” members of the group, those policies were enacted.

Basically, all of the costs

of running the group have gone up over