The SIG/M Report by Bruce Ratoff Cash Memory 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 .