First Friday Minutes: 03-03-2023 In-Person and Online
Attending: Eli, Jack, Karen, Erin, Don, Tim, Lovern, Ted, Lisa, Mem & Kent
Zoom: Rosa & Richard, Richard K, Keith & Sheila
Presiding: Jack – Called meeting to order at 8:04pm
President’s Report: NTR
Vice President’s Report: NTR
Secretary’s Report: Minutes from last meeting have been posted.
Social Media Secretary’s Report: Karen – need to send out reminders on email.
Treasurer’s Report: We have some money. PAY YOUR DUES!!!
Trustees Report: NTR
Book Committee: Snark: Ted brought books.
Photo Committee: Arlen needs pictures of old cons. But quite a few are not sorted in any way, shape, or form. Photo committee will get together (over the bridge table) with Arlen to update. Discussed adding Eli to photo committee. NTR.
Refreshments Committee: We are refreshed.
COSine 2024: Hotel reserved for dates. Still waiting for COSine 2024 Guest of Honor. Guest will be selected in March. Talked about GoH – need to push slightly. Planning meeting is at 7:30pm via Zoom or in person for anyone who wants to attend.
Unfinished Business: Movie Night: Need at least 20 people to attend. Eli will ask around and then report back on the cost/times available of renting the theater. Movie times depend on when a movie is released.
New Business: Karen wants to know when Zoom expired to look at Google Meet. High pitched whine. Rosa is against it because it is too tied to Google, not user friendly, etc,. Google Meet requires host invite users. Eli says that it will probably be MORE expensive, not less. (Note: Zoom expires in May will probably renew.)
Ted – Periodic report with the Secretary of State has been filed – and we are good for another year.
Jack – Jack will not be here for the June meeting. Erin might be here.
Should we start talking about 4th of July picnic. At Erin and Karen’s house – the first Saturday of July (July 1st at 4pm).
Announcements: SpaceX landed its 101st booster. They have landed as many as other rockets have actually launched. Starlink is more expensive now – Starlink Community is upset. (Eli) Brain chips are having issues – FDA is not considering. Fusion with Proton Boron now commercially possible. (Arlen) Section 230 case was heard by the Supreme Court – set of 9 internet experts. (Eli) Jack says case is misrepresented – it is about large monopolies like Google Search algorithms do in what gets presented to young people.(Kent) Wiki media lost its SC case for National Security issues. (Eli) ULA is rumored to be up for sale. See Ted for bids. (Ted) A science club lost a balloon over Alaska. (Eli) Alaska Airlines suffered two tail strikes, shut down, solved the problem and came back up after 20 minutes. (Arlen) T-2000-ish robot can escape and reform like in Terminator movies. (Ted) Has anyone confessed to using Chat GPT? Eli says, yes and discussed experiences in college. (Ted/Eli) References are messed up. Bing is the worst. (Arlen) This evolved into a discussion. We have to get steel from shipwrecks before 1940. Pop-up industry in using AIs to look at data so that AI data sets are not corrupted. (Eli)
Next Meeting: April 7th, 2023
Next Book: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Adjourn: 8:58pm
Book Discussion: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club
