Seven years ago, the present found me divorced and alone. The life I had been building was suddenly gone. Fortunately, I had already found a new interest in my computer, and simply followed where that led. I began helping my Dad teach classes (Windows Basic Skills) to ICON members at St. John’s, and a year later, in April, found myself being elected program chairman. I really wasn’t sure what the job entailed (we didn’t even have an officers’ meeting until July), so I started looking at the ways ICON did things and trying to learn what I could do to help all of us get more out of our organization.

I could see that Bill Patrick, Dick Preffitt, and Bill Bender were doing all the physical work of transporting and setting up equipment, setting up tables and chairs for meetings and then cleaning up afterward. I started arriving early to help set up, and staying late to help load equipment, put away chairs and clean up.

After Sarah and I met, I noticed that all the electronics stores offered “free after rebate” software every week, so we started buying all we could each week and selling raffle tickets at ICON’S meetings to help raise money for a new projector we desperately needed.

Along about that time, Dad turned over the classes he was teaching to me. My class plan (a combination of Dad’s and one written by Clarence Gault) soon became so large that the expense for copies became prohibitive. I always provided a copy to those enrolled in my class, but if they wanted a copy to keep, I sold it to them for approximately $3.00 over cost and donated the profit to ICON.

I attended nearly every ICON function, I got to know many of the members, heard their questions and what they said about the help they needed. In short, I was learning how to fulfill my responsibilities as an officer. Along the way, I also learned a lot more about my computer, and how to use it. That is where the present found me at that time.

Since then, I have spent countless hours working to improve ICON’S ability to serve its members. I love ICON, and I’m prepared to continue on the course we have set, but it isn’t up to me alone. ICON is not an autocracy. In order to thrive, or even survive, we must function in a democratic manner. Our success is dependent upon contributions and participation from many.

The only justification for a users’ group to exist, is the sharing of information among its members. In order to meet the diverse, and ever changing, needs of us all, we must depend upon the diverse abilities each member brings to the group. Look around! Where could your abilities add something?

As we busily help each other learn to use today’s technology, the manufacturers continue to develop and release new innovations. In order to accomplish all that we must do...to provide the help you need us to provide... to be what you need us to be, we must continually re-invent the organization, and we must continually grow and change.

We need your help to be certain you get what you need from our organization. We’ve all heard the adage “you get out of something only what you put into it”. Please contribute in whatever ways you are able.

This is where the present finds us today.