This report of the first meeting of FIG's new Board of Directors will appear in the January issue of Forth Dimensions. - Brad Rodriguez ------------------------------------------------------------------------ New Faces, Fresh Approaches in New FIG Board A Report of the Board Meeting Nov. 27-28, 1995 Elizabeth D. Rather The new FIG Board of Directors elected by the membership last spring has elected a new slate of officers and adopted new policies for 1996. Skip Carter, elected to the board by an overwhelming 92% of voting members, will become the new President. Jeff Fox will be Vice President, Mike Elola will continue as Secretary, and Andrew McKewan will assume accounting responsibilities as Treasurer. Major policy changes include a revised membership program, opening of advertising privileges to companies with products that may not be directly Forth-related, adjustments in shipping charges for books and software, expanded programming job referrals, and substantially improved electronic services. The Board considers its top priority to be ending the deficit financing of the past few years by increasing revenues and cutting expenses, in order to continue to provide a high level of member services. To this end, the Board evaluated the three major activities of FIG: publication and distribution of Forth Dimensions, sales of books and software, and the annual FORML conference. In each case, strategies were developed to increase revenues and reduce expenses without significant loss of service. As a result, the 1996 budget adopted by the Board includes a significant allocation for "outreach" (actions designed to increase awareness of Forth in general and membership in particular) and a small surplus to cover contingencies. The most immediate impact on members will be an increase in dues, effective March 1, 1996, from $40/year to $45. This modest increase is the first in several years. Renewals and new subscriptions received prior to March 1 will be at the previous rate. International mailing charges were also increased to $15 to cover actual costs. Student rates remain unchanged. New membership categories were also established: Corporate memberships, at $125/year, include five copies of each issue of Forth Dimensions and other benefits; Library memberships, also at $125, include a complete set of issues for the year sent in a single package at the end of the year plus a copy of the FORML Proceedings, in addition to regular bi- monthly issues. In the product arena, an analysis of shipping and handling costs led to a revised shipping fee schedule which will be effective immediately (see the price list in this issue). Other pricing issues will be evaluated over the course of the year. The overall budget for production of Forth Dimensions and general services will be reduced significantly, by allocating more responsibility to volunteers, finding lower-cost alternatives for some services, and in some cases reducing hours. Although it is hoped that less expensive production alternatives for Forth Dimensions may be found, it was pointed out that the major costs for this are in the labor for editing, formatting and layout, production and related activities. The Board considered electronic publication of Forth Dimensions as a possible cost-saving alternative. However, unless paper production is discontinued altogether, production of a separate electronic edition actually increases editorial costs significantly, for a negligable reduction in postage and printing. A recent survey of FIG members indicates that about 75% do not yet use on-line services regularly. The Board also voted to extend advertising priviledges in Forth Dimensions to all firms with products of interest to FIG members. The previous policy limited advertising to Forth-related products. The new policy is expected to offer significantly increased advertising revenues. The programmer job referral service recently implemented by Frank Hall in the FIG office will be formalized and expanded. Any member in good standing may list his availability on the job market; such a listing will appear in the FIG Worldwide Web page for one month, and will be distibuted to all inquiring companies. In addition, the job seeker may send a self-addressed stamped envelope and get a list of all current job openings. Currently approximately 30 programmer and job listings are registered in the FIG office. In addition, corporate members offering programming services may be listed in Forth Dimensions. As the Board recognizes the critical importance of good communication within the growing segment of the Forth community having access to online services, the Internet services provided by Skip Carter at taygeta.com will be expanded. A special "domain" has been set up for FIG, and addresses have been set up for communicating with various officers and departments in FIG; for details, see the President's Letter in this issue. Brad Rodriguez will officially represent FIG on the newsgroup comp.lang.forth. Additional planned enhancements will be announced as they are implemented. Individual Board members have also assumed responsibility for various aspects of FIG operation, as follows: Chapter relations Jeff Fox Education Al Mitchell and Nick Solntseff Electronic services Brad Rodriguez and Skip Carter FORML John Hall (Bob Reiling, manager) Forth Dimensions Elizabeth Rather (Marlin Ouverson, editor) Office Management John Hall (Frank Hall, office manager) Outreach Al Mitchell Products (books and software) Mike Elola (Frank Hall, sales and shipping) Those presently having operational responsibility in these departments, such as Frank Hall in the FIG office and Marlin Ouverson at Forth Dimensions, will continue as before under the oversight of the responsible Board member. The new Board unanimously wishes to extend a vote of thanks to John Hall for his dedicated service as President of FIG for the last several years.