FROM THE EDITORS' DESK
By Charles and Barbara Washington

We are sure that all of us are pleased that the Y2K bug stayed away from the vital-services computers on January 1.  All the planning, however, was completely ignored by the purely mechanical parts of our computer printer:  Hence one source of the delay of this issue.  Suffice it to say that we know more about the disassembly and cleaning of DeskJet printers than we ever wanted to know.  We now know why the shop wanted $70 to clean it.  You would not believe how much ink can be in the cleaning well, mixed with paper fuzz, spiders, cat hair, etc.

After reviewing the materials for the January newsletter, we thank the authors for sharing their experiences, knowledge, concerns and information with the rest of the club.  Writing can be a satisfying experience that many of us avoid.  (Perhaps we remember the term papers of our youth).  Trust us, these are entirely different circumstances, and if you would like to try your hand, please do so.  We would like to see writeups for the drives and special activities.  We wrote two articles in the last newsletter on events, but would like to "share" this duty.  An effective way to get these articles written is for the trip leader to "invite" a participant to write up the event.  The leader should provide the writer with some in-depth information for the article.  The information might be an interview, research materials, itinerary, etc.  We both like to write, but feel that a diverse pool of authors lends more interest to the newsletter.  Besides, it looks good on your resume that you are a contributing columnist.

For those of you who need to review how to submit an article, please check out the last newsletter on the web-site.  The deadline for articles for the next issue is March 15, 2000.