                       THE WAYS OF CACHE
                        Charles F. Douds

Why was it that at CACHE's elections for 1983 officers that the 
voting and the announcement of the results were handled in what 
seemed to be a very casual manner?  To understand one has to look 
back at some of the organization's history.

CACHE actually pre-dates the personal computer "revolution."  
That revolution can be quite precisely dated - the Altair 8800 in 
the cover story of the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics.  
The first meetings of the group that later became CACHE were 
organized by Bob Swartz and held at Northwestern University 
beginning in 1974.

Bill Precht took up the ball and really got things going along 
about the time he got his Altair kit.  I suspect he had an 
ulterior motive.  Not knowing which end of a solding iron to pick 
up, he was looking for people to help him get that 8800 going.  
Actually, everybody needed help.  Things were pretty primitive 
then.  Boards were poorly designed and needed lots of "fixes," 
documentation varied from abysmal to non-existant, tape recorders 
were tricky (there were no floppy disk systems), EPROMs could 
hold only 256 bytes, software was primitive and loaded with bugs, 
and so on.  Only by banding together could one survive.

Survival was the name of the game.  Only rich bachelors didn't 
have to concern themselves with the hundreds of dollars one put 
into that hunk of silicon and iron.  Most of us heard about it 
from our wives - or parents for there were a good number of teen-
agers involved, too.  "Isn't that thing working yet?"

And when you did get it working - first the CPU in the box with 
1K of memory, then the 4K memory board, then to actually run a 
program!!! - those were all events to be proud of.  They were 
things to show off to your friends!  But it was only your friends 
at CACHE that could understand, for your neighbors certainly did 
not.

One of the greatest sources around for software that really 
worked was a fellow we all looked forward to seeing every month.  
His name was Ward Christensen.  He was then, as he is today, a 
prolific producer of software that really worked and did useful 
things.  Not only did Ward write wonderful software and solve 
lots of hardware problems, he was always willing to help you out.  
He could never say no.

After there had been a few meetings at somewhat irregular 
intervals it became apparent to all that survival through sharing 
was the only way to go.  We decided that we ought to get 
organized.  Bill became the first president.  (Bob Swartz was 
extremely involved in a micro-related commercial venture, as he 
still is.)  Ward became the secretary.  Maybe there was a vice 
president, maybe there wasn't.  It was even more informal then.

Meeting topics were not too hard to come up with in those days.  
Everyone was using the S-100 bus and someone could always talk 
about the latest product they had tried.  Survival through 
sharing was the name of the show.  Though oftentimes Bill would 
find an invited speaker for us.  Ward would send out the 
postcards.  Geoff Lowe was collecting the dues.  We did need a 
bit of money for those postcards so he volunteered to be treasur-
er.  Then Geoff started putting together a newsletter.  Ward 
eventually became a major contributor to it and we all liked his 
stuff.  You could always tell where Ward was at a meeting - just 
look for the crowd.

It was the newsletter that stimulated Ward to write the CBBS 
program.  If I recall correctly, it was one week from the time he 
got the idea until Randy Suess had the hardware together, Ward 
had the softare written, and CBBS was up and working!  That was 
February 17, 1978, just five years ago.  The first computer 
bulletin board system in the nation.  Randy and Ward still keep 
it going.  Two sharp guys both of whom did a lot for CACHE.

We were getting pretty good crowds.  In 1976 the membership was 
around 200 people.  With that many coming around someone decided 
maybe it would be a good idea to incorporate.  One of our members 
was a lawyer and he took care of submitting the paperwork.  Of 
course the State insisted that all of the officers and board of 
directors sign the charter application.  Hmmm.  That posed a bit 
of a problem.  We weren't really organized.

There were lots of people regularily coming to the meetings.  To 
survive, they had to.  Things _were_ happening.  There were four or 
five, or ten or twelve - it's not too clear now and it wasn't too 
clear then - people who were making things happen.  Somehow or 
other it came to pass that there was a president, vice-president, 
secretary, treasurer and a few board members.

Floppy disks were coming on the scene but they could be made to 
work only painfully.  Suddenly all the operating system problems 
were solved - CP/M had appeared.  It worked and it worked well.  
Not only that, it came with an assembler (ASM), a debugger (DDT), 
and an editor (EDIT).  Who had time to write a constitution and 
by-laws?

Actually the decision was not made in such a cavalier manner.  It 
was very deliberately made.  The organization was open to all.  
It was very clearly understood that anyone could come to any 
meeting.  We expected that if you kept coming back you would pay 
dues, but it was also clearly understood that there would be no 
pressure to join.  Survival through informal sharing was the 
norm.

We were not having meetings for the sake of having meetings.  Not 
all of our meetings were exciting, but you were never bored by 
tedious business sessions.  Anyone could walk out at any time, a 
tradition we continue today.  CACHE always has been, and 
continues to be, informal.  Informal in the spirit of sharing and 
helping each other out.  Based on the experience of some of the 
ones who were making things happen in other organizations, the 
whole idea of a constitution and by-laws seemed to suggest rules, 
regulations and whole aura of formality that ran directly counter 
to want CACHE was and what it was accomplishing.  "If it's 
working, don't fix it."  And it was working.

One of the things that was working well was the development of 
the special interest groups - the SIGS.  They really came into 
prominence with the appearance of the Apple and the Radio Shack 
TRS-80.  For the first time, we began to have major chunks of the 
membership with distinctly different interests, needs, and back-
grounds.  With the growth in the organization, the SIGs provided 
a way for people to get to know each other better through their 
common interest.

Having become "organized," we started having annual elections.  
I've always felt that the activity year begins in September and 
that is when it is logical to have new officers take over, but 
nobody else agreed with me.  We had the newly elected officers 
take over with the new calendar year, so December became the time 
to have elections.  November was the month of arm-twisting.  
There were always some people you could count on to be a 
director, but never enough.  The really tough slots to fill were 
treasurer and president.  They were so important that the present 
officers and concerned board members tried to get a nominee for 
each lined up well in advance.  It always took a lot of 
persuasion.

Filling the last one or two board nomination slots seemed to be 
as hard as finding a new treasurer.  Oftentimes the chairman of 
the larger SIGs - TRS-80 and Apple, in particular - were asked to 
serve.  Oftentimes chairmen of small SIGs were asked.  Sometimes 
they accepted; sometimes they did not.  As I said, November was 
the month of arm-twisting.  If they became a board member, they 
were like any other new board member - sometimes they attended 
regularily, sometimes not; if they came, sometimes they contri-
buted, sometimes not.  But this is the way it goes in _any_ organi-
zation.  CACHE is not unique.

There never was a formal nominating committee.  It just seemed to 
happen.  Of course, this is not true.  There were some concerned 
people, mostly board members, who took the responsibility.  Some-
times it was they who reminded the president that elections were 
coming up; sometimes it was the president who got the ball 
rolling.  The first few years it wasn't hard to figure out the 
good prospects.  Everybody knew most everyone else.  As the club 
grew this became more of a problem, but the SIGs helped overcome 
the problem to some extent.  They provided people who could 
suggest someone.

Of course, the larger the organization gets, the more difficult 
it is for people to know many others, and so the well-intentioned 
informal nominating committee - as they see themselves - becomes 
the closed group maintaining their own cabal in the eyes of some 
others.  Again, this happens in many organizations (whether or 
not they have a constitution).  CACHE is not unique.

Serving on the board has not been particularily onerous.  Until 
quite recently the board has usually wound up meeting only two or 
three times a year.  The last three years, as we began to feel a 
need to encourage more mutuality of purpose among the SIG leaders 
and among the board, there has been one meeting a year to which 
all the SIG leaders were explicitly invited.  This has been for a 
Sunday afternoon meal in a restaurant private room.  (CACHE does 
not pay for the drinks.)  I have personally been disappointed 
that only a few of the SIG leaders could find the time to attend.

There have been occasions when a SIG asked the board for money 
for a special project.  Sometimes it has been for a small grant 
to get something started, more often for a loan - usually to buy 
floppy disks.  Nearly every one of these requests has been 
granted - perhaps all of them.  After the first one or two, the 
board decided that the requests should be made in writing.

Right from the beginning, we never had a meeting in July.  Espec-
ially in the beginning, there was often a fair amount of swaping 
and selling back and forth among members at the meetings.  August 
became our month for our own little formalized swapfest and 
picnic.  About the only remnant of the picinic idea today is 
CACHE buying a few cases of soda for the event.  Then we used to 
have a Christmas party.  The idea was to have games on the 
machines (remember, there was a time with no video arcades or 
home video machines), bring along the kids, have cake and punch, 
and take a few minutes out for the always un-contested election.

Although in many organizations the vice-president is also the 
program chairman, in CACHE the president has taken, or been left 
with, this responsibility.  Being responsible to see that there 
are nine interesting main meetings a year is a formidable task.  

About three years ago the vice-president tried to relieve some of 
this burden by working with the SIGs.  The idea was to have each 
SIG responsibile for one meeting.  The meeting didn't have to be 
put on by the SIG.  They just were to _sponsor_ a panel discussion, 
speaker, demonstration, or whatever.  The idea didn't catch on.  
One or two SIGs did present a program.  There were a couple of 
other programs presented in the name of a SIG although nearly all 
the work was done by a director not part of the SIG.

In general, the SIGs operate quite independently under the 
umbrella of CACHE.  Perhaps this is the way it should be.  CACHE 
has encouraged new SIGs, provided a forum, provided newsletter 
space, and let them grow or fade away.  Individually, they sur-
vive as long as there is active sharing.  CACHE leadership does 
not intercede in SIG affairs.  CACHE provides the umbrella under 
which our various interests can be encourged and cross-
fertilized.

This is one person's view of how we have come to behave the way 
we do.  We seem to agree it is time for a change.  It is a shame 
that bigness has to bring more formality in some respects.  But 
whatever we are to become, it will grow from what we have been - 
for that is what made us what we are.  We can all try to keep 
what has been best while improving on the rest.  Our unstated 
motto has always seemed to be, "There are no dumb questions at 
CACHE," as we sought to survive and grow through sharing.

[Ed. note:  The above article is intended to provide some
insight into the casualness of CACHE.  But it also can serve as
the nucleus for an informal history of CACHE.  Please feel free
to contribute your recollections, corrections, whatever, for
inclusion in future drafts.]

