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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.]