 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group PC (President's Comments) George Skarbek gskarbek@melbpc.org.au |
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GST and Reimbursement For Purchases and
Expenses
Due to the GST laws I would request that any member who purchases, or pays for the hire of anything
associated with Melb PC and then claims a refund - carefully read the following paragraph.
Please be aware that any claim over $50 must be accompanied by a receipt that states the vendor's ABN number
and indication that the amount is GST inclusive, or a completed Statement To Supplier form (available from
the ATO). Without this, we are compelled by the taxation department to withhold 48.5% of the amount. This
also applies to payments made for hire of rooms and equipment. There can be no exceptions to this. If you are
unsure about this, please direct enquiries to Tracy Swan, our Office Manager before paying for any goods or
service to ensure that you will not be left out of pocket.
We Are the Best In Victoria
In "Computer Choice" July/August 2000 magazine there was an extensive survey of ISPs in Australia. Melb PC
came second, just beaten by SE Net in SA.
Congratulations to all the hard working members of the Internet team for this great result.
Internet Benefits
The Internet team is continuing to improve the service while actually dropping the price. (We have absorbed
the GST increase). The main improvement is increasing the minimum access time to four hours per day, if you
logon before midday. Our timer will run at half speed from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm. Over the peak period it will
remain at two hours per day. There will probably be increased time available during the weekends as well.
Furthermore we will be installing additional phone lines and upgrading the old Intranet analogue modems to
new digital modems in the near future. This will mean a new phone number and it will be advertised on the
MOTD (Message Of The Day) closer to the time. I would just like to remind all Melb PC Internet users that all
these improvements, including the bonus time that many are enjoying, must be regarded as a trial and cannot
be guaranteed in the future.
Membership Update
Our current membership has remained static for about two years. To some this may not seem much to be proud of
but in Australia and overseas, especially in America, most user groups are diminishing in size. We are still
a very comfortable Number 2 in the world and naturally by far the largest in Australia with nearly 11,000
members.
The new membership sub-committee has many good ideas for raising our profile and attracting new members.
However, if you have any thoughts on what may be a good source for new members, please ring anyone on the
committee, or e-mail to committee@melbpc.org.au or to the
membership group on memship@melbpc.org.au.
Orientation Days
Following the success of the Orientation Days the next date will be Saturday 19 August 2000 starting at 10.00
am.
This will allow new and existing members to see all the facilities that Melb PC has to offer at Dorcas St.
See page 16 for more details.
Training
There will be two new short courses starting in September. These are Hints & Tips for Word and Hints
& Tips for Excel. See the Training section for more details.
New Equipment Purchases
With the new financial year with us, we will be purchasing a new high quality projector to be used at the
main meeting and by some SIGS (Special Interest Groups). Such projectors cost more that several computers but
are necessary as more SIGs are being formed and they need projectors. Another projector may be purchased in
the near future.
Next Monthly Meeting
On 2 August at Parkville there will be a presentation by Symantec on Viruses and there will be a presentation
on Genealogy by Jenny Harkness showing how to explore family history from the world's largest family
database. I will be presenting Tips and Tricks for Excel, with a bias towards data analysis plus some other
less orthodox uses.
There is also Random Access (your chance to ask the experts), the usual giveaways and raffle with several
thousand dollars of prizes being raffled, shareware library sales, etc. Hope to see you there.
Reprinted from the August 2000 issue of PC Update, the
magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
