The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Keeping the Seat Warm!
 Lyn Goodall - Vice-President		  

I'm keeping the seat warm whilst Dave is away and I can tell you, even in mid winter, there has been a lot going on!

Planning Day

Your Committee is focussed on priorities identified during the recent Strategic Planning Day. The outcomes of the day incorporated our Member Survey results, ideas generated from the last Honorary Life Members meeting, the PC Update Review and new ideas from the planning day itself.

Priorities now include (in no particular order):

  • Building on our Strategic alliances
  • Building a higher profile for Melb PC
  • Implementation of new Membership Management system and portfolio
  • Ongoing Membership drive
  • Managing the future development of an electronic Newsletter and a new look PC Update
  • Managing the future business of Melb PC — organisation and succession planning (Committee, paid staff, volunteers etc)
  • Greater focus on Marketing & Publicity
  • Greater focus on our Internet services
  • Development of Training services, including Volunteer Training
  • Development of Web site to include content management system for easier updating and management
  • Improved facility management —increased revenue etc
  • Maintaining effective Financial management via a Finance Subcommittee
  • Strengthening our support of Interest Groups and encouraging new ones
  • Improving existing services to Members and implementing new ones
  • Improving communications in general
We've set up systems to monitor and report on our achievements in a much more effective way and over the next few months we'll talk to you more about this.

Management Committee

As a part of managing the future of Melb PC we need a strong, effective, skilled group of committee members. If you'd like to become involved in managing the future of Melb PC and the challenges that lie ahead, contact the President or Vice President for an informal chat.

Membership Drive

The new membership drive is underway – introduce new members and you could be in the draw to win a laptop, car navigation system or an MP3 player. Once your new member friends join Melb PC they start to receive all the benefits that you do — the Internet service, magazine, iHelp service, Interest Groups, meetings, social contacts and lots more. How many will you sign up?

New Member Management System

We're implementing a new system to manage and report on Member information. We can now record non-Melb PC email addresses, so if you have a preferred email address, other than your Melb PC one, contact the office to update your details, so we can keep you up to date with the news!

PC Update Review

Melb PC recently conducted a review of PC Update to see how we could improve it. After deliberating on the recommendations of the report, the Committee is now embarking on a process whereby the "Member information" will be separated from the magazine and incorporated into an electronic Newsletter, sent out monthly to members by email. This will free up the magazine to become a document full of relevant information and articles for members and also one that will hopefully attract more advertising. If you'd like to comment please contact president@melbpc.org.au
 
Podcasting

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Podcasting is the method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.

The first of Melb PC's trial podcasts can be found on the Blog at http://melbpc.blogspot.com/  — we hope you enjoy it. The purpose is to convey the content of the President's address to the monthly meetings — and to give members a chance to keep up to date with what's happening at Melb PC.

Interest has also been shown in a Podcasting Group that could explore all aspects of podcasting. If you'd like to be included contact me at vice-president@melbpc.org.au.

Monthly Meeting

Genealogy is a very popular topic and this month we're looking at how to get your family tree started as well as brilliant new developments making research on the Web easier. Presented by our very own Bruno Dik.

Backup Express. Now there is a simple answer to backup problems and it has been developed right here in Melbourne: Backup Express will be demonstrated by Stephen Chua.

We will also have the usual Q&A session, Door Prizes and the WAFFLE get together afterwards — so join us at 7.00 pm on Wednesday 2 August at Deakin University, Burwood.

Reprinted from the August 2006 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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