 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group CPU (Club President's Update) Charles Wright charles@melbpc.org.au |
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The elections are over, and the team that I asked you to support is in office. Thank you. I asked you to allow us to finish the job that we started last year, and we will do our best to do that.
I always find it troubling that so few people actually cast their votes in our elections - this year the fate of the group was decided by only about 240 people - and while I'm grateful for the support, and tend to regard the "no shows" as a vote of confidence in the status quo, it would be a great deal healthier for the group if more people took the trouble to exercise their proxies and cast postal votes.
There are many things we want to achieve this year. Many of them involve extending services to members, but an even greater priority has to be given to boosting our sources of income, so that we will be able to subsidise our activities.
The first initiative here involves our shareware activities. You'll see in this magazine a new column on shareware. There's never been a better time to extend your shareware library and take advantage of a resource that even large companies are beginning to realise offers commercial power at unbelievably low prices, and often a level of service that the big vendors don't provide.
The programs we're promoting in the first of what will be monthly shareware articles reflect only a fraction of the new shareware and freeware titles that the group has tracked down on your behalf. Every month our international sources provide us with more than 500 new programs, many of which can improve your productivity or just help you have more fun with your computer.
Felix van Lier has been working tirelessly with a dedicated team of volunteers as shareware coordinator to improve the collection, cataloguing, copying and distribution from the club software library.
A few weeks ago that team was joined by Laurence Blake, who will have responsibility for the selection and marketing of shareware. As soon as we're satisfied the new system can handle the additional load, we'll bring in a marketing consultant to see if we can capitalise on our investments in these areas in the open marketplace.
As a first step though, we have to rely on club members to support us. When you buy shareware from the group, you help us to extend our services to you.
Now think of the number of times you find yourself without a blank floppy diskette. How many of you take advantage of the club's cheap rates for quality floppies? How many of you remember that the more we sell, the better our buying rates are, and the cheaper those disks are going to be for you?
If you don't have a good supply of blank diskettes, you run the risk of neglecting to take that vital back-up, or perhaps having to erase files you'd rather keep, or having to interrupt what you're doing to go shopping.
Avoid the hassle. Ring the office now to order a couple of boxes, or call in and pick up some supplies. While you're there, have a look around our headquarters.
You'll see a good stock of computer magazines to read, and we're just about to launch a lending library for computer books. If you have some interest in setting up and running that library, call Janet Henstock or Noeline Finlay and volunteer your services.
We've already acted to improve the office administration. We have new a new staff member, Tracy Swan, whose efficiency and enthusiasm for the group has been refreshing. Although we will be employing some casual staff, our wages bill is going to be cut.
We still have a need for volunteers who have some office experience, or a desire to gain some, to assist in the office, so if you have some spare time, please contact either Janet Henstock at the office, or Noeline Finlay.
Another priority is the bulletin board. If you haven't yet logged on to our BBS, you'll be surprised at the vitality of discussions. Incidentally, I log on practically every day, so it's a great way to communicate directly with me.
Barry McMenomy, Peter Freeman, Colin Lovitt and a team of hard-working volunteers have ironed out most of the problems we were having after the sudden resignation of the former sysops, and the unexpected collapse of the old hardware.
They've improved the entry screen, added new areas, put the new, 14.4 kbps modems onto the message board, and got everything performing much more efficiently.
Now they're looking to increase the number of lines available, and then to amalgamate the message board with the files board.
Of even greater potential value, however, is the work we are doing to provide Internet access. The BBS team, working with Ash Nallawalla, are evaluating the best and most cost-effective ways of hooking our members into what has become the world's biggest and most exciting on-line network - which is now growing at the rate of one million new users a month.
We may charge a fee for unlimited access, but even if we do, it will be great value for money, and a chance for our members to tap into the sort of "information super highway" that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are so excited about.
At the same time, we're going to be pushing ahead with our plan to make our BBS facilities a much more valuable resource for our regional interest groups. And Bill Docherty will also be looking at the possibility of extending our services to new areas.
The next area of club activity that we're looking at marketing in the general community is our training facilities. Having invested in our own training room, we have a resource that could well be attractive to the growing number of companies and individuals that require good training. Before we do that, we have to be sure that we can offer an acceptable level of tuition, and back it up with a good administrative structure. We're confident we're close to meeting those requirements. When you add the additional benefits that we can offer-things like our magazine and dial help support-we might well be able to take advantage of a unique marketing edge.
Another priority for the new committee is to complete the planning process that we embarked on last year. Your new vice-president, Colin Lovitt, has been given the task of organising the final planning session, and the publishing of a summary of the recommendations.
The hardware SIG will shortly be putting in place a facility to allow members to bring their computers into the office to isolate any problems, so they won't have to put themselves at the mercy of commercial repair "experts" who seem to diagnose a surprisingly high percentage of failures as "failed motherboards".
I've seen many cases where that failed motherboard was miraculously revived with the replacement of a cheap part. We're not going to be doing the repairs, but we will be able to provide an advisory service not unlike that offered by the RACV.
There are many other new initiatives that you'll be hearing of in the next few months. Which leads me to my final plug. Think about what you've gained out of membership of this club. Now think about your friends and colleagues, and how they might benefit too. I've made it a practice over the years to reward people who've helped me, or who I care about, with the gift of Melb PC membership. With the gift-giving season coming up, you have the opportunity to provide a novel gift of tremendous value. Every month, when the club magazine arrives, they'll have good reason to thank you for I our thoughtfulness.
I'm not going to dwell too long on some of the things that were said during the election campaign - the sooner they are forgotten the better.
But I will say this: since I first joined the executive of this group, I have expected the highest standards of integrity and financial propriety from all members of the committee. I can tell you that the group's affairs have never been more open than they are today, and they will continue to be that way while I am president.
If there are any allegations of misconduct or bad practice they should be brought immediately to the committee's attention, and not saved up to be flung around as unsubstantiated allegations on the night of an election, in the hope of extracting a few votes.
We've made it a practice to give full details to anyone who raises any concern-despite the fact that they've sometimes used that information for their own political ends - and you can continue to be confident that we're a WYSIWYG organisation.
I think the annual general meeting clearly voted to reject the sort of political mud-slinging that we've been subjected to over the past month or so, and we have no time to waste this year putting out bushfires. So, constructive criticism is welcome, but an overwhelming majority of the club have had a gutful of politics. This year we're going to get back to being a computer club, rather than an amateur political party.
If you have any questions at all, come along to a committee meeting and put them on the public record. This committee has absolutely nothing to hide.
Reprinted from the November 1993 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
