 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Getting to Know the Special Interest Groups - Bayside Group Noel Peters - SIG Coordinator noelp@melbpc.org.au |
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The main activity around our Suburban, Regional and Special Interest Groups last month was the launch of the new Bayside suburban group. Previously we had thought that the hire of St Stephens Church hall in North Road Brighton would completely fill the need for a place for all of our members living in the south eastern suburbs and give them all a venue to meet and enjoy their computing interests locally without travel to Dorcas Street. This may not really be enough to satisfy the demand in this area but we shall review the position over the coming months.
Experience gained last April from our North East Group's first meeting where there was insufficient seating to accommodate the one hundred and fifty plus members and friends that turned up, caused us for Bayside to only do a limited mail out to those members in the immediate suburbs of Gardenvale, Brighton, Bentleigh, Hampton, Sandringham and Beaumaris.
The response was such that more than one hundred people comprising approximately an 80-20% ratio of members to friends turned up and were comfortably accommodated. The venue is good with a spacious entrance foyer, a large kitchen area, good lighting and heating and with some capacity for a few more attendees.
After introductions the usual computer related Q&A session was conducted, our president George Skarbek answering the curly ones. After the tea break, Ken Holmes gave a presentation of his computer games developments. A special thank you goes to two of the attendees in Bill Guzman and Judie Potts. Bill for offering to do next months demonstration of installing a CD reader/writer in a PC to be videoed and projected on screen for all to see, and Judie for taking on the task of producing the Bayside Groups home page. Again the Retired and Interested Person Group's computer was pressed into service to launch a new group.
By the time you read this, North East and Berwick, two of our other recently formed groups will have taken delivery of a new machine each to facilitate their presentations.
All considered this group got off to a healthy start and should flourish in the future.
For further information on Bayside SIG contact the convener Brian Devitt at briandev@melbpc.org.au.
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Reprinted from the September 2001 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
