 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Prez Said Lloyd Borrett |
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I'm really not sure what I intended to use this section of the newsletter for. In the absence of guidance from you, and with the assistance of Don Withrow (President Capital PC User Group), this is what I intend to do with this space. First, I'll try to report on decisions made by the Committee from time to time. Second, a group of very talented people are busting their guts for you, and the group as a whole, making sure that things run smoothly at meetings, directing group activities, and doing those things that only volunteers can do. I want you to know who they are - who to thank. Finally, in order for me to serve effectively as your President and orchestrate the actions of the Committee, I'm going to need to know what you think about certain things. So, I'll use this column to ask for your feedback on planned events, pending decisions, and just where you want the group to go from here and how do you want to get there. Now with that as an introduction, let's get on with the notes.
Australia's first IBM PC based Bulletin Board System is now on-line. My own PC will be enabled as a BBS whenever I'm not using it (i.e. most of the time). Electro-Medical Engineering have kindly donated a Sendata 2000 auto answer, auto disconnect 300 baud modem to Melb PC for use on the BBS. PC Connection Australia have provided the telephone line.
The phone number is (03) 528 3750. All you need is a 300 baud direct connect modem or acoustic coupler, a telephone line, a serial/asynchronous/communications port, and a program such as PC-TALK 111, Crosstalk, MODEM7, etc.. I think you'll enjoy the opportunity to ask questions, share tips, and access public domain software in this way.
There are some problems with the phone line to the system, and as a result many calls never really get started, or are aborted. Just keep trying. It helps if you strike away at the Enter key until the system starts transmitting to you.
You've probably already noticed that thus issue is BIGGER than volumes 1.1 and 1.2. The group now has access to material from the publications of The Boston Computer Society and the Capital PC User Group. These are the two largest user groups in the U.S. We have also registered with the IBM User Support Group (USG), a service provided by IBM. Most U.S. and some non-U.S. user groups now send copies of their newsletters to the IBM USG, who then pick out useful items, add IBM product announcements, and send out a newsletter on diskette to the participating user groups. I think you'll agree that the quality of our newsletter is improved by this material, but we still want to maintain a high level of local content. So, write it down and send it in.
A new committee member has been appointed. He's one of those guys who'll be working intensively behind the scenes to make a better group for you. His name is Roy Watson and he has been appointed to the position of Publicity Officer. After only a few short brain-storming sessions with Roy we have already identified a number of improvements and innovations that can be made to our publicity machine.
Melb PC's stand at the PC84 show (July 18 to 21) will help us to reach out to potential members. We hope to have the Bulletin Board System on-line by show time. If so, then demonstrations of the system will be available. Many other product demonstrations will also be offered by those manning the stand. Visit the show and seek out our stand.
The groups activities, newsletter etc. have been dominated by material directly targeted to IBM PC users. I would like to see that change. The letters IBM were deliberately left out of the Melb PC name to highlight the fact that the group was formed for the users of IBM and Compatible personal computers.
The committee has agreed to act on a number of directives intended to further encourage users of compatibles to become members and contribute to the group's activities. We seem to well on the way to achieving recognition from IBM as to the value of the groups contribution. Now we seek to gain the same recognition from the distributors of the compatibles.
Reprinted from the July 1984 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
