 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Prez Said Lloyd Borrett |
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As we return to our regular meetings, we also start into the third year of Melb PC. And what is planned for this year?
All going well we expect to see this very publication continue to set a high standard for Australian user group newsletters. PC Update was initially a huge drain on the groups financial resources. Now, thanks mostly to the efforts of Joe De Simone, it pays its own way.
That means we can use membership fees to fund other services. We hope to establish regular workshops, seminars and clinics this year. Plans are underway to introduce membership cards which will entitle you to attractive discounts at various computer and related stores.
Felix Hoffman has completed negotiations with suppliers and we should soon have high quality diskettes available for purchase by Melb PC members at very low prices. Later in the year we hope to have a Melb PC bulletin board up and running. This bulletin board computer will also be used for various administrative functions.
We are also planning to organise volunteers and run a "Dial Help" service. Volunteers will field questions in their specialist topic by phone.
Sound good. Well there is a catch. Little of it will happen without your help. It's hard to have seminars without someone to run them. There will be no "Dial Help" service if members don't volunteer their assistance. No magazine will be forthcoming unless material is prepared and people donate their time to the preparation of it.
The challenge ahead is for each of you to participate more than just once a month. Many of you have been around Melb PC and personal computers for sufficient time to have accumulated enough information to be able to teach something to the next group of beginners via "Dial Help", seminars, workshops, clinics, PC Update, and Special Interest Groups.
Wow haven't they been a real failure. Yes, Special Interest Groups. Unless someone steps forward and puts some of their time on the line to organise a Special Interest Group then they don't happen. And in Melb PC that hasn't happened, thus very few successful SIGs are operating.
Now a quitter would assume that I'm being optimistic if I now expect great numbers of volunteers to surface and permit these other new services to be established. Well I'm not a quitter. But it's time we took a serious look at what is happening to Melb PC.
At the end of every meeting I'm usually set upon by at least one person with a great idea for a new service we could be providing or ways to enhance existing ones. And most of the time I'm able to agree fully, and we may end up discussing it at some length. But when I suggest that they organise it, interest often disappears. That is very depressing, especially when the person concerned is quite capable of doing it.
When you do work well you suffer the risk that you will inherit the task forever. When it's an unpaid, volunteer position the challenge of finding a successor is even greater. I think many of our existing volunteers have done the job well. But many now feel the need to move on to other things. No doubt you will see many of them involved in establishing new services.
But the crunch has come. Melb PC is a user group. Users helping users. Sure knowledge, experience and skill is helpful, but the primary requirement is enthusiasm and a willingness to learn.
You could become part of the newsletter staff and participate in a successful publication with a solid, narrowly defined focus and a very large audience. You could become a SIG organiser, a Dial Help volunteer, or a workshop presenter.
We have asked for your help before, but this time the need is critical. We cannot continue to function as a successful user group without it.
Reprinted from the March 1986 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
