 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group The President's Screen Address Ian Robinson |
June 1988 has gone down in the Group's record books as our most active month of all time, with PC 88, the Monster Auction, and our annual membership renewal drive all demanding considerable time and effort commitments from the management committee and members. The past hectic month has been the main reason behind the delay in getting this issue of PC Update out to you, but hopefully the results of these activities (summarised elsewhere in this issue) will make the wait worthwhile.
I must pass on my congratulations to Tom Coleman and the eager team of Melb PC members who assisted him to look after our (double-sized) stand at the exhibition, which appeared to be packed out for the entire four days of PC 88. Tom lobbied long and hard for a double stand at our early PC 88 planning meetings, and now I will not be surprised to hear him push for a triple-sized booth for PC 89!
I found that many of the new Melb PC members who joined at PC 88 were initially attracted to our stand to ask technical questions (a la Random Access), and were so impressed with the assembled expertise that they signed up immediately. Perhaps we should learn from this and promote ourselves in future shows as an 'impartial technical assistance bureau' - after all, that is a fundamental part of our role. Show attendees find good honest advice from Melb PC members a welcome change from the high-powered sales people who frequent the other stands.
Membership applications resulting from PC 88 are still pouring in, and in fact the Group's 3000th member was recruited by Tom Coleman himself on Day Three of PC 88.
The impressive financial results of both PC 88 and the Auction are tangible proof that there are other major ways in which Melb PC can generate funds without necessarily having to increase its membership fees. As you may be aware, the 11 copies of PC Update that every member receives each year actually cost more than the $25 membership fee to publish, but they are subsidised by other revenue-raising activities, such as public domain and blank disk sales. Then of course there are the ongoing capital investments such as our powerful bulletin board and editorial systems, projectors, microphones, disk copying facilities and the original purchase of public domain disks from the US.
You will be hearing more about the membership fees issue, as we have never had an increase in fees since the group first started, yet inflation has been charging along (as usual) over the intervening years, and our membership of well over 3200 requires considerable funds to adequately service. Other Australian PC user groups charge higher fees for fewer services, but good management and an enthusiastic membership have helped to keep Melb PC fees relatively low.
Over the next few months you will be presented with arguments in PC Update for and against the raising of membership fees, and I urge you to read and think carefully about these. Our Constitution ensures that fees can only be raised after a decision by the entire membership (not just the committee) at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting, so do try to make an effort to turn up and exercise your democratic rights.
As you can see, PC Update now has an enthusiastic new editorial team, and over the next twelve months the magazine will progress from a subsidised operation into a profit centre, as we boost the proportion of paid advertising. Please note that there is no explicit or implicit endorsement by Melb PC of products or services advertised in PC Update, but allowing advertising does provide for expansion and improvement of the publication, and by providing less of a drain on Group funds we can improve our other services.
However, the editorial team will be improving more than just the profitability of PC Update, and you can expect a constant upgrading of the magazine over the next few months. To help fund the expansion, our venerable new editor has agreed to make our desktop publishing facilities available to the wider membership. Those who have software which generates Post-Script output but do not have a laser printer, for example, can upload files to the bulletin board for printout. The next Editorial SIG meeting will decide upon some standardised prices for this service. I would also like to see our other SIGs making use of the Melb PC editorial system occasionally - after all, in dollar terms it has been the Group's major capital investment to date.
The management committee welcomes two new members to its ranks: Morris Tobias and Jenny Baum. Morris is one of our resident hard disk gurus, and many of you would have heard him speak at our monthly meetings, while Jenny has been the driving force behind the upsurge in advertising in PC Update. Both have been of great assistance to the committee prior to being elected members, and we look forward to their future contributions. Remember that any interested Melb PC members may attend committee meetings, which are held on the Monday prior to the main monthly Wednesday meeting.
The committee's appreciation is also passed on to outgoing committee members Ron Lyth and David Jitts. Ron will be spending more time with the Turbo Pascal SIG and with our popular PC training courses, while David is taking a spell from the editorial job he has been doing so well for the past few years.
The theme of July's meeting is PC Writing Tools - something we all use at various times. I look forward to catching up with you there.
Reprinted from the July 1988 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
