 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Pres Said John Beck |
It is a pleasant surprise that comment has been made on the aims of the committee. It gives an idea of other people's points of view. The January Pres Sed was to have been the short boring speech of the new president at the December meeting (item on Secretary's agenda). Thank you Roger for same which asked a few questions, and thus deserves a reply.
There are four areas where payment is made: Packing and posting PC Update, and the salary of the Administration Officer. This is a charge on all members. The cost of copying PD software and the fee paid to course lecturers is a user pays. Decide for yourself if they are necessary.
To strive for improved efficiency does not imply that previous operations were sloppy. However members of long standing are probably aware of difficulties which the current committee had to overcome. A rapid increase in the membership and the facilities available also required that some facets of management had a lower priority than they deserved. For example we are only just introducing management accounting and budgeting. This will enable financial decisions to be made with full knowledge of forecasted cash flow. The best way to spread any workload and generate enthusiasm is get people involved. In our case this can be done with active SIGs.
The editor has advised the committee that he spends 60 to 100 hours per month working on PC Update. [Ed: I now spend only 24-36 hours a month due to the increased cooperation of authors.] If Ash was sick or went away on business would everyone be happy not to have a magazine that month? If sufficient advertisements were obtained, there would be no need to subsidise the publication $60,000 per annum. This is one area needing skills other than publishing. I have discussed a SIG with Ash, and although he is not enthused about running it, for various reasons, we still consider it will be of great assistance. The editor if not involved in the SIG is the one who decides the content of the magazine, in line with Group's objectives. Commercial magazines, and we consider to be of similar standard with many of them, are not assembled with a handful of people. Introduction of horses, camels and committees is usually the ploy used when an effective argument does not exist. The above observations apply equally to a BBS SIG or for that matter any other.
The Group's office at present is the size of a small bedroom, and the rent is over $10,000 per annum. The BBS will be moved there as soon as telephone lines are installed. That will make the requirement for another room to be available as the activities expand. There will then be two small rooms for which a rental of $400 per week is paid. Would any of our members consider living in two small bedrooms at that price preferable to buying a place? This will be a long term project and is a financially viable proposition. If PCs are replaced we will move with the new technology. If Crays [Ed: a very powerful supercomputer] become universal tools we may change our name to Cray Users Group, but the objectives will stay the same.
On the final point, our constitution requires that the financial statement is published well in advance of the annual meeting, so that it can be studied. Is it asking too much to bring the previous month's magazine to the meeting if you want to ask meaningful questions?
For a look at the state of the Group when half its present size, read the President's Annual Report by Ron Lyth in the October 1987 PC Update. Now to this month's article. As mentioned above the BBS will move to the office. The reason is that the Sysops have done a two year stint for which we are very grateful, and hand over to new blood. Thank you Charles and Colin for keeping the board going, and from what has been said, suffering 'agro' from some users. After the last meeting the nucleus of a SIG was formed. Six people gathered in the bar and discussed the type of service which the BBS should offer and gave a commitment to help with the chores of maintenance. When the BBS is due to move the new telephone numbers will be published on the board, and for those who missed the notice, in PC Update. Miklos Bolvary has offered to edit the contents and write some new screens. This will take about 3 days, after which it will be put back on line.
With first-hand knowledge of desktop publishing and publication, Joe de Simone from Microhelp has kindly donated two standby places on a two day Ventura course, and the use of an eight station network of Ventura by the SIG on Saturday mornings. His stipulation is that the persons nominated must be available to participate in a two day course at short notice, and must help in the production of PC Update for 12 months. The committee would like any interested member to submit in writing to the secretary a resume of their past experience, and why they think they should be selected. Many applications are expected, and this selection procedure seems to be the fairest way to fill the positions.
This donation from Microhelp was announced at the monthly meeting and initiated discussion on several facets of the magazine. The majority would prefer to receive it a week earlier, but it was explained by John Swale that bagging took all weekend (which is the only time available) and it is posted on Sunday night. The total weight is almost a tonne and needs two cars to deliver to Australia Post. Commercial operators were investigated by committee and were found to be much more expensive and far slower in performance. Bringing forward deadlines is not an answer, as contents of club activities would be old news by the time of receipt. Reduction of preparation time with more sub-editors could help. The use of the address label as a means of stop press items was well received. If you did not turn it over and read it, do so now and remember to look at it each month from now on. The label also gives the date on which your membership is due for renewal. Some of the corporate members may not be aware of this if their postal section remove the wrappers and fix a circulation list.
One of our lecturers passed comment on the Compuskill ITeC leaflet as an insert in PC Update. We are only a few dollars less in price than their courses. We cannot always obtain lecturers at a convenient time. The two organisations are well equipped (we also use their facilities when available) and have full time teachers. It may be preferable to recommend our members to their courses, and we should concentrate on specialised courses like C, Autocad, Pascal, Assembler etc. These comments will be discussed at the next committee meeting, so if anyone has anything to add, the training officer will be pleased if you drop a note to the PO Box.
A speaker was expected to tell us how to convert scanned images into ASCII text for manipulation within the PC with a software package. Unfortunately no one came. Several members were disappointed, as they had an interest in the subject. The subject will be made a topic for a future meeting probably in August and will address hardware and software.
Doug Brooke and I spent a very enjoyable evening at the inaugural meeting of the Goulburn Valley Regional SIG. The expertise in computers varied widely, but the friendliness of the people attending was universally great. This SIG should have a great future, and if subsequent suppers prepared by Alison Cook are continued, the total population of Goulburn Valley will join. The local press gave good publicity. We wish Louis Cook every success as the co-ordinator.
Reprinted from the April 1989 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
