 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group President's Page John Drake |
Election
Our AGM, in December, saw what I regarded as a very healthy competition for the major posts of President and Secretary of our Group. Healthy because variety of purpose means we have a live club in which people want to take on jobs and are not drafted into them because nobody else wants them.
Of course I was pleased to be elected President rather than Peter Smith but you (the three or four per cent of the membership that troubled to vote) would not have made a great mistake if you had elected Peter instead of me. In a bit of lively pre-election campaigning we were described as
"opponents" - in a sense rivals with daggers drawn. Nothing could be further from the truth as far as I am concerned. I have always regarded Peter as a competent, friendly and hard working member of the Group and I look forward to continuing to work with him.
But the fact that the election of a new President and Secretary was decided by fewer than 200 of our 4,000+ members continues to trouble me. I feel that we have a very unhealthy lack of contact between the Committee and the membership at large and trying to close this gap will be a continuing preoccupation with me through the year. I intend to spend a little
time - just a little - at every monthly meeting reporting on the Committee's activities and soliciting members' views. Our publishing timetable would make it difficult to publish the Committee's minutes in
PC Update but I will try to report on the Committee's major activities in this monthly President's Page.
Committee
I will encourage all members of Committee to attend monthly meetings and to wear their Committee badges so that you will know them and can take up your concerns with them. Their telephone numbers are listed in
PC Update so that (in moderation and at civilized hours, please) you can call them at other times. I will, myself, be glad to hear from you but please bear in mind that I am an early riser and conk out well before midnight.
I think that the Committee should also give a great deal of attention to the results of the membership survey we carried out last year. It is full of information on what members think of the current performance of our group and of additional activities they would like us to take on. Indeed it is recommended reading for all members.
However, you should always remember that the reason that we do not take a lot of activities on board is not because nobody has ever thought of them but because there's nobody around willing to make them work. There's a much greater shortage of workers than of ideas. If you have a good idea, would you be willing to take the effort to help to put it into effect? Let us hear from you, but you have been warned. The same goes for just about all of our current activities. The office manager is the only paid worker in the Group and so in practically every activity we can use more volunteer workers.
Another matter that troubles me, and the Committee as a whole, is the low profile of women in our Group. I am almost always impressed by their competence and good sense when women speak at our meetings but we are still a Group predominantly run by men for men and I think that this has got to change.
The annual general meeting, for lack of any further nominations, elected eight male members of the Committee, leaving two vacancies to be filled by the Committee with co-opted members. We have appointed Leon Cohen to one of these vacancies and we have agreed, by consensus, to seek a woman to fill the other vacancy. And I hope we can increase women's representation on the Committee as the opportunity presents itself in occasional vacancies. I would be very grateful for suggestions of and from our women members.
Publications
Also seeking more helping hands is Peter Smith who, in addition to producing the magazine, has also been appointed chairman of a publications sub-committee which will plan and produce information materials for
members - pamphlets on buying computers, on computer communications and the like. Peter will be nominating some additional associate editors who will help out with production of the magazine and, in particular, cut their desktop publishing teeth on the production of pamphlets. This is a chance to work in the field of DTP with a most knowledgeable mentor to guide you.
I think that desktop publishing is a branch of computing of enormous importance to society and I am sorry that the Group has devoted so little attention to it, apart from the very small group of members who have
laboured to bring out our magazine month after month and year after year. We had quite an active DTP SIG going a year or so ago but then it seemed to fade away, I'm not aware why or how. I hope that Peter Smith and his publications sub-committee can find time and energy to breathe a bit more life into this activity.
Bulletin Board
By the time you read this the programme for expansion of our Bulletin Board will be well advanced. We have bought a new 33 MHz, 386 DX computer with a 300 MB hard drive and 7 MB of RAM which can look after four telephone lines. The present lines are being transferred to this system and will shortly be joined by two more lines. When the expansion programme is finished our board will be operating at up to 9600 bps. The whole process is mixed up with a complex of moves, transfers and repairs of other computers to provide expanded computer facilities for our administrative operations and a new
PC Update BBS so please don't be impatient if it's not all done by tomorrow.
Membership Database
Another question the Committee has in hand is the development of a truly adequate membership database. When this is developed we will be better able to serve the membership because we will know more about it and we will be able to present a more coherent image to the outside world. The Group should be more active in working to influence political and economic measures that affect personal computer users. It is listed as a major concern in our statutes but on a number of issues that have concerned us (sales tax on software is one of them) we have not said a word.
Reprinted from the Feb-Mar 1991 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
