 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group The President's Pen Spen Ingamells |
There's Excitement in the Air!
Melbourne PC User Group is certainly entering an exciting phase.
Membership of our Group is becoming more exciting, interesting, educational and beneficial every month. It will continue to enrich our lives, widen our horizons and open up more opportunities for each of us, for years to come.
Whilst we retain associations and contacts with others having similar interests, we learn by helping each other. Irrespective of whether computing is our vocation, our hobby or some less direct interest, the mutual benefits gained through sharing knowledge, ideas and information are extraordinary.
We also gain from the support and companionship provided by our fellow members. In return we will help, in exactly the same way. The benefits of Melbourne PC User Group membership are simply unparalleled.
Special Membership Drive
You will read this month about a special membership drive: The results of which promise to lift our group from being the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, to around second or third largest in the world.
You will also read about a Members' Buying Service, solely for Melbourne PC User Group members. The bargains available will have to be seen to be believed.
This month our Magazine, PC Update, already hailed by American User Groups as being an "outstanding professional magazine" - not a news-letter as they describe their publications - is the biggest and best issue yet.
"Exciting times for Melbourne PC User Group" must surely be the historical understatement of all User Groups.
What Makes Us Different?
What makes our Group so interesting, strong and attractive? Is it the great number of members who so generously give of their time to answer questions and help solve the problems of fellow members through the Dial Help Service?
Is it the unlimited variety of informative and entertaining articles published in PC Update? Is it the fact that in Melbourne we have a large pool of potential new members? Is it the members' Special Training Courses?
Without doubt each of these items contributes to our sensational success, but how would you view the proposition that your contribution could be the catalyst that could cause all of these to pale into insignificance.
Remember, all of our current strengths grew from the seeds of someone's ideas and then brought to fruition by teams of dedicated and willing helpers.
Would You Get Involved?
What does your membership subscription cost? Do you think $30.00 covers the costs of producing, publishing and distributing PC Update? It does, but only because PC Update is compiled and edited by members, for members and at no cost to members. Other members actively solicit advertising to further subsidise the costs.
How much personal effort would you imagine was devoted to the endless discussions and negotiations that resulted in the incredible bargains now being made available through the new "Members Buying Service"? Such figures are not documented.
Who will staff our stand at PC91? Who does all that is required to be done before, during and after each monthly meeting at Clunies Ross House? Who arranges the speakers and presentation topics for those meetings, weeks before the event?
The answer in every case is Group members in general, and Committee members in particular. who give their time to the Group - Free.
A Very Important Change!
Let's examine the ever changing role of the Melbourne PC User Group Management Committee. Lets also look at how you might become involved to make our Group even better.
This Committee is comprised of individual Group members. Nominally 15 people, from a wide variety of backgrounds. Collectively they determine what Melbourne PC User Group does, where it is going and how it will get there. As explained, all this is done on a purely voluntary basis.
This is where your involvement can help. The role of the committee is changing. More assistance will be required, because as the Group grows in size and number of services offered, so too will the responsibilities.
As the Group's activities increase, so too will the workload on each Committee member. The day is not too far distant, when the Management Committee will of necessity, be restricted to a management role and little else.
Who will do those small but vitally important jobs? Can membership of this unique Club remain as low as $30.00 per year? How much hired help will be needed to perform the tasks traditionally undertaken by volunteers?
These are important questions which need to be addressed now! They cannot be ignored. Let you and I, find a mutually convenient time to discuss some of these issues. My door is always open.
Become a Committee Member
There is no magic. You don't have to be wealthy. You don't have to be a computer whiz. It's not necessary to have strong management skills with many years of programming experience thrown in for good measure.
What you do need is to be a person prepared to make some regular commitment to the Group. It may be helpful to know something about computers or computing, although that is by no means essential. Such things such as legal and accounting knowledge and advice are always in short supply.
When people decide to give something of themselves to the Group, it is not unusual to find they believe they have already gained substantially from it. Have you enjoyed the benefits available from membership of our Group? If so, the time might just be right for you to give something in return.
Reprinted from the August 1991 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
