 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Vice's Views Charles Wright |
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If you happen to come to this month's special meeting - and we do hope that you will - you're going to have a small glimpse of this group's future. It's not going to look especially futuristic. As a matter of fact, it's going to look pretty ordinary ... a table ... a sign ... a couple of smiling faces. But the future is going to be looking for you. Please say "Hello".
What we're going to be looking for at that table, are the hundreds of members of this group who want to help, but in the past simply haven't known what to do.
Were going to have jobs for anyone interested in helping, and we're going to be looking for people who have the skills and the energy to tackle all the initiatives that we've been planning over the couple of months.
The committee has now had three full days of planning, and we've identified many of the problems and opportunities that face us now, and in the future.
The major opportunity, and at the same time, ironically, our major problem, is growth. We've had an influx of new members, and we suddenly find ourselves, with dose to 6000 members, the fourth biggest user group in the world.
One of the things we've been doing is liaising much more closely with the hardware and software industry, reminding them that they need to acknowledge and service groups like ours, and they are finding our sheer size is a compelling argument for assistance.
But there's so much to do, and too few people to handle it. Our organisational structure simply wasn't designed to cope with anything like 6000 members. It's not hard to imagine the effects: more telephone calls, a bigger magazine to fill and produce more letters to process and mail out, things in every area that people want done. We need to expand our work force, fast. We need people who can do jobs, and people who can co-ordinate a variety of activities.
What's in it for you, of course, are a whole new range of services, and a much better organised group. The problems that we've experienced at recent meetings are only one sign of the strains that our existing volunteer force has been facing. But think of the opportunities: more and better training courses, facilities for members to try out new hardware and software before buying them, book and video libraries, school programs, more special interest groups that meet the needs of people interested in specific areas of computing, from desktop publishing to CD-ROMs to multimedia, more discounts and benefits, auctions and special events ...
The new Quicken SIG that Viv Martin is forming is only a small indication of the specific interests that people want us to tap. To do it, we need you!
Bill McLeod and Noeline Finlay, who have agreed to co-ordinate the activities of our new volunteer force - we can probably come up with a prize for someone who can think of an appropriate name for them - are perfect illustrations of the enormous untapped resources this club has. And the major task for 1992 is going to be giving them the opportunity to pitch in.
We're going to be asking you all for more feedback on all sorts of areas of club activity, so that we can identify what you want, and give it to you.
It's interesting to speculate on what the average club member thinks about the committee members. In the past I think we've tended to be too focussed on the immediate tasks, and consequently a little remote from the members we're serving. There are 15 members of the committee, all of them contributing in different ways to the club's functioning, but relatively few of the members even know their faces.
This year you'll find that committee members will be going out of their way to meet you and talk to you. If you want to serve on that committee yourself, or in any of the new administrative roles that we're creating, if you have any ideas or criticisms (but constructive ones please), make yourself known to us, and lay your card (your membership card) on the table.
Reprinted from the April 1992 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
