 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Melb PC Personality Profiles Tesa Melland |
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This month, instead of volunteers, I am introducing you to paid office staff of the Melb PC. Since the office is the main line of contact for most members, I thought it would be a good idea to give you some idea of the people and situation in there.
While many members may have met Janet Henstock and Tracy Swan behind the desk at the monthly meetings, both are full-time employees in the office at 66 Albert Road, South Melbourne. The office (which includes the BBS) is situated on the 2nd Floor, with other rooms available for training sessions, SIGs and other club activities. Parking is usually readily available, at meters, in Albert Road (just off St Kilda Rd).
Janet Henstock
Janet has been the Operations Manager for Melb PC since January 1993. Working in the same building as the Club, for ITeC (training long-term unemployed) she came to work for us when we moved to Albert Road. Her working life has mostly been spent in the Banking industry.
Born in Bristol, but raised in East Acton in London, England, Janet came to Australia in 1974. Moving from Frankston six months ago, she lives in Werribee with her husband Paul, who is a Distributor for Amway.
Asking Janet what her job entailed, she said, "Everything from doing the financial accounting to flushing the toilets after the men who were in the night before!" It seems to me that we are lucky she has a good sense of humour. Actually, of course, her job is a very busy one. Not only does she do the accounting, which is no mean task, but she organises the volunteers and oversees all the office activities, including coordinating the hiring of the group facilities. She also attends all committee meetings and is the Melb PC official face at the monthly meetings. In fact, we'd be in a mess without her.
Tracy Swan
Tracy is the Administration Officer and has been with us since July 1993. She came to us after working as a mainframe operator for a stationery company, where she had been for the previous three years. Tracy has been working in administration since she left school.
A very cheerful and helpful person, Tracy is usually the first person you will talk to whether you phone the office or walk in the front door. Other than her general office duties, she looks after the membership administration (new members and renewals), training (bookings and courses available) and shareware registrations. You will also see Tracy, behind the desk, at the monthly meetings.
Janet and Tracy both enjoy working at the Melb PC office. They find it a "happy environment" where the time goes very quickly. They have found they have had to pull back from the numbers of hours they found themselves doing, over and above their designated hours (run on from the day's work, extra meetings etc), in order to spend some time at home.
One of the difficulties is the time members, committee members and volunteers spend "chatting" either on the phone or in the office. Prefaced by "I know you're busy, but ...." they continue to chat for another half-hour! While they both enjoy that contact, it does mean that the major tasks, like banking and sorting the mail, take three or four times longer to complete. Therefore, in order to get the work done, the office is only open for membership contact between 10.30 a.m. and 3 p.m. each weekday. This seems perfectly reasonable to me, in fact would appear to be in the best interests of Melb PC as a whole. However, there are some out there who become very rude because of the reduced access. If you have a query or complaint, please take it to the committee that you have elected to make the decisions. It's not very pleasant receiving vulgar, abusive taped messages.
Volunteers
Melb PC cannot exist without volunteers. While we have already noted the amount of hours members contribute to the BBS and PC Update, volunteers are also very necessary in the office.
There are two kinds of volunteers needed-those who are prepared to put in time on a regular basis (e.g. two hours on alternate Tuesday mornings) and those who would be prepared to be in a volunteer bank, which can be called upon when the need arises. Please contact Janet or Tracy, if you are able to help.
It should be noted that the volunteers do most of the time consuming jobs in the office, like filling envelopes, they are not working with computers or doing anything very complicated. Nevertheless, all the work has to be done and it would be an invaluable service any member could do in support of our club.
Just a note from Janet and Tracy - please don't touch things in the office (computers etc.) and wash your mugs after your cups of coffee!
Janet and Tracy, we thank you for putting up with us, sorting out our problems and providing us with a very welcome "Club" atmosphere. Your smiling personalities support the members through some of our awkward and unfamiliar times in getting to know the people and facilities available at Melb PC. We look forward to this positive relationship continuing, to our mutual advantage, through the coming year.
Reprinted from the April 1994 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
