 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group President's Annual Report Charles Wright charles@melbpc.org.au |
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It is always a pleasure, when presenting an annual report like this, to be able to look back on another successful year.
We have already reported our financial year's results - a profit of $130,000 - and since then we have continued to exceed our budget forecast in most areas of the club's activities. We've more than replenished the financial reserves we committed to building the facilities we decided would give us the growth we needed to survive.
As I write this, our membership is about to pass the 10,000 figure I imagined, three years ago, that we might reach in perhaps five years. There seems little doubt that we will continue to grow far beyond what most of us imagined was possible, when we were struggling for survival not so very long ago.
We have then, achieved our immediate goal of turning the club into a viable enterprise, and establishing a solid financial and administrative system. While our growth indicates that we offer a high level of service to our members, and I could no doubt toss off a thousand words patting ourselves on the back, the fact is that we have no reason at all for complacency.
While some areas of the group's activities have been an outstanding success - and I suggest that the BBS is a shining example - others need to perform at a much higher level of self-sufficiency and service.
In most cases, the reason they're lagging is a simple lack of resources. We have only a tiny number of volunteers, and our efforts to attract people willing to put something back into the group have met with little response. That, I suggest, is the principal area of disappointment. Fixing it, is one of our major tasks for the coming year.
The job begins, I believe, by showing members how they can have a much more personal involvement with the club, and providing a much more friendly atmosphere. The initiatives we took a couple of years ago, with a welcome desk at monthly meetings, and a volunteer coordinating group, unfortunately have fallen by the wayside. They have to be reintroduced, and followed through.
We also need to make it more attractive for people to offer their services as volunteers. (A little more on that later.)
I believe many people imagine that they can't really help the group because they don't have sufficient computer skills. In fact we have no shortage of computer experts. What we need are people with skills in other areas - marketing, human resources, training, administration etc, or even just simple people skills. If you have a talent for making friends, and working with others, the club can use you.
You won't be expected to work on your own. We want to set up activity groups in each area. I don't want to call them subcommittees, because we all know what subcommittees are like, and they aren't much fun.
It's vital, I believe, that everything we do involve as much fun as possible. Even our committee meetings, for instance, are occasions for a lot of friendly banter. We get quite a lot of serious work done, but often the proceedings can be hilarious.
Our meetings used to last until 1 am, or even later. Now they are usually over by 10.30 pm, largely because we use the Internet and the BBS to distribute reports and comments between meetings. You can get a lot of things done quickly, working in efficient teams.
Training for teamwork might be one of the courses we could offer our volunteers.
Certainly we have to look at the sort of training courses we do offer, and how we present them. Too many courses are half-filled. Some aren't advertised. Once or twice a trainer hasn't turned up. Trainees report varying levels of teacher proficiency. Many of the areas in which today's computer users are most interested simply aren't addressed.
It's clear the existing system isn't working. I've had discussions on the matter with
Tom Coleman, and he's indicated he'll support our efforts to improve our performance.
This group represents an important community resource. Training is a major part of our charter. In the same way as our BBS is regarded as one of, if not the absolute best in Australia, our training courses ought to be outstanding. By the end of this financial year, I'm determined they will be.
Another area that I believe needs a fresh look is PC Update. It's been a highly valuable organ for the group, and has been rightly recognised with international awards. But there has been little change in its format for quite a while now, and it needs a fresh look, and fresh content.
We have always had equally vehement views from within the membership about whether
PC Update ought to have more material for beginners, more material for intermediate users, or more material for experts, so obviously we need to proceed with caution. One thing it desperately needs is more advertising to subsidise production costs, which have been increasing as a significant percentage of the annual membership fee, as the number of advertisements has declined.
Ash Nallawalla, given his huge workload, and his new job as Vice-President, is obviously slowly stepping back from the magazine, and we'll soon have a new editorial team.
With their enthusiasm, Ash's guidance, Peter Smith's production skills and my own professional interest in publishing, you can expect some improvements.
One thing we do need in the magazine is more members writing about their experiences with computers, or with the computer fraternity. I'm delighted, for instance, to see
Tessa Melland resuming her contributions in this issue.
I'd like to see Eddies in the Ether, which Dave Mitchell used to write for us about BBS interests, return, and I'd like to see a similar column written on the Internet.
The topic of small business and computers, and home-based businesses are all worth exploring on a regular basis. Over the years, several people who began writing about computers for
PC Update have graduated to quite well-paid freelance writing work with publications like
The Age. I often wonder, in fact, whether there might not be room for a computer-writing SIG within the group, perhaps liaising with the magazine.
Our Internet service is successful, although we continue to have to restrict its availability. It needs more bandwidth. It will get more bandwidth, very soon.
While our monthly meetings have improved substantially over the past few years, I wonder if reduced attendances over the past couple of months might not indicate waning enthusiasm. I have no doubt that it's only temporary, but I'd like to see wider input into the selection of our speakers, and preparation of our programs.
I can't help but feel that the Saturday Windows 95 program, which was a great success, provides us with an example of the sort of material we ought to have more of at our monthly meetings. We will certainly be having more Saturday events next year.
At the last monthly meeting, which I used as an opportunity to gather a little feedback from members about our meeting programs, I was asked a question from the floor that suggested there were rumours that the committee received benefits that were not available to individual members.
Although I was at the time singularly unimpressed by the member's sense of timing - the occasion of the Melba Awards, when we have influential members of the vendor community as our guests, is not the right forum to debate such matters - I reflected later that the one thing that threatens this group is a lack of communications, so I telephoned the member, to try to uncover the source of his concerns.
I explained to the member, and I'll put it on the public record here, that I don't share his concern about this. In fact a free Internet account actually costs the group nothing, or an incalculably small amount. It improves the committee's communications among themselves and with members. In fact, some of us have demanding professional commitments, and would find it impossible to fulfil our club duties without the convenience of Internet e-mail.
It also means the committee sees for itself what issues and problems confront Internet users, which aids their considerations of Internet matters, as access to the BBS gives them a view of another important area of club business. This is part of their duties, and they ought not have to pay to fulfil them.
I have no intention of seeking any adjustment in that policy. Indeed I'm considering asking the committee to extend it.
If a volunteer works consistently on behalf of the group, a free Internet account might be a way of rewarding effort, and encouraging others.
My attitude on these matters is entirely commercial. While we have always been, and must continue to be diligent in avoiding any misuse or waste of the group's funds, I think it would be irresponsible to hamper our performance and efficiency by jealous penny-pinching, or fretting about whether some people are getting more than others.
In my opinion, the people who devote large amounts of time and energy to the group, ought to get more than others. (I don't extend that to myself, however. For the record, I receive no free services, make a point of paying admission fees, and do not recover any entertainment or out-of-pocket expenses from the group.)
I think the member accepted my position on the matter of Internet accounts for the committee, but what is more important, he has undertaken in future to raise his concerns with me or with the committee, before airing them in a public forum. I expect all members to observe that procedure.
There is a standing invitation for any member to attend our committee meetings, and minutes are placed on the BBS. I have undertaken to ask the committee to reconsider its decision to cease publishing them in the magazine.
The marketing of our activities and our promotional efforts, both internally and externally, have had very little attention in the past. One of our new committee members, Michael Douman, has already begun working on this, and I'm hopeful we'll soon begin to see some results.
We have all but finalised our policy on special interest groups, and we can expect not just much better relations between the co-ordinators and the committee, but more SIGs.
We should very soon begin advertising for our new executive officer. This of course will mark a major transition for the group.
I think we have to be particularly careful as we appoint more paid staff, that we don't lose sight of the underlying principle that's been the basis for our success, and certainly for my continued involvement in the group.
That principle is users helping users. By the time you read this, Ash and our new, most valued Secretary,
Stan Johnstone, will have returned from a visit to the international APCUG (Association of PC User Groups) at Comdex, and consultations with the Boston Computer Society. Obviously they'll be full of ideas and information.
One closing observation. I'm not in favour of this group becoming, as some people suggest, an RACV of the computer world, largely because the model to which they refer is the RACV's road service club. The RACV is, for most members, not much more than a professional breakdown service and an insurance company. There is a separate, much more exclusive RACV Club membership, who do all the socialising. I wonder sometimes, if we haven't been setting up a similar situation. If so, I'd like that to change. If you're only interested in the services we offer, you're missing out. Come and join the club!
Reprinted from the December 1995 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
