 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group PC (President's comments) Morris Tobias president@melbpc.org.au |
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Melb PC has come a long way since it was formed in 1984. As times and
our members' needs have changed, the rules governing us have been amended. The Committee has decided that it
is time once again to revisit our rules.
Initially, we are encouraging discussion amongst members to find out which, if any, rules need to be
reviewed. If you would like to contribute anything to this, please contact the office.
Internet renewals
March is our busiest month in the office with Internet subscription renewals. Each year one third of our
total subscriptions come up for renewal in this month. This is partly due to the time we commenced the
service, and the complete re-registration in the following year.
Just under 90 percent of our Melb PC Internet subscribers whose renewal fell due in March renewed for a
further year. This was an outstanding result compared with renewal rates quoted by commercial ISPs. As a
result of this we can afford to look ahead with confidence. The Internet team has been planning accordingly
to meet and extend the services for subscribers.
George Skarbek has written elsewhere of some of the changes to the Internet service, and I am sure we
can look forward to other increased benefits and services during the next year.
Internet workshops
The two Internet workshops held in April at Gardenvale were a great success. Almost 200 people attended the
first session, and while the second session's numbers were down the following week, everyone came out of the
project with something. A huge vote of thanks goes to Felix Hofmann and Alan Fowler for
organising the workshops and ensuring everything went smoothly.
Free daytime Internet training for the retired and unemployed
Appreciating that many of our members are unable to afford even the modest charges of our regular training
courses, Stan Johnstone has offered to conduct a series of daytime training sessions to assist retired
and unemployed members.
Stan is our past President and a member of the Internet team.
Small classes in a seminar format are being planned to meet the needs of both beginners and intermediate
level users, and will be held in the SIG Room at 27 Dorcas Street during the daytime on weekdays.
At this stage no dates have been set. Any member who would like to attend these classes should fax or mail
their interest to the office, or make direct contact with Stan Johnstone by e-mail at stanj@melbpc.org.au so that sessions may be commenced immediately. He will
respond to you directly with session dates and times.
Stan also hopes to run some classes on using the Internet, for those who have not used it before, so they
can discover how easy it is to use, and some of the benefits of the medium.
Reprinted from the June 1999 issue of PC Update, the
magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
