President's Letter
When I was talked into taking on this job - I had absolutely no idea how much it involved. Since the AGM on the 27th of Sept, I have sent over 650 Email messages, and the vast majority were on PCUG business. Of course I received many more than that.
But it has involved getting up early to get through them all. My wife is already picking up the language and suggesting that I "get a life"...
But enough of my whingeing - the workload will reduce as we get into the routines.
Obviously it's been a busy first month.
1. The PCUG Premises in Belconnen were leased when we had double the membership than we have today. They are costing us more than $45,000 a year in rent and other charges. We can offset the cost by commercially renting our "Computer Skills Centre" (read training room), but our record of attracting business has been spasmodic. The lease expires next month and we have already dropped onto a monthly lease, which means it can be terminated by either ourselves, or the landlord, on a month's notice.
So the search for new premises is definitely on - and the committee would really appreciate help from the members in the search.
Here is what we are looking for:
a. Floor area: Around what we have at the moment - but we could go a little smaller. The current premises are 180 sq M for the main room and 75 sq M for the training room. We have big plans for a training room - so we would really like space for that.
b. Rental: Much as we would like it - I do not think we can afford commercial 'shop front' rents near the town centres. We are looking for something for $20,000 Per annum or less (hopefully a fair bit less). We are looking for a longish lease - perhaps 3 years
c. Location: As 'central' as possible. To me this means no further North than Lyneham/Dixon - possibly some the 'closer' Belconnen suburbs such as Aranda or Cook. And no Further South than Woden or Weston Creek. Preferably not too far from main road links, and close to public Transport. Adequate parking - so perhaps near an 'unused' school, or a sports oval or similar. Hopefully some sort of disabled access.
d. Type of premises:
Probably not 'commercial'. With luck, property 'owned' by one of the government
departments for (non-profit) community use. But they mostly seem to be fully
used already. We would even consider a private house, hopefully with at least a
double garage or better still a 'Granny flat'. Many commercial businesses are
being run from private houses these days. I would love to offer one of our
members (currently renting) - "free accommodation in return for minor
maintenance tasks and answering the phone occasionally"! It has also been
suggested that we contact all the local schools and colleges that are currently
operational. They are increasingly getting into renting out space apparently.
So if you know of anything - it would be really appreciated if you could
check it out. Even visit your local real estate agent for private
(non-commercial) rentals. But please do not Email or phone with "have you
contacted XXXXX" or "Call YYYYYY for a good deal". We need you to check if there
is available space or property that might meet our needs as outlined above, and
to take a look at it if possible. If it looks a good bet - then please let any
committee member know. For a list of the new committee members. Please see my
web site at the bottom of the page at http://www.pcug.org.au/~jsaxon/pc/pcug/lms/manifesto.htm or http://tinyurl.com/6uoeu for short.
This is already getting rather long - but
please bear with me, a lot has happened in the last 3-4 weeks.
2. TIP directions: As most of you will know - we have
introduced a "double for your money" 3 month trial starting on the 15th of this
month. This effectively increases your download hours on dial-up to 600 hours
per year for the same cost, and broadband download limits to 1.2 GB download per
month. If the trail succeeds, and people do not change their current usage
patterns too much - then the trial will be continued. If users face congestion
or busy lines - then we will stop the trial and regroup. But we believe that we
will be much more competitive if we can offer these rates year round.
We have lot's more plans to further improve TIP services -
so stay tuned.......
3. Web Sites: The
PCUG web site at http://www.pcug.org.au/ was recently re-hacked by Harry Souter and the web serfs (sounds a
bit like a 60's rock band :-). Many thanks guys. But the fact is that it is an
almost totally separate site from www.tip.net.au
The latter site is badly in need of updating and ideally we would like to see the two sites combined once we have the 'politics' sorted out. Then when people visit either site they would see the same information which would cover all that we do in the PCUG and TIP. So bear with us - I would really like to see that happen.
In the interim, we have set up a couple of web spaces that
we can update quickly. One is for PCUG members at www.pcug.org.au/members
(which you are using to access this magazine) It also contains the current
calendar of events provided by Mike Dinn at www.pcug.org.au/members/calendar As with most web things - it's a rapidly improving work in progress.
Please contact Mike Dinn (details at the end of para 1 above) with comments and
suggestions.
4. Other Member benefits:
We are working hard on these, and we have at least one really good one in the
pipeline. So once again - stay tuned!
In the meantime I can say that we receive many requests for
software reviews and we are looking for volunteers to check out the new stuff
and write 2 or 3 paragraphs for 16 Bits web magazine. If you would like to give
it a try - I have posted the requests and instructions at www.pcug.org.au/members/swreview
So that is more than enough from me except to thank
the new 16 Bits editor Trevor Frew for this first magazine. It's been a bit
rushed - but the consolation is that it will get better! We are hoping to get
most of the PCUG member information that was repeated in previous 16 Bits
magazines will be posted in appropriate places on the web sites very soon.
From John Saxon - your P-plate President.