This is a short history of our club.
The Group is a non-profit organisation, incorporated as a company on October 19, 1987.The directors at that time were Ronald Pollak, Lynne McDonough, Geoffrey May, John Miller and Brian Graham. There are no shares as the company is limited by guarantee.
The Group has been operating since 1984 when the first meeting was held in an office in Martin Place and then in Ronald Pollack’s offices near Wynyard.
Following the introduction of new government regulations, the Club structure was changed to Sydney PC User Group Incorporated in 2006. Later, to include the broadening role of modern technologies, the club's name was changed in 2017 to Sydney PC & Technology User Group Incorporated. (expand/rewrite)
Our club now meets at the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, (except for the Penrith Group). However, over many years we have met at a number of locations in the city including 99 ON YORK (The Bowlers Club), The Teachers Federation Auditorium and the Masonic Centre was used (circa 1990) for a big convention. In the late nineteen eighties, the Macarthur Users Group joined the Sydney PC Users Group and gave the Users Group a presence in the Campbelltown area. More recently, the Roland Users Group also joined us, becoming the Music SIG.
Many sub-groups called Special Interest Groups (or SIG's) were started for the benefit of members. These SIG's meet monthly, except December or January each year, many were held at the same location as the Main Meetings, but also at other locations throughout the City and Suburbs. These SIG's include, Beginners, Windows, and Desktop Publishing etc. In fact there were over 20 SIG's at one time.
For many years Cec Bennett ran a Shareware Library where members could purchase, basically for the cost of the disk, duplication and postage costs, shareware and freeware which was available on 3.5 or 5.25 inch disks. Cec eventually retired and he was made a Life Member of the club for his service.
During the early years the Group produced a magazine called "PrintScreen" that evolved and changed as the Group and technology changed. From a couple of duplicated pages to a glossy colour magazine. PrintScreen gave members information about meetings, products and programs without the usual hype of a press release. Printscreen was eventually superseded by a weekly Newsletter that is now delivered electronically to all members and other subscribers.
Group is a volunteer group and members assist in many ways, from standing on the board of directors, to answering phones, handling membership, stuffing envelopes, running meetings, looking after raffle ticket sales, sales of merchandise, taking equipment to and from meetings.
Further contributions, updates or corrections to this history would be greatly appreciated. Please contact the web-master or any committee member.