Sydney PC User Group Inc.

President's Christmas Message - 2014

On behalf of all the Committee, I take this opportunity to wish all our members a happy and safe festive season.

2014 has been a good year for our Club and I commend those members who have assisted in various ways to make all our meetings interesting, worthwhile and successful.

Following countless hours of upgrading and testing, the club's new website was launched in early July. With accessibility for all being paramount and employing responsive design techniques, members now find that pages are easier to navigate on all screen sizes from smart-phones to TVs.

Our club's 30th Anniversary, initiated by John Lucke, was celebrated at the November Main meeting. Nan Bosler, President, ASCCA opened the meeting and Shane Treeves, Senior Communications Associate, Google Australia gave us a lively and entertaining insight into the quite varied facets of its business.

Alex�s personal contribution at the Main Meetings is highly valued by members and he has continued to find the time in his many and varied activities, including working as a journalist with iTWire, to locate the interesting speakers who have kept us informed about the changing face of computing. Some have shown us some products prior to their launch in the market and many have provided valuable prizes for the raffles.  The topics and presenters during 2014 were the Computer Electronics Show at Las Vegas, Kensington (of lock fame), Toshiba, Microsoft Windows 8.1, Telstra, Livescribe recording pen, Nuance Power PDF, wearable smart technology, AVG, and crowd-funding opportunities via Indiegogo.

Robert Israel's tutorials at the start of the Main meetings are well received and appreciated.

The leaders of the Special Interest Groups have put in much time and effort to develop the material they presented to members each month.  I welcome the new SIG leaders Steve South (Web Design) and Tim Kelly (Tuesday Forum).

We would be a poorer club without the lively involvement of all the members who attend our meetings. The culture of mutual assistance has always been a feature of our meetings and we learn much from the issues that are raised in discussion.

The face of computing continues to change and staying on top of developments is a prime focus of our club. The 16Th Annual ASCCA Conference 2014 was attended by the Committee and other members of SPCUG. Alex was one of the presenters at the conference giving his trademark stellar performance.

In October Alex was also the first presenter at the new SPCUG lecture series provided by the Sydney Library and initiated by Dennis Campanella. Terry Eakin was the second presenter, introducing the process of creating a Family History (Genealogy). These presentations were enthusiastically received by the Library organisers who wish to continue the series in 2015. The hope is that this activity will attract more members to SPCUG.

The increasing proliferation of tablets, Smart Phones and wearable devices connected to the Internet has meant that our presentations and the Question and Answer sessions at our meetings are increasingly focussed on these peripherals.  Notwithstanding, antivirus, identity security and Microsoft's operating systems 8, 8.1 and now Win 10 still have their place in our meetings.

We hope to continue the Club�s proud tradition of developing members� computer skills and knowledge during 2015.

But, it is now time for us to enjoy the company of our family and friends.

All the best for Christmas and the New Year festive season and I look forward to us all sharing our computing experiences throughout 2015.

Roger Foulds
SPCUG President