WHAT HAPPENS IN A USER GROUP MEETING ?     


                             by William Jordan


   Ed: William is a prolific programmer on the Amiga and many of his fine
  programs are available from our PD Library. Here he gives a run-down of
  what happens at his local user group meetings, for the benefit of those
  who've never been to such a meeting.


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   I thought it might be interesting to Megadisc readers to hear about my
  local Amiga User group of which I have been member for about three years.
  This may give some insight to people who have never been to a User group
  meeting, and for people who have, a chance to read about a group which may
  be quite different from their own.  Details here may not all technically
  correct, what follows is more like a collection of my own impressions.

   The Melbourne A.U.G. is divided into 3 regional branches. As the NW
  branch is the group I have been to most, it will be the one I will mainly
  be referring to.

   Familiar names

   Meetings are fortnightly and generally have a turn out of around 100.  A
  couple of members' names may be known to Megadisc readers, including Chris
  Hames, of Dirwork fame (and more recently, a program which runs IBM
  software!) and Simon Shead, who created Ultrafonts.

   PD and Book Library

   The group has its own quite extensive book library, many of the books and
  magazines having been donated. There is also a large PD library (but not
  as large as Megadisc's!) which includes all of Fred Fish plus a lot of
  others.

   The group is well supported by a number of local stores, some of whom give
  discounts on software and books to members, and some of who donate goods
  for the meeting raffle and lend hardware for demonstrations.

   Meetings follow pretty much the same structure, which has proved to be
  quite sucessful. First there are announcements of news etc.  People then
  announce if they have any secondhand goods to sell etc.

   Q & A

   What follows is perhaps the most important part of the meeting: Question
  and Answer time. People are free to ask any questions relating to any
  aspect of the Amiga. If none of the committee, who are all experienced
  users themselves don't know, usually there is someone in the group who has
  a solution. Questions come from newcomers and very experienced users and
  over the last couple of years have covered every topic imaginable. In some
  cases people have received answers to questions which would have been
  difficult to receive from the store they bought the Amiga from, or anywhere
  else for that matter.

   Demos

   After this there is a tea break, which is followed by demonstrations of
  hardware and software. In many cases hardware has been "demo-ed" before it
  has become widely available in Australia. Some things which have been
  demo-ed over the last few years include the A3000, CDTV, Bubble Jet
  printers, Colour printers, Digitizers, hard drives etc. etc.

   Recently the group has purchased a `barco' (is that how you spell it??)
  which is a device which projects a very large and clear full colour image
  of what's on the monitor, onto the wall. (I'm ignorant of technical
  details.) Though expensive, it's cheaper to own it than hire it and it
  greatly enhances the meetings. (You should have seen WINGS on it!)

   A lot of commercial and some PD software has been demo-ed, including
  application programs, utilities and games. (The games are generally last).

   Talks

   Sometimes some guests are invited to give a talk. A very interesting talk
  was given by a representative from Commodore, while more recently 2 guys
  demo-ed a program they had written to train sailors how to cope with fires
  aboard a ship.

   The meeting is not complete without CHOOKLOTTO is which one of several
  programs is run to determine who has the winning raffle tickets. One
  version done in Amigavision has a chook singing a rendition of the US
  Cavalry charge and charging into a glass window.

   There's sometimes a bit of vaudeville, with a few comical remarks coming
  from various people, which helps to liven up the meetings.

   BBS

   The AUG has its own BBS. Perhaps 1/4 of the NW branch members have
  modems.  The BBS is currently run with an A2000 which was kindly donated by
  Commodore Australia.

   "Workbench" Magazine

   AUG also publishes its own magazine `Workbench' which has improved greatly
  in quality over the years and is nowadays quite classy.

   In addition, there are several SIG (Special Interest Groups) which are
  generally held in member's homes. These cover areas such as Beginners,
  Art, music etc. When there is interest a new group is created.

   There are only two rules, no smoking and no mention of *&^%$#, which is
  quite reasonable. (I'll give you a clue, it starts with p!)  All in all, a
  sucessful group.


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