The main event at each General Meeting is the presentation by the Guest Speaker of the evening. For many, this presentation is the key incentive to join the Group — to keep up-to-date on the latest in software and hardware. Therefore, the Program VP must keep abreast of "what’s hot", and book the vendors that make these goodies.

To start, the VP-Programs contacts the prospective firms many months before the desired meeting date. Vendors often have more requests than they can handle. They may have to send one or more "presenters" a long distance, laden with display equipment — and (hopefully) free samples for our door prizes. So the Program VP must be prepared to negotiate, persuade, juggle schedules, follow up, expedite, etc. — and even have an "emergency presentation" ready to trot out.

When the VP-Programs gets a commitment, he/she requests written confirmation and a brief biography and then sends the presenter a copy of our Guidelines for Speakers — directions to our meeting place and helpful hints as to what will "go over" with our members. Then after the business part of the program, the VP’s introduction includes a little background on speaker and vendor. The VP may occasionally have to remind the speaker of our time limits or the need to be heard.

General Meeting Grips Video and Audio equipment requires two people to set-up and pack-up at General Meetings. There is nothing too complicated about it and only means arriving 30-45 minutes early and 30 minutes following the General Meeting once per month. The show must go on and these two people help make it happen.

As a part of our effort to improve meetings, we distribute feedback sheets that let members critique speakers and facilities and offer suggestions. These help guide the Program VP’s future efforts.

Since the VP-Communications also has many vendor contacts, this requires coordination with the VP-Programs and support of each other’s work.

Librarian maintains the clubs video and interactive CD's for members to rent at the General Meetings. The Librarian needs to be present at General Meetings to rent video, collect a deposits on videos and collect the video when returned by members in one month's time. The Librarian should recommend to the Board of Directors those items needed to maintain a current library and include that items requested by members. 

Help Desk is intended to provide members with an opportunity to ask about their computing problem to a club Guru. Volunteers for Help Desk represent an important element of providing the membership benefits of the annual dues. A mission is help users to be more productive with their computers and finding help when you need it is an expected role of the club. We don't guarantee that every question will be answered on the spot but Volunteers for Help Desk need to fairly knowledgeable individuals. 

The most important vote that our members cast is not at election time. It’s when they elect to join — and then each year, when they elect to renew for another year. Their dues "votes", plus our advertising revenues, are what permit our PCUG to keep up with the capital spending demands and operating expenses of this ever-changing, high-tech world of computers.

Keeping the records of old and new members is one of the Membership Chairman’s important "housekeeping chores". And by so doing, the MC also has a finger on the very pulse of our Group. The MC’s monthly trend report on new members and renewals tells the Board how well our recruiting and retention measures are working — our press releases and other publicity, our welcoming and greeting efforts, and the attractiveness of our general meetings.

To promote renewals, the MC also has volunteer aides that write to about-to-expire members, reminding them of the many Club benefits and inviting them to stay another year. A timely contact can often convert a drop-out to a paid-up member.

Of course, membership records are essential for the PC News and other mailings. The MC updates and posts the roster monthly on our Web site so Club officers can use the records for other purposes, like exploring members’ interests and skills. These demographic data have potential for still other uses as they become more sophisticated.

The MC handles over half the Club’s income, some by mail but mostly in person. He/she must keep proper records of same and forward the funds regularly to the Treasurer. The MC also validates nominations and ballots at election time and keeps track of attendance at general meetings — another index of 1960PCUG’s health.

The Treasurer is our financial officer, responsible basically for "watching the money" — keeping records and controls of its receipt and disbursement and advising management on how we are doing financially.

A major income source is membership fees, which are first logged in by the Membership team and then promptly transferred to the Treasurer for deposit. Our other important income stream is PC News ad revenues — first logged by the Advertising Manager and then transferred to the Treasurer. (This guards against buildup of uncollected ad receivables.)

The Treasurer also monitors signing and issuance of checks, making sure expenditures fit our budget and the rules in the bylaws. (E.g., any check over $200 requires Board approval.)

To help the management team run our Club on a businesslike basis, the Treasurer presents a monthly income/expenditure report, pointing out important financial trends or warning signs. This report is the bottom line for our many efforts to run a successful Club. A summary is also presented to the Board at each year-end.

To provide a gauge for monthly monitoring of financial results, the Treasurer also prepares an annual budget that translates our forward planning (including expected capital needs) into detailed financial terms. This budget is submitted to the Board for approval.

The Treasurer also handles our tax matters and our interface with state and federal government — such as obtaining and protecting our tax exempt, nonprofit status. And he/she assists our internal auditors in their annual review for management, as well as suggesting ways various team members might improve their economic results.

The Secretary (sometimes called Recording Secretary) is the keeper of the official Club records — and actual creates some of the most important ones. Many of these records have legal importance, and others are part of the performance record of Club management.

For example, the Secretary keeps minutes of all the Board meetings (and any special business meetings), with special attention to recording Board approval of expenditures, initiation of important programs or projects, organization changes, and other Board or Executive actions. These minutes are approved by the President and then published in the Club’s Home Page.

The Secretary also maintains "Permanent Files" of important Club documents, such as bylaws, contracts, leases, Articles of Incorporation, non-profit tax status, insurance policies, and other papers of ongoing or permanent value.

Now that several officers make regular reports to the Board, the Secretary collects copies of each for the Club’s "Annual Files", including the monthly financial, membership, and program and feed-back reports, the annual budget, and the annual audit.

The Secretary sees that these Permanent and Annual files are passed along to his/her successor — and that a duplicate set is in the hands of the President as a backup copy.

The Secretary prepares notices and ballots for the annual election of officers. This position once included typing of all correspondence for the Club, but except for occasional outside correspondence, the ubiquity of Email has largely eliminated this secretarial chore.

Being thus involved in most important Club business, the Secretary is in a position to assist the President or other officers in the administration of their duties — as suits the particular work habits and time constraints of those involved.

Being unburdened with specific (regular) duties, the Director at Large can provide extra power to the Board in two ways:

By giving the Board an "insider/outsider" perspective of the Club's progress and problems; and

By providing extra hands and leadership to cover special projects or other management needs.

On the matter of giving perspective, the Director at Large must stay alert to the financial, membership, program, public relations and other Club activities -- how they serve their intended purpose and what we need to be doing to stay ahead of the game. To be effective, the Director at Large must be willing to speak up and take a proactive role, not merely respond to assignments or vote on proposals.

The second broad Director at Large role -- providing extra power where needed -- makes the Director at Large a sort of "utility player" on the management team. For example, the Director at Large may provide leadership or extra help on ad hoc task forces, committees, special projects, or investigations -- as requested by the President or other Officers. In the past one of the Director at Large has been assigned the task Chairman of the Computer Fair.

Obviously, this range of activities gives the Director at Large an excellent background for filling a permanent officer role when needed.

At the present time the PC News is published monthly on the 1960 PCUG website.

The Magazine Team

Getting out 500 copies of the 24-page PC News every month — and keeping it interesting and accurate— calls for teamwork and close timing by about a dozen members, as well as our commercial printer and the U.S. Post Office.

Publisher is at the center of this "monthly maelstrom". He/she gets ready for it by using last month’s magazine as a template — stripping out old articles, expired ads, and outdated "boilerplate" to make room for the new month’s material. By the General Meeting, the Advertising Manager must list repeat ads and supply copy for the new ones. 

Editor must have all the new materials in hand By General Meeting time — changes to standard columns, Special Interest Groups (SIG) announcements, new members’ names, and most important, the product reviews and computer related articles. If we’re lucky, the Editor may even have to choose which articles get published first; we give priority to our own "home grown" writers and then fill the gaps with articles from other PCUG newsletters. The Editor also creates the layout and art work for the 2-color front page notice of the next meeting.

Reporters both gather and write articles for the Editor’s final review. 

By Monday after the General Meeting, the Publisher shifts into high gear with PageMaker 6.50 — juggling space, scanning, and printing — so that it is ready for the Editor’s final look by Wednesday AM. Any last minute adjustments get done quickly so that our outside printer has the NL by that Friday AM. And he has a week to crank out the 500 copies of our PC News on a multilith press.

Product Review Coordinator works with the "PC News" Editor to obtain software and sometimes hardware for review by members who volunteer to write a review of the product for publication in the "PC News." This a great job since you get to hand-out free stuff to members. It is important to note that the Coordinator is not expected to review and write all the articles.

Distribution Manager delivers about 200 copies to local computer stores and libraries, where the NL often attract visitors and new members. And he/she sees that members’ copies are labeled and mailed at least a week before the next meeting. A few dozen copies go to other user groups on an exchange basis.

Thus, this team of unsung heroes does our classy magazine — a powerful vehicle for publicizing our group and meeting our members’ information needs. And aggressive ad marketing has made our expensive magazine self-supporting, too.

Supplementing the magazine is the Club’s Web Page, which is produced and maintained by another team under the Webmaster. The work of the two teams overlaps in the job of communicating.

Our Club’s Web page is both a Mirror and a Force. A Mirror as it reflects the Group’s activities and direction. A moving Force because it leads our members into exploring new "cyber-fields" and gives them new ways to become acquainted.

To create this wonderful new tool, the Webmaster and his/her Team carry on two main activities:

Development — conceptualizing, designing, and testing new Web features that members may find useful, educational, or entertaining — or which will facilitate their contacting each other. Development requires broad computer knowledge (including Web page design, like HTML), awareness of what’s new in the cyber world, and (most difficult) knowing what members need and will use.

Maintenance — gathering and publishing up-to-date facts, schedules, and announcements from all Group activities. This requires frequent coordination with the Magazine Team and the whole Club management.

The Webmaster’s overall goal is to make our Web site 1) a learner’s "map of the Internet", 2) an on-line, continuous news organ of Club activities, and 3) an interactive medium to help us talk to each other. And because the Web page reaches the world, not just our members, it is also one of our best PR tools.

How is it working? Last year our Web page won Adobe’s international award for "Most Useful Web Page". In only two years, over half of our members have "gone online". Many have their own Web pages. Our private "chat group" (ICQ by Mirabilis) now lists dozens of members. Our new Forums give another route to users helping each other. Much Club business is done via Email. We have become "Internet-oriented".

The overall role of SIG groups in our Club was handled in the second in this series, entitled The Vice President. So this last column concentrates on what each SIG leader (or Chairman) does to form his group and keep it active and relevant.

SIG groups blossom when a new need-to-learn surfaces. The initiative to form one may start with the Vice President or any officer — or a grass-roots effort among members. For the new group to be "recognized" requires the initiators to present to the Board a proposal, outlining the new SIG’s purposes, scope, and projected financial impact. Although the bylaws say the SIG members choose their leader, in practice a choice of leader is often the first step in its formation.

Typically, a SIG meeting will have these two elements — 1) a structured presentation and 2) informal discussion or "Q & A".

The presentation part is usually done by the leader — but could also be done by a SIG member or an outside "guest speaker". The formal presentation may require considerable preparation, such as slides, handouts, and physical props (hardware, phone lines, A-V equipment, meeting facilities, etc.). In fact, the SIG leader may need a co-leader or assistant to mind all these details.

The informal discussion part takes care of several needs: 1) Members often have computer problems that fall in the SIG’s scope, but are not on the current agenda; 2) new SIG members may be lost because they missed the foundation sessions; 3) parts of the formal presentation "went over the heads" of attendees; and 4) the SIG leader needs to "stay in touch" with the group, which can only be done by listening. In fact, conducting an effective discussion session is as much an art as formal presentation.

Finally, there must be effective communication of the SIGs’ schedules, topics, and activities — in order to attract members and hold the group together. This requires the leaders to plan ahead so they can inform members — through the PC News, the Website, email messages, and general meeting announcements.

The final measure of success is attendance. A growing SIG is healthy. A SIG where attendance drops below ten needs attention.

Logistic Duties of a SIG Leader