This year has been one with lots of progression for the Computer Users Group. Membership has grown considerably and we now have 33 members who can attend by Skype or phone if they desire since they either live too far away or are unable to attend meetings. We have also introduced the option for distance members to attend our meetings either over Skype or conference call on the phone.
The highlight of the year has been the 20th anniversary of the group. This saw our group combine with the Melbourne Branch to have a special celebratory dinner at the Spaghetti Tree Restaurant in the city. We had a turn out of 35 people who enjoyed great food and company.
The other highlight of the year was that of upgrading our audio recording equipment. For a long time we had been using an old Tascam 4 track recorder for recording meetings. While this has served us well, it had passed its used by date, and was becoming expensive to repair.
The decision was taken early in the year that it was time that we upgraded to a totally digital recording system. At this point I should thank John Machin who along with others put in considerable time in investigating options around what to do in this regard. We bought a new 8 input mixer along with associated cabling. This facilitated the connecting of our PC and mics. We thank Serge Bankoski who built us an audio desk on wheels.
Thanks also go to Placid Talia from Vision Australia Library for assisting with making up a multicore cable to connect between the new mixing desk and the PC sound cards. Thanks also go to Dale Simpson for providing us with some surplus mics and new mic cables to suit. Our heart felt thanks go toTony Iezzi and Vision Australia for the loan of a Plextalk digital recorder on which to record our meetings.
I would also like to convey my thanks to all of the current Committee for their help over the past year. Especially Adam Morris who has handled our Skype calls from Sydney and for all his tireless work in copying and distributing our recorded meetings via CD and downloadable MP3 files.
Speakers that we have had over the past year have covered a wide range of topics and they included:
Sep 2007 Christopher Sims and Scott Rutkowski on Skype setup, conference calls and how to add the CUG as a contact.
Oct 2007 Scott Rutkowski on symbion phones.
Nov 2007 Brett Scarr from Quantum Technology on Jaws 9.
Feb 2008 Scott Erichsen from T&T Consultancy Australia on Office 2007.
Mar 2008 Jamie Kelly and Tony Iezzi on library, vision access and the college.
May 2008 Mick Curren on NVDA.
June 2008 Bernie Slagtman and Robert Spicer from Visual Independence on the bar code reader.
July 2008 Scott Rutkowski and Aaron Howell on Apple Mac
In closing I would like to state that one of the goals of the new Committee will be to try and improve the audio quality for those members who have to listen to the meeting via the phone.
Christopher Sims
President Computer Users Group