Apple Mac enthusiasts joining up

About a month ago, we bravely held an Apple Mac information day at ParraPals.  We already had three MAC enthusiasts amongst our membership, and we knew there had to be more out there.  So we sent a community notice to the Parramatta Advertiser, inserted a snippet in ASCCA's newsletter, and asked our members to spread the word.

About a dozen people turned up, and this resulted in a Special Interest Group being formed.  The first meeting was held yesterday.  Just about everyone from the information session turned up, plus more.

Three or four participants were experienced MAC users, five were inexperienced users, and another three were PC users who were "just interested".  This was a good balance since the experienced members were able to answer questions and demonstrate programs.  One member was just about to travel to the UK for a family reunion, and so we asked her to tell us what applications she intended to use whilst travelling.  Judy showed her Picasa, and also demonstrated iPhoto.

Hopefully the group will become better known and will grow large enough for us to run more courses - we only have one short course at the moment.  And then we'll need to worry about space!

Members visit Hyde Park Barracks

Hyde Park Barracks

Our Genealogy and Digital Photography Special Interest Groups decided to join forces for a field trip last Friday.  We set off by train from Parramatta to visit the historic Hyde Park Barracks.  Twenty four of us turned up for the guided tour at 1pm, after most of us had lunch, either take away, home made sandwiches or dining in style at Hyde Park.
Our guide Margot was very friendly and enthusiastic, and showed us the many different layers of building over the nearly 200 year life of the building.
Governor Macquarie commissioned convict architect Francis Greenway to build many of the colonial structures that remain today in Sydney.

The Hyde Park barracks was built to house the many convicts working on government projects - roads, buildings, brickworks and other infrastructure in old Sydney Town.  Prior to its opening in 1818, most convicts slept rough, and it was considered better to house them in the Barracks so that they could be better supervised.

On the top floor, we were able to see how the convicts slept.  It would not have been very comfortable.

Stonemasonry tools from Colonial Sydney

There is a very good exhibition showing at the moment, with lots of artifacts from the convict days, including tools, kitchen items and even rat remains!

The painting to the right shows Parramatta in its early days.  Parramatta of course was the second settlement in New South Wales, where the soil was so much better than at Sydney Cove.  It was a thriving settlement from its very beginning.

Thanks Deborah for organising this day out - we had a great time, and the only costs apart from lunch were $5 admission and $2.50 for transport.  What a deal!

Woe is us! Winter

How could this be?  Tomorrow, we will be missing at least four of our management committee - and maybe a fifth - at our May members' meeting.  Deborah and Peter are on holidays interstate; John is in bed sick; Hazel (No 2) has to take Deb to hospital; and Judy has come down with a chest infection.

Nevertheless, we'll survive.  Committee members Marg G, Michael and Marg T will be there, and we've rung around to find other members to help us out with setting up the equipment, welcoming new members, taking fees, helping Hazel No 1 with the catering.

Tomorrow we will be using two brand new urns - 5Litre urns for easy handling.  Thanks Margaret Green for researching the best deal for us.

By the time you leave tomorrow, members should know much more about our club website, and how to find information on it.

Haven't we grown? Likely to break our record of 205 financial members this year

Tomorrow we hold our third monthly meeting for the year.  Since late last year, we have been attracting well over 50 members to each meeting, so much so that we have asked Council if we can book a larger room next financial year.  We expect to see a number of new faces tomorrow too, since we have just organised our courses for Term 2 (April to June) and many people will be paying for courses to which they have committed.
I expect tomorrow we may break our record for the number of financial members - set in 2008-9 - of 205 members.  We currently have 197 financial members.
Windows 7 is now extremely popular, and many of our new members have purchased laptops, and so have many of our long term members.

Gearing up for a new year at ParraPals

Well we had Christmas and New Year off, but straight afterwards, we began a publicity drive, getting pamphlets, flyers and timetables out to retirement villages, former members, libraries and shopping centres.  We had and are continuing to have a good response from that.  And the Parramatta Advertiser came to visit and brought a photographer with them, resulting in an article mid January.

In mid-January trainers and buddies volunteered for the working bee, which was also an opportunity for members and enquirers to book into courses.

We also realised that most of our trainers and buddies were unfamiliar with Windows 7, so Michael Myers volunteered to run a two hour session to bring us up to speed.  The consensus was that it isn't much different from Vista, so easy enough to follow.  Since we planned the meeting more than a handful of our trainers and buddies had acquired a new PC or laptop with Windows 7 anyway.  Jon Bayley also ran a two hour session on how to use the club digital camera.

Member turnout for our two functions in January was very pleasing - 30 at our Lunch at the Leagues on 17th; 55 at our Members' meeting and 4th birthday party on 21st January.

E-bay - Buying, and e-Bay selling - offered as separate short courses by Deborah Martin - have proved so popular that she has scheduled two more classes.  These are to be held on Monday afternoons 21st February (Buying) and 28th February (Selling), between 1.00-3.15pm.  Preference will be given to people on the waiting list.