A NEW COLUMN! (all about oure new SIGS and more)



Author: Larry Goldberg

Date: February, 1987

Keywords: SMUG SIG special interest group column

Text:
As an introduction, I've been participating in S.M.U.G. for nearly one
year and have been utilizing Macintosh equipment since 1984.  My
computer background is in IBM (I learned Fortran on a System 32 in
1969) and I've done D-Base programming, spreadsheet analysis and
general word processing for approximately five years.  Febnetworked
with 6 other Macs in a "local area network".  My current interests are
in the realm of international telecommunications and database
applications.  Well, enough about me, now, about this column.
I am developing a series of special interest group meeting programs for
the next year.  I will report, in a general sort of way, about what we
plan to cover for the month's meeting in each issue of the S.M.U.G.
newsletter.  This column is a take-off on the monthly column I write
for the newsletter of the agency I work for.  This gives me an
opportunity to brush up on new and old applications for the Mac and
share some of the insights I hear from the "grapevine."  Naturally as
the column suggests, Information IS Power...
Now, down to business...
For several months there has been an on-going discussion of the
possibility of holding special interest group (SIG) meetings.  The
purpose of a SIG meeting is to allow S.M.U.G. members to become more
familiar with Mac hardware and applications.
While most of us consider ourselves "generalists", it's amazing how
many "specialists" we have amoung our group.  If each of us can share
some unique and/or special know-how about a program, a desk accessory
or just some "how-to-do-it-better" techniques, we can all benefit from
our combined "learning curve." 
The Redwood Community Action Agency, a local non-profit community
service agency, has generously agreed to allow the use of their
facilities to hold SIG meetings.  Located at 904 G Street (the large
yellow Victorian building on the corner of 9th & G Streets, Eureka),
RCAA is one of the few fully computerized non-profits in Humboldt
County.  Now utilizing a TOPS local area network, seven Macintosh
computers are now networked together sharing hard-disk and printing
resources.  RCAA additionally has three modems for telecommunications
and owns most of the popular MAC software (ranging from work
processing, spreadsheet and data base applications to statistical and
color printing applications).
The first SIG meeting will be held on February 16th at 7 p.m. and the
topic will be desk accessories.  While this is Washington's birthday
holiday, I don't expect too many people will be out of town or
unavailable to come to an evening meeting.  RCAA will have three or
four Macs set up in the conference room with power (surge-protected,
naturally) and space available for anyone else to bring their own
machines.  Three individuals will give short presentations on their
favorite desk accessories and everyone will have an opportunity to try
them out.  Those which are public domain software (most of them are)
will be available for transfer to user's systems.  The whole session
will last no later than 9 p.m.

A couple of rules for SIG meetings:  1) no copying of copy-protected
software (RCAA's or others) will be allowed,  2) meetings will be
restricted to the conference room of the building unless persons are
supervised by RCAA staff in other areas,  3) RCAA is not responsible
for damage or loss of any property (hardware or software) of any
participant.  With these simple rules in mind, the SIG meeting format
can lend itself to a whole new dimension of S.M.U.G. activities.

Currently being planned for the future are the following SIGs:
* Word processing: Microsoft Word (3.0)
* Spreadsheet/data base: Microsoft Excel
* Telecommunications: Microphone
* Typesetting/layout: Pagemaker or Ready-Set-Go
* Project Planning: MacProject
* Relational data base: Helix or Omnis 3+
* Spellcheckers: Macspell+, MacLightning and Spellswell
* Graphics I: Fullpaint and/or Superpaint
* Graphics II: clip art, MacDraw, Thunderscan
* Statistics: Statview 512+ and/or MacSpin
Additional topics can be discussed after these initial seminars are
completed.  To facilitate the implementation of the SIG meetings, a
sign-up will be conducted at the regular S.M.U.G. meeting immediately
preceding the SIG.  For anyone who cannot attend the S.M.U.G. meeting
in February, but who would like to attend the SIG, please contact me,
Larry Goldberg, at 445-0881 during business hours (8:30-5) weekdays).
With good participation and enthusiasm, lets make the SIG meetings a
good opportunity to share the learning curve!

Copyright © february, 1987 by Larry Goldberg