From The President November/December 2022

Hugh Macdonald

Welcome to my very first president’s report in PC Update.

To recap I became president at the November Annual General Meeting and I said I would focus on a number of things for the coming year; to increase the overall membership of the club, to try and encourage a more diverse range of people to become members of the club, and to increase the number of events and activities happening at our Moorabbin headquarters.

With the help of a good number of other members, efforts to tackle some of those goals have been made in the past seven weeks since I assumed the position and so I want to discuss a number of things in this report.

Melbourne Creators Collective

For a number of years we had an alternative brand name for the club, which was Melbourne Computer Club. Last year the committee made the decision that the name Melbourne Computer Club was still too limiting for what we wanted to achieve (basically attracting new members) and the decision was made to discontinue that, and instead use Melbourne Creators Collective as an alternative brand name. It was felt that some people were turned off by the use of computer (because everyone under 40 knows how to use computers) and so Melbourne Creators Collective was more all-encompassing for attracting people who might be interested in science, technology, engineering, arts or mathematics (STEAM) based activities around computers.

Because at the end of the day we are all creators on our computers, whether we’re creating a spreadsheet, a family tree, a video, or a program to upload to a microcontroller. So the name can be applied to a wide range of activities, and this will hopefully enable us to attract more members and a more diverse range of members.

It’s definitely not a separate club. If you’re a member of Melbourne PC User Group then you’re a member of Melbourne Creators Collective, and if you’re a member of Melbourne Creators Collective then you’re a member of Melbourne PC User Group.

There are no plans to discontinue using Melbourne PC User Group either. It’s a great brand with a rich history that should be cherished and preserved and I am definitely in favour of it continuing to be used.

You might however like to check out the new Melbourne Creators Collective website at https://melcc.org.au to see how we’re presenting the club to try and attract new members.

Monash Makers Faire

Our first big outing for the Melbourne Creators Collective brand was the Monash Maker Faire where Aavon Fernando, Aidan Kelly, Bern Wachs, Mick Adams, Stephen Zuluaga and myself were in attendance to show off some of the interesting things that the club has made and that the club is doing to the wider public at Monash University.

It felt like quite a successful day. We had hundreds of people stop off at our stand to have a look at what we had on display. We gave away all the printed membership forms that we had brought along and we signed up quite a few people who are interested in coming along to our Coder Dojo kids coding classes in 2023. Additionally we had some interest in the Sunday Sessions maker based sessions that we run at the club every second Sunday, and in a sewing and crafts group that is starting in 2023.

That’s about all for now. I’ll be back (in this column) in the next issue of PC Update in February 2023 with a further report on how the club is progressing. Until then, I once again wish you all a very safe and happy holidays and if you’d like to get in touch with me to ask any questions please do so at president@melbpc.org.au.