Your Committee For 2021

Leading up to this month’s Annual General Meeting, the committee for 2021 was installed. There were quite a number of familiar faces returning, but also a couple of new faces joining the committee for the first time. In order for you to get to know your committee members a little better, they were all asked a series of questions. Here are their responses:

David Stonier-Gibson (President)

What is your name?

David Stonier-Gibson

What is your role within the committee and within the club?

Member since 2013; Committee member 2018 & 2019; President 2020. Co-convener of Microcontroller Moorabbin SIG. Past editor of PC Update.

What is your profession/former profession?

Electronics engineer, microprocessor/microcontroller programmer, and business owner.

What was the first computer you owned?

Tandy (Radio Shack) TRS-80, bought in LA 1979.

What computer(s) do you currently own and use?

Desktop and laptop Windows computers, Android phone and tablet. Many Arduinos

If there’s one thing you’d like to see Melbourne PC User Group achieve in 2021, what is it?

Develop a transformational vision, strategy, and plan to survive and thrive for another 36 years, while making a meaningful, positive contribution to our society.

Stephen Zuluaga (Vice President)

What is your name?

Stephen Zuluaga

What is your role within the committee and within the club?

Vice President. Focussing on IT, Facilities, Marketing and Coder Dojo

What is your profession/former profession?

IT Systems Engineer, TAFE Teacher

What was the first computer you owned?

Cyrix 6×86

What computer(s) do you currently own and use?

12 core Xeon workstation, an i7 laptop, and a garage laptop (one I don’t mind getting a bit dirty or dusty). All running Ubuntu or Lubuntu

If there’s one thing you’d like to see Melbourne PC User Group achieve in 2021, what is it?

I’d like to see more activities involving young kids and young adults, things like Coder Dojo returning to the club premises, and some other raft of activities which would engage teenagers and young adults who need an outlet and perhaps some guidance for their interest in tech.

Aidan Kelly (Secretary)

What is your name?

Aidan Kelly

What is your role within the committee and within the club?

I’m new to the committee this year so I’ll find plenty to do.  I’ve been helping out with the design and renovation of the clubrooms.

What is your profession/former profession?

Construction Draftsman (Setout)

What was the first computer you owned?

A consumer Acer laptop with  Windows Vista.

What computer(s) do you currently own and use?

MSI GE60 2QD Apache

If there’s one thing you’d like to see Melbourne PC User Group achieve in 2021, what is it?

I’d like to see members get back into the club and make use of the maker room and other facilities.

Peter McConnachie (Treasurer)

What is your name?
Peter McConnachie

What is your role within the committee and within the club?
Club Treasurer

What is your profession/former profession?
Started in Accounting Dept with G.J.Coles in 1972, and moved into the IT Dept in 1980.
Ended career with Kmart after 46 years as Team Lead Data Warehousing (Oracle/Microstrategy BI) and moved the DW/BI Systems up to AWS.

What was the first computer you owned?
Commodore 64 & disk drive bought in 1982

What computer(s) do you currently own and use?
I7 home built desktop(s), mainly for Flight Sim. Lenovo I7 laptop for myself & Acer I7 for Trish in her Bookkeeping business.

If there’s one thing you’d like to see Melbourne PC User Group achieve in 2021, what is it?
Get members back into the club and use/upgrade the facilities.

Robert Brown (Committee Member)

What is your name?

Robert Brown

What is your role within the committee and within the club?

Committee member since 2018 with some responsibility  for Facilities at Moorabbin and SIG Coordination, member of the Team for the migration of emails to Google G Suite and member of Web Development group.

What is your profession/former profession?

Retired Mechanical Engineer with experience in Facilities Management and Industrial Manufacturing engineering and maintenance.

What was the first computer you owned?

A 286 PC with 640k RAM and 10MB HDD – eek!  Upgraded from that as rapidly as I could afford to. 

What computer(s) do you currently own and use?

Running Ubuntu Linux as my preferred OS for the past 10 years now on a fairly high end i7 laptop. Also regular user of Raspberry Pi 4 including Home Assistant automation system and various Arduinos and the like.

If there’s one thing you’d like to see Melbourne PC User Group achieve in 2021, what is it?

All SIG Leaders comfortably using Events in CiviCRM for their SIG meetings.  But also for the Club to be on a sustainable path for future growth of membership numbers.

Stewart Gruneklee (Committee Member)

What is your name?

Stewart Gruneklee

What is your role within the committee and within the club?

Joined Melb PC in 2001, Committee member 2012/13, 2015-2021, Treasurer 2018-2019, Office volunteer from 2016, iHelp volunteer from 2020, Transition Support Team volunteer, monthly meeting host on many occasions since 2013.

What is your profession/former profession?

Technical Manager for a fire protection & evacuation equipment supplier, now retired.

What was the first computer you owned?

Motorola 6800 D2 evaluation kit, IBM clone 286 running MS-DOS

What computer(s) do you currently own and use?

Win 10 Asus Laptop, Android Nokia Phone

If there’s one thing you’d like to see Melbourne PC User Group achieve in 2021, what is it?

More intensive use of the Moorabbin premises for the benefit of members.

Harry Lewis (Committee Member)

What is your name?

Harry Lewis

What is your role within the committee and within the club?

Member since 2004; iHelp volunteer since 2011; Committee member most years since 2012; President 2013-2015. I support our email systems and am a member of the Transition Team migrating members’ email to Google Workspace (formerly G Suite).

What is your profession/former profession?

Formerly university teacher of philosophy, now retired.

What was the first computer you owned?

Tandy (Radio Shack) TRS-80.  (First use of computers was playing space wars in the basement of the Stanford maths dept c. 1964; later [1970+] using Amdahl V70 with VM/CMS & XEDIT as word-processor.)

What computer(s) do you currently own and use?

Desktop and laptop Windows computers, iPad and Android phone.  Support two family members who are 100% Apple.

If there’s one thing you’d like to see Melbourne PC User Group achieve in 2021, what is it?

To maintain its membership numbers by attracting new classes of members.

Hugh Macdonald (Committee Member)

What is your name?

Hugh Macdonald

What is your role within the committee and within the club?

I’ve been a general committee member since shortly after joining the club in 2018. I’ve been the editor of PC Update since September 2019, I’ve been part of the Coder Dojo team since February 2020 and I’ve been on the Office 365 to G Suite transition team since April 2020.

What is your profession/former profession?

I’m an IT consultant and a sessional university lecturer and tutor.

What was the first computer you owned?

My first computer was a 486 purchased in about 1997. I think it had 8mb RAM and a 500mb hard drive and ran Windows 95 OSR2.

What computer(s) do you currently own and use?

I have an Intel NUC based desktop PC and a number of laptops that run Windows and Ubuntu. I also own a MacBook Pro. In addition I have an iPhone and an iPad plus a whole lot of different smart home devices.

If there’s one thing you’d like to see Melbourne PC User Group achieve in 2021, what is it?

I’d like to see the Moorabbin club rooms become a really vibrant place again (after Covid) that is in constant use. As part of this I’d like to see the club host an event each month dedicated to a topic like 3d printing, photography, videography etc.

Other Committee Members

Peter Boin and Paul Hattam are also on the committee this year. Peter played a big role in developing the QR code reader used for scanning into meetings. Paul has been the main educational leader for Coder Dojo and was instrumental in building that up throughout 2020.