Dear WAMUG members, Peter Hinchcliffe update on WAMUG has saddened me because of the many great memories I attach to the group and to the Apple II club of years gone by. Though I somehow expected this news seeing the lack of fervent activity by us the members and of which I am shamefully guilty, the lack of ’new blood’ is our main problem. Like many other members have mentioned, I have reached a period when life is becoming an uncertainty and hence almost daily battle. But I would be prepared to offer whatever help I can give if that can give WAMUG a few more years while trying to get younger members.
I do not have any suggestions on how to resolve the dilemma except perhaps a last ditch effort during the AGM and if there are no great interest let nature takes its course and dissolve WAMUG. Having said this, I join all those who have already expressed their gratitude and thanks to those who have kept WAMUG going for so long. How can I ever forget names like Martin Hill, Shay Telfer, John Curry who was my very first contact with the group, Peter Hinchliffe, Ronni, Daniel, Maureen, Pete Smith and the many others who valiantly kept the name of Apple alive within our then small community of Apple users. I am following the current debate with the hope that someone will come up with a solution to keep the group alive. With great sadness but with enormous gratitude to those who kept the flame burning, Philippe Chaperon On 8 Aug 2024, at 12:05 AM, Adam Lippiatt via WAMUG <[email protected]> wrote: I am on a [insert interest] Slack group. Pretty good functionality for low fees (or free if you only want a 90 day memory). I don’t think they harvest all of your personal data like Facebook. I have never received any direct or so far as I can tell indirect marketing or appear to have had my info sold. On 7 Aug 2024, at 7:13 PM, Tim Law via WAMUG <[email protected]> wrote: Hello all, I run a similarly small community group that must comply with the requirements of Dept Commerce to remain functioning, so I appreciate the decisions facing the leadership team and us as a group. The responsibilities placed on the leadership group to continue to comply with the requirements are just too bothersome and it is a wise move to lay out the situation to the group. Whilst it may have been required in the past in more vibrant times, I don’t see the need for WAMUG to remain an incorporated body. I appreciate this will mean the loss of the domain name and associated email addresses - plus sadly the archive. These are not decisions to be taken lightly. I feel a Facebook group set to private would provide a familiar chat style amongst the small number of active members. There’s an advantage of such a group being able to show images which might be useful for some problem solving. This may be a satisfactory and viable option for the future Regards Tim On 7 Aug 2024, at 4:43 pm, Stephen Chape via WAMUG <[email protected]> wrote: Hi Rod … that is a very valid point. And a great idea in my opinion. I only use Facebook sparingly, but I am a member. I feel that this suggestion should be looked at. On 7 Aug 2024, at 4:40 pm, Rod Blitvich via WAMUG <[email protected]> wrote: WAMUG has been there for us for SO LONG.My gratitude to the various Committee members for all their work over the many years. I value the list and the knowledgeable contributions from Peter, Maureen, Daniel, Ronni and many others. It would be very sad to lose this community and this knowledge base. But you need to face the facts. WAMUG will die unless us oldies embrace Social Media. If a WAMUG Facebook group was formed, you would triple membership in a few months. Why not create a WAMUG Facebook Group as a trial for say 12 months and then evaluate the trial at the end of that period? If you want new blood then WAMUG needs to target people younger than us “oldies” – and guess where you will find them – on Social Media. Another possible alternative would be to use Microsoft Teams – I believe there is still a free version around. A WAMUG Facebook group can be Public or Private. It can have a Code of Conduct/ List of Rules. It can have 1 or more Moderators. People can “apply” to join the group and can also be removed from the group. So it is my view that you have 2 choices – 1)Go with Social Media OR 2)Accept the demise of our wonderful group. Rod Blitvich - Amy & Sam’s Dad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . On 7 Aug 2024, at 9:02 AM, Peter Hinchliffe via WAMUG <[email protected]> wrote: WAMUG as an entity is reaching an impasse. WAMUG (Western Australian Macintosh Users Group) has been an incorporated body since 1984, ie, the birthdate of the Macintosh computer. Long-term members will remember the early meetings at UWA, and later Curtin University, through the efforts of Martin Hill, Shay Telfer, John Curry and many others. After Curtin started placing prohibitive costs on our use of their facilities, we moved our monthly meetings to ChristChurch Grammar School in Claremont until clashes with school activities and resultant parking problems forced to find somewhere else. Member Lyn Muir kindly offered us the use of her real estate business premises at ProWest in Willetton, until the premises had to be rationalised in response to business pressures from a market downturn. so we moved to a hall in Bull Creek. Through this time our numbers dwindled to a mere trickle until Covid-19 hit and forced us to abandon physical meetings altogether. Since that time we have been running our monthly meetings via Zoom, but we have never had more than 3 or 4 members attending, other than the committee. We have found that the effort required in coming up with meetings themes, paying for Zoom, etc, is is not justified given the one or two people that do regularly turn up, so we have greatly reduced the frequency of the meetings, which has not exactly been met with a flood of complaints. We now have a real problem: being an incorporated body, we are constitutionally required to hold an Annual General Meeting, and we are now well overdue to do this for 2024. Maureen Smith, our erstwhile President and now secretary, has declared that she will not be nominating for a position on the committee, thereby reducing our small, tired committee to 4: Bernard Barnwell (Treasurer), Pete Smith (Website updates), myself (President), and Daniel Kerr, who keeps this mailing list online and in order. Notwithstanding the fact that the remaining members are happy to retain their involvement, if no further nominations are received at the AGM our tiny committee will not meet our constitutional requirement of at least 5 members. Apart from this, we are desperate for some new blood. The current members are generally feeilng beyond their use-by dates, and it’s clear that it’s up to the exisiting membership to decide if we want to continue or not. The lifeblood of WAMUG in 2024 is this Maiiling List, and it is treasured by all those who contribute to it. It is certainly far less active than it was, but it really is all that remains of WAMUG is any real sense. If no-one is willing to step up to be a Committee member at the upcoming AGM these appear be our two options: 1 Dissolving WAMUG, the associated mailing list and website. 2 Changing WAMUG to an unincorporated entity in order to keep the mailing list. According to the Associations Incorporation Act 2015, we will need a Special Resolution meeting to dissolve or unincorporate WAMUG. Changing WAMUG to an unincorporated entity. This action Requires a Special Resolution meeting, and we still need people to run the organisation, but our current financial holdings cannot be retained and will need to be distributed according to the Associations Incorporation Act 2015, which effectively means we will be starting again from scratch. Whatever entity we decide to change into, we will still have to charge a fee for the mailing list. However, there is no insurance for an unincorporated entity so the people running WAMUG would be liable for its actions and results. We will also lose the use of [1]wamug.org.au as a Domain Name. Dissolving WAMUG This requires a Special Resolution meeting. Again, our current financial holdings will need to be distributed according to the Associations Incorporation Act 2015; and again, the website and mailing list will disappear. If you want to see WAMUG continue in any form, please give some careful consideration to what I've outlined above, and offering your services to the committee. These days, we are running most of our meetings online via Zoom, so there’s really no need even to leave the house! We desperately need some new blood on the committee and some new directions for the future. If nothing else, we need this list to continue. We area aiming to hold our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 5th September by Zoom, in the absence of any better offers. Zoom details will be provided several days in advance. Kind Regards Peter Hinchliffe President, Western Australian Macintosh Users Group References 1. http://wamug.org.au/ -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> Regards Stephen Chape Mac by choice Windows because my employer knew no better -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
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