We, the officers, are really struggling lately. For years the PC users group thrived, with high membership numbers and a popular, well-written magazine.

But the Internet has given many potential members another resource for computer assistance, and led to our membership numbers dropping off. Fewer members meant less money collected in dues, and thus less money to pay for the publication of Sacra Blue.

Keeping SPCUG Relevant
The officers have been scrambling for a couple years now to cope with the statistics. Clearly the loss of membership means the group is not providing anything essential to those who leave. But finding services that will appeal to enough people to keep current members and draw new members is a difficult task. That’s where you can help.

If you come to our regular monthly meetings, take a moment to talk to one of the officers and tell us what you think about the services you get for your dues. If you have ideas for how the group could be more valuable to you, let us know.

If you’re debating letting your membership drop, please tell one of the officers why. What would it take to retain you as a member?

Are you satisfied with the meeting presentations? Are there speakers you’d particularly like to see?

Do you get out of Sacra Blue and eBlue what you want? Are there subjects you’d like to see us publish articles about?

Give us your input—good, bad, or indifferent. You are the reason this group exists; in order to meet your needs and wishes, it’s important for the offices to know what you want the group to be.

In fact, if you get to the meetings, you might want to consider adding a meeting to your schedule.

Come to Steering Committee
The Steering Committee meets on the second Wednesday of every month, a week before the general meeting. Everyone who is a member of SPCUG is welcome at the SC meeting, and encouraged to attend and take part.

This is where you’ll hear the discussions about recent and upcoming speakers, about incentives for members, and about ideas for meetings. It’s the first line of defense, so to speak, against dumb ideas—and officers are no different from anyone else when it comes to dumb ideas.

It’s also the first place to hear the brilliant ideas that turn into popular features of the group. But even the brilliant ideas need someone to breathe life into them, to sustain them in the early stages until thy blossom into the programs that later seem so obviously worthwhile.

On top of all that, the Steering Committee has a good time. It’s a group of people who enjoy each other’s company and share a number of common interests.

About Elections…
Returning to the subject of elections—I started this column on that topic, remember?—it was reassuring for me to see that we easily found candidates to fill all the offices up for election.

You may remember last year we had some difficulty getting enough candidates. In the end we managed, but there was concern that we wouldn’t.

We’ve also gotten Sacra Blue on a fairly stable electronic footing over the past year. A year ago, when Chris Graillat stepped down as editor, we weren’t sure we could continue the magazine, which is not only a consistent award-winner, but a major part of what holds this group together.

Losing the magazine and not filling all the officers’ spots would have been disastrous. And on top of that, we were hemorrhaging money.

Now, for this month, the group is stable. We have officers, we have a magazine, and we have enough money to operate.

Our focus now is to boost membership, and to provide more services to the membership.

I’ve already covered what you can do to help us out with regard to services, but you can help with membership, too.

Bring a Friend
Why not bring a friend to our next meeting? As you know, the meetings are free and open to the public. The only restriction is that non-members are not allowed to participate in the raffles, but they’re welcome to come to the presentations.

You don’t have to persuade them to join. We’ll let the group’s advantages do that.

Writers Wanted
We’re still—maybe I should say always—looking for writers to provide their wisdom in the pages of Sacra Blue. I’d like to be running columns regularly, or occasionally, on these subjects and others:

• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Word
• WordPerfect
• Internet Explorer
• Netscape
• HTML
• Web page design
• Shareware
• New gadgets
• The latest advances in computing
• First looks at new software

These are all topics that would be of interest to Sacra Blue readers.