The Club was started after George Thompson visited the Seniors Card Technical Expo in October 1997. There he met members from the existing eight clubs (all from the north side) who were collecting names of people interested in joining a Club. This list, which included names from St George, was sent to him. To find more people interested in starting a club in the area, he set up a stall at the Hurstville Council Seniors Expo in March 1998, asking visitors to type their name and address on a 386 computer with a Works data base. There were also names that came from the notices posted in the eleven libraries in the St George area.
He then sent letters to 158 people notifying of an inaugural meeting on 29 April 1998. Eighty attended, agreeing to form a Club and elected the following Committee – President, George Thompson – Vice President, Maxine Gray – Secretary, Alma Goesch – Assistant Secretary, May McDonald – Treasurer, Graeme Gavin – Committee Members, Bettie Hart, Denis McDonald, Doreen Chisholm, and Marie Thompson.
Hurstville City Council was the only Council offering assistance. They provided free use of a lockable area they partitioned in the Hurstville Seniors Centre with a bench around the wall to fit five computers. Later a small office next to it fitted two more computers. Four 386 computers with Windows 3.1 were obtained from the TAD organization for $100, then some 486’s were bought at auction. These were soon updated with all seven machines now being the latest versions.
Membership is over 300 with a waiting list to join – we don’t take new members until we have a vacancy for lessons. Beginners lessons on word processing and spreadsheets etc. are held Tuesday to Friday in an informal atmosphere without set courses. Each day is autonomous with Head Tutor and assistants teaching pupils what they want to know. Monday is for lessons on graphics.
Our Patron, Councillor Merv Lynch, was able to obtain the use of a second Clubroom in the Council’s community building. This is called the Annexe and has eight computers being used by Special Interest Groups, viz. - a Technical Class – an Internet Class – a Genealogy Class – a Digital Imaging Group – a Web Design Group – and a Video Editing Group.
A Monthly Meeting is held on the last Wednesday of the month for general discussion and a Guest Speaker.