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Graeme Moffatt
Apple Regional Liaison:
Oceania
February 2004
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Time for my regular update as to what’s been happening around our part of the world as far as Mac User Groups are concerned.
I would like to wish you all a good 2004 and trust your group will continue with the valuable job you’re doing for the wider Mac community. This year is already showing signs of being an interesting one with the 20th anniversary of the Macintosh as well as being the 20th anniversary of the two largest groups in New Zealand. The Wellington Macintosh Society Inc. was formed at a meeting in February 1984 and the Apple Users Group of Canterbury was formed the following month.
In the last update I sent out in November, I mentioned a new user group formed in Toowoomba in Queensland. This group has now created a website at <http://www.taamug.org.au/> and are posting a regular pdf newsletter which looks to be very well produced. My thanks to Len stroud for contacting me and advising of this.
My role of your Regional Liaison is a difficult one as the distances between all the groups in Australasia is enormous and I cannot visit all the groups. I have visited all the groups in New Zealand over the past twelve months and intend to make an effort to visit as many groups in Australia as I can. My intention is to visit Cairns to check out the new Kuranda steam railway being operated by a friend of mine then travel south to Melbourne visiting as many groups as I can along the way. I have not yet set a date for this but anticipate it will be within the next six months. I would like to hear from each group along this route as to when they meet and who the best contact person is for their group.
This also brings me to something I would like to raise, whilst this update is being sent to the email contact I have for each group, I would like its contents to be passed to all committee members at the least and all members if you wish. One of the ways our groups can assist each other is in knowing what other groups are up to and what is happening in the wider Mac User Group community.
I recently received an email from a member of one of the New Zealand groups regarding the assistance someone was able to receive from the informal grouping that New Zealand groups have made and the web site that has been created. The contents of this message follows:
I had a student in Auckland who was having trouble installing a new version of Netscape on her Mac. The software that Massey uses for its web learning environment requires better than a version 4 browser now, so a lot of students are having to update. The student contacted me, and I tried to help her over the phone, but the problem was too subtle for me to diagnose. MagnumMac in Auckland would deal with it for her if she brought the machine in but quoted her $60 for the job, which I thought was a bit excessive.
I contacted John Laurie from the new Auckland Users' Group using the address from the Welmac site. I think he put my student on to another user who lived nearer to her. Between them they seem to have got her problem solved. I have had an email of thanks from the student, so everything has been dealt with in a timely fashion.
I just wanted to let you know how the improved communication between Mac user groups has helped me (and my student) in this situation. What could otherwise have been a real bind has come out on top. Fortunately, I knew where I could get a contact address for a Mac user in Auckland and the network of help took over from there.
Thanks to Welmac for keeping tabs on the user groups. Thanks to you Graeme for getting a group started in Auckland! Well, done.
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Thanks to Nic Broomfield of the Palmerston North Mac User Group for that comment. There does not yet appear to be a similar concept in Australia and I would like to suggest that someone may like to commence something similar. You can check out the New Zealand site at <http://nzmac.netfirms.com>. This site has been established at no cost to anyone at this stage and has proved to be a useful way to advertise the existence and contact details of groups and receives up to 50 hits per week.
As a regional liaison, I am part of a team of people around the world that endeavours to assist groups in any way we can. One thing that I have been working on lately in conjunction with my other team members and the Apple User group advisory Board is in getting better assistance for Mac User Groups outside of the USA and canada. Groups in those countries have been able to access regular items of software and presentation material from Apple via access to the Apple Sales Web. This is a web site that Apple maintains for the benefit of its retail outlets to get information and Not For Resale (NFR) Apple software for the purposes of demonstration. As of today, access to this resource has been extended to Mac groups world wide.
Details for accessing this site are below and only those groups who have registered with Apple for inclusion on the apple Web Site User Group Locator are eligible to register for this resource. If you are not registered for this, you can do so at <http://www.apple.com/usergroups/find/register/> and one person must be appointed as the groups Ambassador. This is the person who must apply for Apple Sales Web (ASW) access and details of how to do this will be emailed to your groups ambassador. Please send me an email with this persons email address and I will send back the details. If you are unsure of who your ambassador is, please let me know and I will find out for you.
Keep those emails rolling in (or start if you have not aleady done so) and I will pass them on to everyone via this forum.
Regards
Graeme Moffatt
Australasian Regional Liaison
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