Grand Opening

Owen Cook braved the crowds at the Grand Opening of the PCUG’s new Centre in Belconnen on Saturday the 12th October, 1996.

The Centre is taking shape. I arrived at 10.30am just as the sign writer was finishing off the sign on the front window. The name, the logo, fax and telephone numbers, and the WWW address. Guess we are the only one in town with the WWW address on the door.

By 10.30, there were about twenty people assembled, but this number was to swell to sixty by the time of the opening.

I took time out to have a look around the new Centre. Good job, it’s set up very nicely. There is a front office doing a roaring trade, the main room can be adjusted to suit the activity, but down one side are four or five networked computers, one of which is attached to the group’s scanner. You can use this scanner any time the Centre is open.

The training room is "out of this world". It has ten Pentium computers all running Win95. I overheard someone say that the demand for WIN 95 courses was very high, so I guess it will get plenty of activity in that regard. One of the computers was connected to a screen projector. All very snazzy, rumour has it that there is over a $30,000 investment in the training room, so the best of luck and wishes to the trainers.

Also I picked up a PCUG flyer, it’s a neat little sheet describing the PCUG, where it is, what it does etc. I thought it was quite professional.

By this time the dignitaries had arrived so we were shuffled outside to the inside of Northpoint Plaza. Here is what Ann Byrne, the President of the PCUG said:

I would like to welcome you all to our Centre opening today. In particular I welcome the presence of the Chief Minister Kate Carnell, and the ACT Attorney General Mr Gary Humphries, and Mr John Langmore MP.

I will take this opportunity before asking the Chief Minister to open the Centre to thank the many volunteers from amongst our membership who have helped make the move from Fyshwick as painless as possible. Well done folks!

T h e Group is run entirely by volunteers (except for a part-time executive secretary). These people are the group’s greatest assets, without whom we could not operate.

The Group has always been self sufficient, and has never received government funding of any type.

We support the Volunteer Centre whole heartedly and were pleased to receive a letter from the Chief Minister last year assuring us her support for, and commitment to, the concept of volunteering.

We are pleased too, that the ACT Attorney General Mr Gary Humphries is able to be with us today. Some of you will recall his welcome press release against proposed regulation of the Internet.

I will now ask our Chief Minister, Mrs Kate Carnell MLA to open the new PC Users Group Centre.

Kate Carnell responded, noting the growth of information technology. In education, the demand for computers is on top of the list, and the concept of access to information, and the world, is emerging as a new "right". It is great that the PCUG can get together and "help each other". The training room was described as first class and she wished us well in our endeavours.

With that, the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon, and then off to drinks of various types and bickies. It was a beaut little morning, and everyone was pleased it went so well.