Category: Past Meetings

A small but enthusiastic group of 10 members attended the July meeting, run by Robin Workman. Q&A topics included macOS High Sierra and its incompatibility with some older apps as well as the way it writes to hard drives differently. Alternatives to retain functionality of older apps were suggested. Another question asked and answered was about backing up Contacts from an older iPhone and restoring the data to a different, newer iPhone.

Fees and the future of the Club

Treasurer Barbara Watson gave an overview of income and expenditure to date and the club’s current bank balance. Barbara explained that, in order to continue holding our monthly meetings at the UNSW, we must pay Public Liability Insurance (currently approx. $1,300 per year, paid up to March 2019). Expenditure has exceeded income during the past financial year and the bank balance is slowly being depleted.

The group discussed the future of the club and the consensus was, those present want the club to continue and agreed to retain the annual membership fee of $48 p.a. All present and recent members are urged to renew their membership ASAP to support the club ongoing. Download Renewal Form (PDF 133K).

It was also agreed to defer the AGM (typically held in August each year) – date to be confirmed – to allow further discussion and involvement of members who were away in July. To comply with Fair Trading conditions as an Incorporated Association, we are required to have a properly constituted committee, including at least a President, Secretary/Public Officer and Hon. Treasurer.

A small but enthusiastic group gathered for the June meeting in our usual venue. Thanks to Serge for hosting the meeting. An uncooperative digital projector disrupted the flow several times, but we still managed to discuss and find answers to a number of Mac user issues.

Robin and Serge ran the Q&A session.

Discussion among members present included…

• Apple’s discontinuation of the AirPort range of wi-fi routers and new, high powered third party alternatives
• Internet dropping out due to neighbourhood wi-fi overload
• FLAC high quality audio format and options for conversion to iTunes compatible formats
• Checking your Password security and a website that estimates how long it would take a computer to crack it
• Review of Dashboard Widgets in mac OS X.

The main raffle prize of a 1TB USB3 portable backup drive was won by Gabby Zipser.

The meeting was run by Robin Workman. Some interesting questions about scanning and printing were raised and answered by the small group of committed attendees.

Everyone in attendance won a raffle prize.

Next meeting: 7 May 2018.

At our March meeting, there was some discussion in the Q&A session about Time Machine, among other topics.

For the raffle, first prize was a car camera, won by Roger Williams. Additional prizes were two SD cards, and a $ 30 Apple card.

Robin gave an interesting demo of a music application called iReal Pro that simulates a real-sounding band for accompaniment to keyboards, etc. This app also lets you collect chord charts from your favorite songs for reference.

Our first meeting for 2018 (no monthly meeting is held in January).

Serge ran the Q&A session.

Robin did some demos and showed us intriguing pictures from ‘Scultpure by the Sea’, exhibited annually along the Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach coastal walk.

Ken showed a selection of short ‘How To’ videos from the Apple Support Channel on YouTube.

The main prize was a 4-station USB desktop charging station.

Next meeting: Monday 5 March 2018.

Our ‘Christmas’ meeting and the last one for 2017. Attendees enjoyed some special treats in the supper break.

Kath Harding won the main prize, a 1TB USB 3.0/USB-C portable hard drive, valued at $100.

Robin Workman gave a demo of Mac Mail, using “Rules” to filter out unwanted messages and to manage Inbox folders, including automatic removal of messages after certain periods of time etc.

Next meeting Monday 5th February 2018.

Our monthly meeting for November included our Annual General Meeting, deferred from August. Financial Statements were tabled and AMUG members can download them in PDF format by logging in to the Members’ Area of this website here:
amugsydney.asn.au/members/financial-statements-2016-17/

Meeting convenor Robin Workman thanked the previous committee for their work and declared all committee positions vacant. Discussion then centred around asking who would be willing to stand for committee positions, for which there were seven nominations… incumbents Barbara Watson, Serge Tauber, Karen Shuttleworth and Ken Driver, plus 3 more volunteers. Thanks to all those people! Committee members for 2017-18 are listed on our Contact page.

We had a very welcome guest speaker at our October meeting – Mr Hugh McMullan from MICROSECONDS, located at Ultimo in Sydney.  Hugh has many years experience with, and intricate knowledge of, the inner workings of all models of Macintosh computers. He showed us the different types of hard disk drives, comparing the performance of older ‘spinning platter’ drives to the newer SSDs (Solid State Drives). Hugh’s talk was very informative and injected some much needed technical and practical advice for the members present.

Originally planned to be our Annual General Meeting, the main discussion topic at the August 2017 meeting was the issue of vacant Committee positions and its impact on the future of the club.

The following decisions were made by Committee and General Members present:

• To reschedule the Annual General Meeting to a later date this year, most likely 6 November;
• Members present at the August 2017 meeting agreed to be available for secondment to the existing Committee if needed; and
• Current membership status is extended until the end of the year, for members who were financial as at 30 June 2017.

Therefore, no renewal fees are payable until after the deferred AGM in November, when a reduced membership fee may apply for the remainder of the 2017/18 year (amount to be advised).