January 2005 Issue

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New Meeting Date

We had an informal discussion at the December meeting regarding the future of the club. One member raised the question of the running of the club and felt that we should have a proper general meeting with proposals for officers and members of a committee.

There is no doubt that this is the correct procedure for us to follow but it was pointed out that the subject had been raised before and the general feeling was that membership was so small that it hardly required more than the three members who have been doing the job for some time. This is not to say that more help would not be welcome and I personally offered to stand down from the job that I have been doing for the past seventeen years. In fact I suggested that it would be a very good thing if someone were to offer to take over from me. I do not do a lot now, Bryan Coleman having taken over the bulk of the work. Nigel King also assists when necessary as does Joan Pressey.

After a lengthy discussion it was decided to leave things as they are. If anyone else feels that they can help in any way they will be more than welcome.

CHANGE FROM OUR NORMAL MEETING DATE

During our discussion it was found that the third Thursday in the month is more convenient for some members so accordingly we will change to this from our January 2005 meeting.

Most members have renewed their subscriptions for 2005 and we thank them for their continued support.

We must ask anyone who intends to remain a member but has not paid their subscription, to do so this month. If we do not hear from any such member we will reluctantly assume that they no longer wish to remain a member and therefore the February newsletter will not be sent. We are working on a tight budget this year due to the falling membership.

Several suggestions to improve membership were made by members and steps will be taken to implement these where possible.

The January Sales

There have been many exceptionally good offers in the sales this month. One particular sale of interest to computer users was the PC World 2 day sale.

A neighbour called into PC World during the period of the sale and selected goods specifically advertised to the value of approximately £100. Taking the goods to the till he expected to pay the advertised price which was 50% of the normal price. The assistant rang up the sale and requested £100. When it was pointed out that these particular items were advertised in the sale. The assistant called the office who confirmed that the goods were in the sale whereupon the assistant rang up the discount and requested £80. My neighbour pointed out that this was not a 50% discount and that the price should be £50. After a further call to the office my neighbour was charged the price as advertised.

The following day (still during the period of the 2 day sale) I called into PC World and selected a 100 sheet pack of photo paper which was advertised at £11 less 50% = £5.75 (their maths, not mine). Taking the goods to the till I was told the price was £11. I pointed out that the goods were advertised for £5.75. Upon checking I was offered the goods at the advertised price. By this time I was feeling in an aggressive mood and I pointed out that 50% of £11 was £5.50 not £5.75. A further check and I was charged the £5.50.

A mistake or bad management? I don't know, but I wonder how many others were overcharged for items advertised in the sale.

Latest Project

Over the years I have been a member of several music clubs. Most have from time to time issued cassettes of various artists. Some very good material has been received but cassettes are not in vogue these days and it is not very easy to locate anything of particular interest. For some time I have been gradually transferring the material to CD. Without a program called Cool Edit this would have been an arduous task. With this program I can leave the computer recording the tape and split it to the individual tracks at my leisure.