SCOUG OS/2 For You - September 1998

Well, the big day is almost here! By the time you read this all of the final preparations will have been made, presentation materials neatly printed, computer demos and vendor tables set up and ready to go, and the food and refreshments cooling in the refrigerator. Right! And if you believe that, well..., I have an 8088 in good condition that I'm willing to part with for its original price of only $4000 (I'll even throw in a copy of OS2 1.0).

Seriously, a lot of work has been put into our upcoming Open House and we on the planning committee hope that you have an enjoyable and educational day on September 19. There is a full slate of presentations, several planned demos, some entertaining diversions as well as a few surprises (not to mention plenty of snacks and lunch). Rollin White with help from Carla Hanzlik (doing double duty while trying to push out the Mesa 2.2 documentation) spent a marathon weekend producing the CD master (and in true Sundial fashion got it finished just under the deadline) and I know that you will be impressed with its contents and layout.

While "proofing" it, I was amazed at the wealth of club material and history that can be compressed into a few square inches of recordable surface. And, to be honest, it was a little difficult to focus on the task at hand and not get too sidetracked reminiscing about all the club events (Egghead, MicroCenter in-store promos, Pomona and ACP swapmeets,etc.), presentations (who remembers the day Stac or Watcom or Moneytree (with their final version) showed up? ... if you remember that last one let me know because I missed it), socials (well, there were a couple of special Christmas get-togethers with TeamOS/2's Janet Gobeille in the early days), and newsletters (how much postage was needed for the very first newsletter? (a trick question) or which was the first newsletter to list the entire board of directors?) that span SCOUG's first five years.

In one sense then, the Open House will be a celebration of our past five years' accomplishments and this is appropriate: we should all be proud of this history. We have seen the fortunes of OS/2 rise and fall through versions 2.1, 3.0, 4.0 (not to mention the highly successful PowerPC!) as IBM's pinpoint marketing campaigns repeatedly failed to quite hit the targets of developer acceptance and consumer perception (does the phrase "pin the tail on the donkey" seem appropriate here?). Yet, in spite of their efforts, our club has continued to grow (well, at least stay even) and you, the members, have remained enthusiastic as each new OS/2 application or product announcement came along. I think this is attributable to the structure of the club as originally envisioned by Bert Langer and Rollin White which emphasized its social aspects as equally important to the technical and educational ones.

In another sense, we should also be analyzing the events of the last five years to help us choose what directions make sense for the next. Transitions such as BBS to web site, importance of the Internet, Java education, and increased network integration have allowed us to keep pace with computer technology while still retaining our OS/2 heritage. Only by creatively adapting to the ongoing changes in our areas of interest can we expect to sustain club membership and interest.

So, to summarize: come to the Open House and bring your family and friends. Everyone is invited and it's all free. Enjoy the food, fun, social atmosphere, raffle and attend as many of the presentations as make sense to you; remember the past and maybe think a little of the future. This special day is our celebration, our thank you to a membership that has supported and contributed to SCOUG for five fruitful years.

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