HISTORY OF MANGROVE MOUNTAIN SENIORS COMPUTER CLUB

The initial meeting with the objective of forming Mangrove Mountain Seniors Computer Club (“MMSCC”) was held on 7 October 2004. It was attended by 24 members of the community.

In spite of the name adopted for simplicity, the aim is to cover the whole of the ‘Mountains’ district in the hinterland of the NSW Central Coast, including but not confined to Mangrove Mountain, Kulnura, Bucketty, Laguna, Spencer, Peats Ridge, Central Mangrove, Somersby, Calga, and Mount White.

Nick Mason was elected to Chair a Steering Committee. Nick had previously Chaired the Steering Committee which led to the funding and formation of the Community Technology Centre at Mangrove Mountain Inc, trading as CTC@MangoveMountain.

Other elected Members of the Committee were Joe Alexander, Ken Cronk, Ken West and Sue Williams.

Subsequently, the Steering Committee met on four occasions and prepared a proposal covering Governing Rules, proposed fees and other matters that was submitted to a second public meeting on 25 November 2004. This meeting was attended by 18 people, the proposal was approved and an inaugural Management Committee was elected for the balance of 2004 - 2005 comprising:

President: Joe Alexander; Secretary/Treasurer: Ron Collins; Ordinary Members: Ruth Carter (ex officio the CTC Committee), Raynor Harris, Bert Menere, Camille Ross.

Under the auspices of the Community Technology Centre at Mangrove Mountain Inc, MMSCC activities commenced on 2 December 2004 with weekly Thursday sessions from 10 am - 12 noon.

The MMSCC is grateful to the Mangrove Mountain RSL Sub-Branch and Westy’s Place for donations to assist with initial expenses.

The sessions initially focused on providing training at the ‘beginners’ level, assisted by workbooks kindly made available by Westlakes Seniors Computer Club. This has expanded progressively to include more specialised subjects.

TAFE Outreach for the Gosford area has supported the Club by providing a teacher and also First Aid courses, and we have been assisted by experienced volunteers prepared to present courses.

As a result of increasing demand, additional classes have been introduced progressively. We currently have about four clases a week, with more specialised courses in addition.

In 2006-2007, we had 69 financial members at year end, and there were 198 classes and 1,487 class attendances.

At the 2007 Annual General Meeting, a motion to change the name of the Club to Mangrove Mountain Computer Club was approved, recognising our aim to serve the wider community, not only Seniors.

At the end of 2006-2007 we had 95 financial memmbers.