Any new hardware for th QL is always welcome especially if it enables people
who have never upgraded to upgrade to something that extends the life of the
QL or brings it up to date with current technology in some small way. For
those of us that emulate through a variety of OS's, hardware upgrades have a
minor interest but are of little use unless we have one or two dusty QLs
waiting for some device to revitalise their interest. There are also those
who have missed the whole move through Gold Card/Super Gold Card/Q40/Q60
phase and are unable to do anything with with their 128K QLs either. So my
question is are there enough QL users out there to warrant additional
hardware projects? and if not, what else can the QL be used for in its
current format?
Lee Privett
-------------------------------------------------------------
Sent from my Laptop running XP
but emulating the QL using QPC2
----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoff Wicks" <gtwi...@btinternet.com>
To: "ql-users" <ql-us...@q-v-d.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 8:39 PM
Subject: [Ql-Users] Reality Check
Last weekend several people castigated me for suggesting that Quanta should
be wound up.
Now it's time to see if you are prepared to put your money where your mouths
are.
I am not asking you to to do anything drastic like joining the committee,
but something more simple to show your support for Quanta and the Quanta
committee.
Unlike most of you I have frequent unofficial contact with members of the
Quanta committee. In public they are frequently criticising the members for
their apathy. In private their language and emotions are much stronger. I
think it is fair to say they are bitter and disillusioned by the lack of
support from the members. They are having to double or triple up committee
duties to keep Quanta alive and feel a lack of concern and interest from the
members. Over the last year they have continually warned that the future of
Quanta was in jeopardy, but apparently no one was listening. At the moment
committee morale is at a low ebb and has been made worse by two factors. For
the first time a Quanta committee has had to be prepared for the real
possibility of advising the closure of the organisation at the next AGM.
They have also had to cope with a serious problem, the details of which I
cannot go into, that has proved more difficult to solve than first thought.
Some advanced plans for Quanta on which the committee have done hours of
preparation have had to be put on hold. Inevitably this has led to some
tension between members of the committee.
So I am asking you all now to give the committee a good morale boost. Below
is a list of the problems that face the committee. It is a little
frightening in its length. Let's now give the committee some detailed help
and feedback on these issues.
1: QUANTA MAGAZINE
Quanta has been unable to find a permanent editor for its magazine for about
6 years. There is now an acute crisis with no editor or acting editor.
Producing a magazine is a highly skilled task and the people on the
committee with those skills are already overworked with other duties. I
doubt if the committee now has the resources to produce a magazine. What
should they do in these circumstances?
2: WEBSITE
The Quanta website has not been updated for 6 months. Although Quanta has
had websites for about 10 years it has never mastered the art of keeping a
website up to date. How should they tackle this problem?
3: SHOWS
Quanta can now manage only one show per year and the attendance is usually
low. Quanta is legally obliged to hold an AGM each year. Although in recent
years attendance has improved, three or four years ago attendance levels
were dangerously near the quorum. How should Quanta organise its AGMs in
future?
4: SOUTH EAST
Apart from a small, and, in my opinion, somewhat secretive subgroup, Quanta
has had no presence in the South East for almost 4 years. How do we
re-establish contact with the South East?
5: FINANCE
Some years ago I wrote a piece in QL Today about the falling membership and
was accused of being anti-Quanta. When I wrote that item subscription income
covered more than 80% of expenditure. Today that figure is more like 60%.
Quanta has survived financially in recent years because Rich Mellor has
traded in second hand hardware on their behalf, but this is a diminishing
source of income. What would you do about the gap between subscription
income and expenditure? Would you be prepared to accept increasing the
subscription to a maximum of £25? (And just a warning for those people who
suggest structurally using the capital. You would be condemning Quanta to a
short term future. In the worst case scenario you could count the years left
on the fingers of one hand.)
6: CONSTITUTION
Several people suggested amending Quanta's constitution to save the
organisation. What specific amendments are you proposing? There is no need
for detailed proposals - that could be a job for the experts. Bear in mind
that constitutional amendments are not a quick fix. The earliest that
constitutional amendments affecting the committee could be implemented would
be 2013.
7: SUBGROUPS
This still seems to be a fairly successful area for Quanta. However they
have great autonomy and, with the exception of London, all the subgroups
could continue if Quanta closed down. Is there a need for more structured
links between the sub groups and the central organisation? There must be a
lot of things happening in subgroups that could be of interest to all
members. They are also in a position to provide valuable feedback to the
committee.
8: KEYBOARD MEMBRANES
Not really a problem, but something for Quanta to boast about. Without
Quanta there would have been no new keyboard membranes. Any ideas for other
good uses for the capital? But don't forget you can't use the capital for
both projects and to make up shortfalls in the subscription
income/expenditure balance.
I want to add some personal comments about the South East situation. Five
years ago it was the life blood of Quanta, and Manchester and the north were
the poor relations. There was always at least one show, and often two a
year, whereas the north had just one show every two years. The last South
East show was held in 2007 and the decline in interest in Quanta (and
perhaps the QL) was frighteningly rapid. How often do you now see the former
stalwarts of Portslade and Byfleet contributing to this list? Almost never.
At one time a quarter of Quanta members lived in London or the South East. I
expected to see some old friends at Quanta's centenary, but only one person
from the region attended. It appears that Quanta now means nothing to them.
That is a warning for us all,
Best Wishes,
Geoff
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