About the Long Beach Computer Club
Presentations on the latest technology and gadgets, vendor presentations, networking, door prizes, community service projects, classes. You will find all of this and more at the Long Beach Computer Club.
Our Beginnings
The computer club’s first meetings were held in mid-1984. Because
of the small size and informality of the group no written records
were kept.
In 1985, the computer club consisted of a small group of members who
met in a small office at the Mercury Savings and Loan building in
Long Beach. A small newsletter was started and distributed to
members at the monthly meetings.
In January 1986, the computer club meetings moved to Intelligent
Solutions, a computer store in downtown Long Beach. Meetings were
held twice a month. Club dues were $20 per year. In April of that
year, the meetings were relocated to First Street Software so as to
better accommodate the growing number of members. In September, the
store unexpectedly closed, which in turn caused the club to fold.
Later that year, some of the members discussed the possibility of
reforming the organization.
By April 1987, the first meeting of the newly reformed Long Beach
IBM Users Group was held. The membership gathered at the Great
American Savings and Loan building in Long Beach. Officers were
elected, and they wrote to the IBM Corp. which was helpful in
establishing local users groups. IBM sent the information for
setting up articles of incorporation, by-laws, and agenda
procedures, which led to the acceptance of the club as an official
IBM Users Group.
By March of 1988, the group had expanded so much that they moved
their meetings to a larger room at the Woodruff Community Hospital.
Most of the monthly presentations were done by the club members
themselves. Door prizes and raffle items often consisted of time
donated by members who professionally worked with computers. This
meant the prize winner would get free one-on-one help with a
processional. The newsletter continued to be handed out at the
meetings. That year the club decided to run a Bulletin Board System
(BBS) for its members. Volunteers had to assemble the hardware and
install all the necessary software. They taught other members how to
use the system and found it to be very popular and useful to all. By
June the number of members had grown to 86 and the newsletter was
expanded to six pages and mailed directly to the members' homes. By
the end of the year, the membership had grown to almost 150.
In September 1989, with membership rising to almost 200, the monthly
meetings were once again moved to a larger facility located at the
Los Altos United Methodist Church. A new location was also needed
for the very popular special interest groups (SIGs). A new home for
the SIGs was established at the Montessori School at St. Thomas of
Canterbury Episcopal Church.
In August 1990, the Long Beach IBM Users Group became a charter
member of the Association of Personal Computer Users Groups (APCUG).
By December the paperwork for incorporation as a non-profit
501(c)(3) corporation was completed. The papers were filed with both
the State and the Federal Corporate Commissioners.
In early 1991, the membership was still growing. About 25% of the
members attended the monthly general meetings. In May, annual dues
were increased to $25. In June the group was awarded its non-profit
status by the state of California and, and by August, the attendance
at the meetings had grown to an average of 130 people. In November
the newsletter received a 2nd Place Award in the 1991 BIXUSER
newsletter contest, which was a nationwide contest held by BIX
magazine.
By the start of 1992, the club roster had swelled to 350 members with almost 50% of them in attendance at each month's general meeting. Once again a search was started for a larger meeting facility.
In April 1993, the group, now with almost 400 members, moved its general meeting to the Monte Vista Masonic Lodge. The facility proved to be inadequate in meeting the club’s needs so another search began for a better location. This was difficult because of the group’s large size and limited budget.
Beginning in July 1994, the monthly general meetings were held at the International City Masonic Lodge in Long Beach. By December the membership had slipped to approximately 300 members.
In March 1995, the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) were moved to the
Trinity United Methodist Church of Lakewood. The membership has a
slight increase to about 350. The group received its Federal
non-profit status.
In 1996, the club made upgrades and improvements to much of the club
owned equipment. It started to sponsor and support more community
service projects. This helped to improve morale and dramatically
increased the number of members actively involved with the club. The
newsletter was improved and expanded along with the BBS. The
Interface newsletter won Honorable Mention in the Southwest Regional
User Group Conference contest. Many different types of presentations
covering both software and hardware were given at the general
monthly meetings.
In 1997, the club continued to thrive and expand. The special
interest groups remained a vital part of the club and brought the
members together on a more casual and frequent basis. The volunteer
projects continued to be supported. Attendance at the General
Meetings now averaged about 120 people. In an effort to raise money
a huge garage sale was held in July and a drive to collect aluminum
cans was initiated. Also two computers were built by the club
and raffled off.
By February of 1998, the club had raised enough money to buy a
state-of-the-art projector to be used for presentations at the
general meetings. Substantial amounts of software have been
distributed to numerous causes, including the group's own members.
The club established its own domain name and web site. Attendance at the General Meetings is continually increasing and the
vitality and enthusiasm of the members remains high.
In 1999, members promoted our group with displays at the Computer
Marketplace where they also assisted and advised members and others
wanting to purchase computers or equipment upgrades. Extra efforts
were also made to secure and repair donated computers for students
who could not afford to purchase one on their own.
Because of the popularity of our Special Interest Group for upgrades
and computer repair, hardware meetings were expanded to meet every
Friday night.
At the start of the new millennium (2000) a decision was made to
up grade the equipment in the SIG room. The first of the upgrades
was to replace the three user computers with new, for its time,
state of the art systems. Coffee and small refreshments have become
a popular and standard part of the general meetings.
The 2001 board decided to change the club's operation of a not for
profit volunteers organization who helped others with computer
problems to a for profit business format. After a trial year it was
decided this was not a practical or profitable endeavor for our
group.
Officers of the 2002 board of directors held the most successful
garage sale to date. The money was badly needed to over come the
large budget deficient facing the club. Also during the year they
managed to take on the task of rewriting and passing the club’s new
bylaws.
During the 2003 term in office the board worked to reestablish the
club's commitment to community service projects. They also worked to
involve more members in the day to day operations of the club. This
was the first completed year of operation under the newly adopted by
laws.
Throughout the 2004 year the club focused on community service
projects. We donated equipment and spent time building computers for
a local school that lost their computers due to a fire set by
vandals. Once again the garage sale out did all previous years. Not
only did we raise more money then ever before we had much more
member support for this event then anything else. The year end
meeting was met with much enthusiasm and prizes were given to all
who attended.
The year 2005 found the club with more challenges than
accomplishments. Due to the increase in membership at the church
where we held our SIGs we to give up the rooms we used for our SIG
meetings and storage. We are now in the process of trying to find
one that meets our needs as well as this place did. The lodge where
we hold our monthly general meeting suffered flood damage and our
meetings were disrupted for several months. Also with little warning
we were given an almost 70% rent increase which immediately sent us
on a search for a new meeting location. All and all a very exciting
year for the members.
By the beginning of 2006 we were located in our new home at the community center in Signal Hill. By mid 2010 it was decided to once again move.
In September 2010 we started using the meeting room at American Red Cross building located at 3150 E. 29th street, Long Beach, California