I look at the world of ZX computers as a training field/hobby. Some use it to begin to learn about computers and get thrilled by more bells and whistles and faster speed and move on to other makes/models; others look around and either because they don’t want to spend (or can’t) large bucks up front to get into heavily advertised computers they go into being T/Sers with the idea of learning about computers to satisfy an urge – or a need to have computing power and get hooked on the T/S machines or else learn enough to but don’t want to go into the necessity of another learning curve to learn a new system. For some the T/S computers do as much or more than they need and feel no desire to check out other computers. Some are like a young kid with his first jalopy – getting it only to ‘learn to drive’ and abandoning it when he can afford a more expensive model.
So there is a need for a National Organization to help tie all the T/Sers together and be a central clearing house for information and support. That need was recognized in the past and is still true. With the demise of the leading magazines and those not so well known, there is no other source of information in North America except the user groups and UPDATE MAGAZINE. The groups are more concerned with their local members than the needs of non-locals. Corresponding with Out-Of-Town members is very time consuming. Only an organization dedicated to that concept can serve folks with no local user group.
SNUG began in Florida during 1988 and in concept was a good idea – what happened next, I do not know. Maybe all energy was expended in the process of getting a state charter and all of that.
The SNUG Organization has withered away except for the start of the software libraries – that is one good thing that has come out of SNUG. As far as promised newsletters go, the few issues Paul Holmgren did in 1990 were paid for out of his own pocket. I was asked to be SNUG newsletter editor in November of 1990 and in the spring of 1991 there was an issue ready to mail but without finances there was no mailing. It was hard to face that fact.
When Bob Swoger called me in April 1991 and suggested we issue T/SNUG’s ZXir QLive Alive! on the back of CATUG’s Nite-Times News – I was thrilled and yet – reluctant – thinking about whether the T/Sers would be willing to take a chance on not being “burned” again and also knowing that, if I turned down the Chairmanship, there might not be a national newsletter.
But checks kept coming in, not fast, but enough to get us going and of course the $150 contribution from VSUG of Vancouver was a turning point in our finances. We hope to be able to provide a means to enable T/Sers to survive longer with support provided by T/SNUG.
In hindsight, some of my fears never materialized, the proof of this is that there are some out there still working with the ZX computers and, more importantly, some are still developing new software and hardware. Our numbers have dwindled but we still exist. I look forward to another year of ZXir QLive Alive! 0/0
Chairman Don
TIMEX/Sinclair NorthAmerican
User Groups