Computer club is seeking members

July 1984

If COBOL, BASIC, and PASCAL are words which mean very little to you, then Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the FDYS is the place to be. The recently established Wexford Computer Club meets there, and it is currently inviting new members to come along.

The club was formed in January to meet the needs of some people who had received computers for Christmas but who did not know how to work them. It has since grown to about 25 members. Not all have computers, but all are interested in learning how to use them.

Grainne McGranaghan, Chairperson of the Club, thinks it is important for people to lose their awe of computers as ‘sci-fi’, and the club aims to promote the use of computers in everyday settings. Indeed, Grainne predicts that the day might come sometime in the future when there will be a computer in every office and other workplace, even in towns like Wexford instead of just in the big cities.

The club has been free up to now but will soon be introducing a small membership fee, which has yet to be decided. It will use the proceeds to organise a course in the computer programming language BASIC. There will also be a class in another language called PASCAL if there is sufficient demand.

The club also hopes to buy a printer (which allows you to print out onto paper the data you see on a computer screen) if there is enough money left over, but Grainne points out that printers are very expensive so she does not yet know if this will be possible.

Either way, all with an interest in learning about computers are welcome to come and join the club – just call to FDYS any Saturday morning.