User-Friendly Networking : Computer Clubs Offer Information, Support

As she spoke, Kelly Bahry rolled her eyes and took on that exasperated look teen-agers get when they think one of their parents is doing something particularly un-parentlike.

“The only time she’s not on that thing is when she’s working or sleeping,” chided 16-year-old Kelly, sounding much like a parent herself. “She plays Shanghai by the hours. She used to play with about five other women, but now that’s doubled. The telephone rings more for her than it does for me.”

Jo Bahry, 53, can only laugh as her daughter tells of Mom’s “disease.” For Bahry is an Appleholic, dependent on the family’s Apple IIGS personal computer. She uses it to play games, do word processing, keep track of her nursing work and put together graphics displays for her husband’s collectibles business. And when she’s not tinkering with her computer, Bahry is eager to read or talk about computing.

Peer pressure is partly to blame for Bahry’s addiction. After buying her Apple three years ago, the Carlsbad resident began attending meetings of the North County Appleholics computer users group in Oceanside. By sharing their knowledge and experience with Bahry, club members soon had taught this computer neophyte all about bits and bytes, monitors and mice, disks and data bases.

Bahry is one of hundreds who belong to North County computer users groups. These clubs, also called special interest groups (SIGs), are made up of people who use the same computer or software programs, or have the same computing interests. They meet regularly to swap information, solve problems and provide motivational support for each other when their machines seem to be getting the best of them.

Most meetings are informal, and beginners are as prevalent as computer veterans. A typical meeting features a demonstration of a new software program or piece of equipment, either by a manufacturer’s representative or a group member who is well-versed on the product. There is usually a question-and-answer session where, as one group member noted, “The only stupid questions are the ones you’re afraid to ask.” Afterward, attendees break up into small groups to discuss their specific interests.

Bahry, a certified nurse-midwife at UCSD Medical Center, uses her Apple to keep statistics on deliveries. She credits the Appleholics with helping her master her machine.

“I would make a list of all the questions I wanted to ask, bring the list to the meetings, and then ask away. Now I’ve gotten to the point where I can answer other people’s questions. And I do a lot of networking outside the meetings,” she said.

Although Bahry’s husband, Ted, keeps a safe distance from the computer, daughter Kelly puts in some keyboard time when her mother is away, and has started accompanying her to Appleholics meetings.

“Mom was spending so much time at it that I wanted to see what the big deal was,” she said.

There is a range of age groups represented in the user groups, but seniors account for a large portion of the membership.

“You’ll see a lot of gray heads,” said George King, president of the 60-member IBM group in Oceanside. “Seniors have the time to devote to the groups, and the older folks are very much into computers. But we also have a lot of young members, high school and college students.

“Our oldest member? I guess that would be me, at age 78.”

King, a retired editor of a Boston computer trade magazine, became active in the IBM group five years ago.

“My No. 1 job is to bring somebody in each meeting to discuss a piece of hardware or software,” he explained. “On top of that, we all bring our problems to the meetings, and we see if others can help us find the answers. We more or less teach each other.”

One seniors group, the Computer Club at Leisure Village Ocean Hills in Oceanside, is composed of computerphiles age 55 and up. A recent count showed that 121 of the 1,300 Ocean Hills households had memberships in the club.

The group has made a computer room available to other clubs at Ocean Hills, and members are in the process of teaching other residents how to use the word processing software.

Burke Belknap, 66, who helped found the club in February, 1989, works part time as a marketing engineer and full time as a computer fanatic. At the July meeting he and guest lecturer Mel Koch, using a desktop publishing program, designed a logo for the club’s newsletter.

Balknap proved to be a magician with the mouse, scurrying the input device over a rubber pad and deftly producing images on the monitor screen.

“I’m an addict,” Belknap said. “I now have 100 to 150 programs, but if I live to be 120, I will probably have only half of the ones I want.”

Belknap recalled a time when, as a member of an Orange County group, his computer’s cursor refused to move. He phoned a fellow member at 10 p.m. and asked, “What the hell do I do now?”

“One of the biggest days of my life was when someone first called me and said, ‘What the hell do I do now?’ ” Belknap said.

While many groups take a general approach to their meetings, others are very specific. For example, the Personal Ancestral File Computer Genealogy group of Escondido is made up of people who use the PAF software program to trace their family trees.

PAF users create data bases to hold and sort their genealogical research, and can use modems to tap into the massive genealogical library maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The computer doesn’t do the work for you, but it certainly makes the work easier,” said Berta Lee MacDonald, who two years ago organized the group, an arm of the Escondido Genealogical Society.

“I received a disk that had 1,500 listings for people by the name of Combs, my maiden name. The program allowed me to compare that list with the one I already had. That can save a lot of time when you go to the library to look at vital statistics and census files.”

The success of users groups often depends on the popularity and availability of the computers and software they support. For example, Apple’s Macintosh is a hot computer these days, and there are at least 14 thriving Mac groups in San Diego County.

However, the problems of Solana Beach-based Kaypro Corp.--a wildly successful personal computer manufacturer in the early ‘80s that has since slid into bankruptcy--led to the recent demise of a Kaypro users group in Encinitas. K-North, a band of Kaypro enthusiasts in Oceanside, has decided to open its doors to users of other computers, and the North Coast Kaypro group of Del Mar has been reduced to a one-man consulting service.

K-North was originally for Kaypro users only, but the manufacturer’s recent woes and the proliferation of IBM-compatible computers forced the club to broaden its base.

“Our group is constantly getting referrals from Kaypro, since the company is no longer able to offer much support to users,” said Bob Boomer, K-North president. “If the company doesn’t survive, we’ll probably have to offer all the support.”

Before Kaypro adopted the MS-DOS operating system, it used the CP/M (Control Program/Monitor) system, now considered a dinosaur. Some 45 North Coast Kaypro members once shared their love for the CP/M machines, but now George Guy is the lone member.

“We had a very active club for a number of years,” said Guy, of Solana Beach, “but we quit having monthly meetings about six months ago because so many members drifted to IBM machines.”

Although the group is inactive, Guy continues to help those who have questions about the Kaypro CP/M. He welcomes callers, many of whom have been referred to him by the company, and maintains a library of CP/M public domain software for others to use.

Thirty-five North County owners of Texas Instruments-99 computers have banded together to keep their computer of choice alive.

“The TI-99 came out about 10 years ago and was discontinued five years ago, but the computer refuses to die,” said Rancho Bernardo resident Richard Hay, newsletter editor for the North County TI-99ers, who meet in Escondido. “There are probably 10 million people still using the TI-99, and new programs and equipment are still being developed for it. Very few places are sources for these programs, and we know where they are.”

Hay calls the TI-99 the “closet computer.”

“Our group is particularly intended for people who bought their computers years ago and put them in a closet because they didn’t know what to do with them,” he said. “We want to let them know there are programs for the TI-99, and that we can help them find and use them.”

Loyalty to a computer is nowhere stronger than with the ERACE (Electronic Resources Atari Computer Enthusiasts) group of Vista. There are only about 15 members, but it is a close-knit group that believes the Atari is not getting the respect it deserves as a serious computer.

“We’re the Rodney Dangerfields of computer users,” said Atari enthusiast Steve Schwarz of Carlsbad. “IBM, Apple, and Macintosh are firmly entrenched in the minds of Americans, but Atari--which is the No. 2-selling computer in Europe--can emulate them without losing anything. People still think of Atari as someone using a joystick to play a game in front of the TV.”

One group that is no longer active is DIG-SIG North for the disabled. However, North County residents are invited to attend the San Diego DIG-SIG meetings, held in the North Park area. In addition to helping the disabled solve their computer problems, DIG-SIG also takes donated equipment and loans it to members who are unable to buy their own. And while 30 to 50 usually attend the meetings, more than 1,000 have used the DIG-SIG electronic bulletin board from their homes.

Not to be lost among all the technical benefits of users groups is the uncomplicated experience of having fun and meeting people.

As ERACE/Ocean Hills group member Chuck Essenberg said, “When computer users meet, they’re friends for life.”