Commodore Free 31/Commodore_Free_Issue_31_2009_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/iv r snyder

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 12KB | 376 lines

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     Interview with Rob Snyder
  President of Meeting 64/128 Users
         Through the Mail
*************************************

CF.  Please introduce yourself to our
Reader

Rob Snyder Meeting Users Through The
Mail (MUTTM)
As for myself, I am 44 years old,
married, and father to my five
children. I work as a rural mail
carrier for the United States Postal
Service and live in rural Ohio in the
Midwest of the United States of
America.  I have used a commodore
computer my entire computing life
only dabbling on other platforms-- my
wife has a Mac.

CF.  What was your first encounter
with Commodore Machines?

MUTTM
My first encounter with a commodore
computer was in 1982 when my brother
Dan and I pooled our savings and
bought the $595 Commodore 64 and a
$60 datasette to enter the home
computing world. In 1992, I married,
and took a third part time job as a
bookkeeper for our parochial school.
The school also used commodore 64s
and they introduced me to the local
commodore club. After a few years,
the Commodore Computer Club of Toledo
(CCCT) made me their President and I
have been ever since. In the November
1998 issue of the CML, I received a
hello and big welcome as one of the
seven new members of MUTTM. I have
created several issues of our local
newsletter when I decided to take a
turn as guest editor of CML. I had
been editor for three issues over the
years when in the summer of 2006,
Linda Tanner, then President of
MUTTM, emailed me about taking over
the role of President. I was excited,
intimidated, proud, and honored to
guide the correspondence user group
of commodore

CF.  Can you tell our readers about
Meeting user through the Mail (MUTTM)

MUTTM
Meeting 64/128 Users Through the Mail
is a non-profit, group of commodore
users that correspond through the
mail (and email) an international
commodore users group of sorts. To
become a member, you need to fill out
an application. To get an
application, just contact the
President through email or regular
mail giving your postal address to
receive the application. The website
has the information too, but since we
are a correspondence club, we
continue to have the mail our main
submission tool. The application lets
you tell a bit about yourself, such
as address, commodore equipment,
interests and hobbies. You send the
application with the membership fee
to the club. The information is used
in your Bios which is sent to other
club members only.

CF.  What benefits does the user gain
from joining MUTTM, I know there is a
newsletter sent 6 times per year

MUTTM
I feel the main benefit of MUTTM is
the BIOS. The Bios is THE LIST of
MUTTM members. It includes names,
addresses, equipment used, interests
and other hobbies of our members.
While not compiled for mass mailings
and other solicitations, the list is
for commodore users to contact other
commodore users about computer
interests and other mutual interests
of the correspondents. Over the
years, there have been many
friendships which began from the
initial contact derived from the
Bios. As for other benefits of the
club, the Commodore MaiLink is what
many members join to receive, as it
was only available to members. This
year, we are making the newsletter
available on the internet hoping to
attract more like people to become
members. I also feel with the lack of
commodore 64/128 specific
publications, C= users are at a loss
for articles about their favourite
machine. Making CML more accessible,
I hope to fill that loss.

CF.  What is your involvement with
MUTTM, and what input do you give to
the Magazine?

MUTTM
As President, my involvement is
mostly making sure the club keeps its
focus; and keeps going. Keeping
members connected through the Bios
and CML articles is what I see as
MUTTM{SHIFT-*}s mission. Jean Nance once said
she wanted to give members everything
promised instead of promising a lot.
We promise 6 well-produced
newsletters, and a list of fellow
commodore 64/128 users. I believe
Jean also had final say into what was
left in or out of the newsletter, as
all material used to be sent to her
even after she quit editing. I don't
have that power as I don't usually
see the whole newsletter until I get
it in the mail. I believe as the 23
years the club has been around, most
members know what can and shouldn't
be in the newsletter. I hope nobody
abuses that trust. As for my other
duties, I write the Meeting News;
included in every issue which is just
were the President get to sound
Presidential. I also like to edit an
issue a year. In addition, I took on
the responsibility of Bios editor and
Treasurer as Brian Vaughan and Emil
Volcheck respectively stepped down
due to health issues. I took these
posts as the membership is not as
large and thus not as cumbersome as
in years past. I feel I can
effectively do these tasks to keep
the club going healthily. When we
found our family was due to have
another member, I did worry about
time for club activities. Even with
the busy time of membership renewals
and the birth of Luke (along with the
holidays) nearly coinciding, all seem
to have worked out. Except for
finishing this questionnaire ;)

CF.  Where do articles come from for
the magazine?

MUTTM
The club newsletter, the Commodore
MaiLink, as named by Eloise Carey,
mainly has articles from our members
and is edited by a guest editor who
(for the most part) volunteers. Most
issues are produced using only
commodore equipment. While some of
the guest editors use other equipment
to assist in the newsletter, we pride
ourselves on the best newsletter made
FROM our 64 or 128 computers.  As
Jean Nance stated in the Guidelines
For Commodore MaiLink Editors,
Members want to see what can be done
with their Commodores, not what can
be done with other computers. Today's
newsletters happen quite a bit
different than several years ago.
Then disks and printouts were sent
via regular mail. It seems today's
articles are sent via the internet as
PDF or email text. The text for the
MaiLink on Disk is mostly from email
text or OCRed into the electronic
form. Most articles still come from
MUTTM members and luckily we have a
few members who continually write
articles for the MaiLink. I
continually try to solicit more
members to contribute. Richard Savoy
is our member who prints and mails
CML for the rest of the members;
truly a large job. As I understand,
he has a couple copy machines, B&W
and colour, in which to multiply the
pages of CML. Along with stuffing
envelopes, weighing, and mailing, he
also makes available bonus disks he
has received from other clubs to
members who ask and pay for the added
postage. As for a specific process in
CML production, here goes:-

The Guest editor collects and
organizes articles, prints out needed
pages and sends them to Richard who
also collects some regularly
occurring articles. Richard copies
and mails CML. Richard also OCRs some
articles for Ken Barsky who produces
the MaiLink on Disk. While having the
text of the newsletter, the MaiLink
on Disk also contains many programs
selected by Ken. He works very hard
to also create a first class product.

CF.  You don't have internet access
at home; Does this cause you problems
with the club?

MUTTM
Not having internet access at home is
a hindrance especially since taking
over as President. Being a
correspondence club, a lot of club
business happens via the internet. I
did have access about five years ago
but gave it up for economy. Now I am
not sure I want the access with the
children getting of age. Not that the
internet is bad, just one more thing
I would have to limit; like I do with
television and candy. To use the
internet, I presently drive to the
library. Some years ago, a MUTTM
member wondered about PayPal to pay
MUTTM dues and I used my private
account to accommodate this member.
This past year I set up a new PayPal
account just for the club but had no
takers. I'm afraid the PayPal account
is not advertised yet but I hope all
who would like to use PayPal would
contact the President to get
specifics to use the service. We do
use PayPal to pay bills such as our
website expenses on Videocam.net.au.

CF.  I noticed in the history of the
club that the largest number of
members was over 300, do you think
there is still that much interest or
has the internet and the start of
free publications like "commodore
Free" limited the membership ?

MUTTM
MUTTM{SHIFT-*}s history is more detailed on
our website, but the club started in
1986 by Kirby Herazy, a high school
student. He listed the club in the
national Commodore magazines of the
time to have other commodore users
write to him. He shared his list of
about 30 Commodore pen pals with his
other C= pen pals. Jean Nance, one of
the pen pals, took over the
organization after Kirby wanted to
spend more time on other projects and
school. She made MUTTM what it is
today. She started a newsletter and
asked for dues to cover printing and
postage. After a letter appeared in
RUN magazine about the group in 1988,
a flood of inquiries and members
raised the membership to a high of
around 300 in the early 1990s. The
numbers have been declining;
presently at 49 for 2009, but still
more than when Kirby thought the club
was getting too big to handle.

CF.  How long do you think the club
and newsletter can survive?

MUTTM
As for how long MUTTM can survive, at
least as long as I do. As long as
there is one MUTTM member, I will
continue to serve that member-- to
help find other commodore 64 or 128
users to correspond with

CF.  Have you read Commodore Free
magazine, how do you feel about the
creation of a free magazine for
commodore users?

MUTTM
Having a subscription to the
Homestead List on Videocam.net.au, I
got to know about Commodore Free and
have read many issues. I enjoy the
magazine and commend you for your
effort. I only wish I had more time
to read more issues. I do not see
your publication affecting our
membership other than in the
positive, as I feel most of our
members enjoy the ease of getting
their issues through the mail.
Matter-of-fact, only one member has
expressed an interest to receive
their issue of CML via PDF email. I
see Commodore Free as keeping and
building interest in our commodore
machines and that can only be
beneficial to all commodore
enthusiasts

CF. I did think long and hard about
clubs like MUTTM and what they try to
do I felt that you were unique
because of the members BIO and I felt
creating Commodore Free would not
reduce your members list, also
Commodore Free needs to be downloaded
and manually printed to be read,
whereas MUTTM is delivered
pre-printed to the users home
address, I welcome comments and
feedback from yourself. What is the
best piece of hardware you have
(peripheral) for your Computer (it
doesn't have to be a Commodore
machine) and why

MUTTM
My best piece of commodore hardware,
apart from the 64 machine itself, is
the CMD hard drive. The speed of
loading and convenience of storage of
so many programs has spoiled me. For
two years now I have been without it
and I have been relearning the
realities of 1541 disk drive space
and wear. I still have hope to
resurrect the hard drive but it has
taught me that someday I may be
without some piece of equipment. I
need to repair some equipment,
especially drives, soon or else there
may be nobody who can fix them for me

CF.  Finally do you have any other
comments you would like to add?

MUTTM
Thank you for the opportunity to
write to you, and your readers about
myself and Meeting 64/128 Users
Through the MailMUTTM

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