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Mills says his group is going into "a lot more back-to-basics." In his capacity as editor of the group newsletter, he is rewriting a lot of articles, he says, because the group is growing by "leaps and bounds" and he estimates that 75 percent of the
new members don't know the basics.Another recent development is an adventure game subgroup for both players and programmers. Kavanaugh says a command module swap, "sort of a garage salestyle swap," is planned for the January MSP 99 meeting and the group plans to start classes in BASIC programming this year. She notes that people are "buying the computer and knowing nothing about what they want to do with it." As a result, the MSP group is expanding very rapidly, she says. Other presidents report similar growth or indications that it will occur. Utter reports "a rather large jump in membership," with 35 or 40 joining at the last meeting. Jiroutek says that about 100 persons attended the December MUNCH meeting and noted that according to the local newspaper's article on Worcester-area computer groups, the TI group is the largest one there. The president of the Worcester TRS group attended the last MUNCH meeting, Jiroutek says, and told him, "I'm not coming to spy on you, but I bought my son a TI." He says a "real invasion" is expected in January because of the hundreds of TIs sold during December, many of which, he predicted, ''were under the Christmas tree." Kuseski says that the winter holiday months are always "big months" for recruiting, but that he hasn't compared growth to last year to see if it is greater. He notes 50 guests at the December meeting, in addition to regular members. Mills says that his group has tripled its membership "inside 60 days." Members are concerned, Millssays, about how long support will beavailable for the comnuter, particularlysoftware availability. He notesconcern at>out publication supportwhether99er Magazine, for instance,will become just. another generalpurpose computer publication.Hudspeth says the greatest concernis whether third party vendorswill produce peripheral equipmentfor the TI.Kavanaugh also says that buyersare concerned as to whether they willbe able to expand their systems in thefuture.Utter notes that "the TI peripheralshave pretty much disappearedaround here.''"Getting their money's worth," islisted as the top user concern by Donlan,"by at least being able to use thecomputer as a tool for learning moreabout the information age and applicationsof a computer as a home andbusiness tool.''Jiroutek says concern has surfacedabout spare parts and aboutrepair if something goes wrong withthe computer.Papagolos says that concern aboutbeing able to find, for instance, a parti c u l a r p r o g r a m h a s l e s s e n e dbecause people are coming to realize"there are third party sources."He notes that there is "a lot of junksoftware'' on the market. ''Some of itborders on the fraudulent.''He notes that some third partymanufacturers have supplied theusers group with software to evaluateand that members have passedon information about others.'' As such, I think TI is not going tobe missed," Bathman says. "Whatpeople miss are some of the things TIpromised for the future,'' such as the99/8.He says users are concerned aboutrepair capability if they haven'tbought a spare console. He notes thathis group has found a place in Dallasthat will repair TI products. He saysusers are also concerned aboutexpansion cards and chip replacementin the future.He says that "if members don'twant to stay in TI we're thinkingabout selling their equipment forthem." So far, he says, no one hasexpressed interest in selling theirequipment.Because of the price reduction, hesays, many members have just gotteninto the TI computer.User Groups - Fill NeedsUtter typifies those interviewed inhis opinion that user groups will growin importance because people arelooking for applications and educationregarding their computers. Henotes, however, that trying to getdiscount purchasing for the groupthrough stores has become moredifficult.Utter comments that ' 'it seems likemost third party software coming outin module form is games." That's"only good for a while," he says, cit-
