Reunion 2013 Newsletter: Fill & Download for Free

The first Homebrew Computer Club meeting consisted of 30 people standing around an Altair 8800 (the first one to hit Silicon Valley - a review copy set to People's Computer Company, the underground paper of the tiny personal computer set).Fred Moore ran the meeting, and I suggested that we each state for the record what we had done with personal computers, what resources we had, and what we were interested in. This was dutifully transcribed and published in the newsletter by Moore, and sent out to the list in time for the next meeting 2 weeks later (at the Orange Room of the Stanford Linear Accelerator auditorium.By the third meeting Gordon French (a contract mainframe programmer who had collaborated with Moore and offered his garage) was running the meeting - attempting to lecture to the much larger group on basic computer science while half the group milled around outside trying to meet each other.I made a mental note to try to bring that process back into the main room, a nd I got my chance at the next meeting, when Gordon stepped down because he had secured a contract that would take him out of the area. My name was put forward as a replacement and I, there being no alternative nomination, accepted the appointment to run the meeting.I went around the room and asked people to give short statements as to what had brought them there, what they had done and what they needed. The theory was to go around the room, break up into free-for-all discussion, and then reconvene for another iteration. Good theory - never happened. Thereafter there was only one "mapping session" followed by a "random access session".I had to learn stagecraft the hard way to try to shut down those who wanted to deliver a long explanation of anything or everything, and I got pretty good at it. It was important for me not to become otherwise involved in the information transfer, even if I knew better (occasionally I slipped).For about a year someone was organizing half hour lectures on various topics of the day, whereupon we would pick up with our format. Occasionally when the lecturer failed to show up I would ask for hands from people who know something about the topic. Two or three hands would always go up, and I would call on them in turn to deliver their facts.This stimulated more facts, some disputations and qualifications, and by the end of the time period the audience had delivered as good a lecture as any expert could have.Five of us incorporated the Homebrew Computer Club as a nonprofit corporation and thus became the only legal "members", which is a trick answer to the question of how many "members" there were. There was no effective criterion for membership - you just showed up and put your name in for the mailing list - donations were strongly encouraged at that point.At the meeting in spring of 1978, on the eve of the Second West Coast Computer Faire (San Jose - the third was later that year in Los Angeles) we unrolled the Teletype printout of the mailing list - it was about 3500 names long. A year before it had been about 300.Bob Reiling would open the meeting and appeal for donations, then introduce me - he was the President and I called myself Toastmaster.The real information transfer occurred during Random Access - the Mapping session was to set us up so that everybody knew whom they wanted to speak with.Some time after 1981 other user groups were forming and the IBM PC had deflected a lot of the creative energy away from the one-size-fits-all meeting. Homebrew then gradually turned into what I called the "Old Farts Society", with a fixed, small set of attendees who just wanted to comment on what was going on.In 1985 I gave it one year to transform into something else and possibly establish an on-line presence, but that didn't happen, and the final meeting was held in December 1986.I commissioned a T-shirt with a cartoon logo and sold many there (they are grey acrylic blend) and have re-issued the shgirt for the 38th year reunion held Oct. 2013 at the Computer History Museum. The new, white cotton shirt can be had through Z Enterprises.For years afterward people would come up to me on the street and shake my hand - telling me that I wouldn't remember them, but they had attended Homebrew meetings. Many would thank me for saying such important things - they did not appreciate it the first few times when I insisted that I had said nothing of importance but was only monitoring traffic.Eventually I realized that people need blessings, and so I turned my response into a blessing - yes, WE had been saying some very important things, and didn't it work out well? People go away smiling when I do this, and it really is true.