Victoria Computer Club is a non-profit society registered in British Columbia, Canada.
Our Motto: “The friendly helpful computer club”
Victoria Computer Club (formerly Big Blue and Cousins – BBC) is a club of computer enthusiasts located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Drop in for an introduction to the club, but you must become a member to get the many educational and social benefits.
Knowledgeable members participate as instructors in a wide range of classes. They are presented depending on volunteer instructor and student availability.
We support Windows, Android, Chromebook, iPhone and iPad users. We don’t have the resources to support Apple laptops.
A Brief History
In March 1982, the IBM PC-1 started selling in Victoria, and, by May, a club that was to evolve into Big Blue and Cousins was formed. We elected our first executive in 1983 and selected a provisional name of “The Victoria Personal Computer Users Group”. See “Our very Beginning” in our June 1990 newsletter.
In 1984 we produced our first newsletter, BBS, and Special Interest Group (SIG). See Early History, part 2 Then, in 1985, we applied to be incorporated under the British Columbia Society Act as “The Greater Victoria IBM-PC Users Group”. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be. Geoff Mitchell’s “Origin of our Name” explains why we settled on “Big Blue and Cousins: The Greater Victoria Personal Computer Users’ Association”. That name stuck and, by 1987, Bert Mar had designed the BB&C keys logo. It was published for the first time on our July 1987 newsletter and is still used in a slightly modified version.
Our first web page was published in 1994. We suffered a temporary challenge when, in December 1999, the British Broadcasting Corporation complained about our use of “BBC” in our domain name. However, we had a strong case and ultimately prevailed. The BBC just dropped their request. “Our Domain Name”
More club history from our newsletter:
We had a relatively slow start with only 12 members by our third year, but, membership increased as home computers became more popular. We peaked in 1995 with over 1815 paid members (but over 3000 members including unpaid associate members.) 1994 Survey of Members By 2002, with the rise of the internet, membership had decreased to about 250 members (now 165 in 2013).
Clubhouse: We have had a number of clubhouses, in various locations, since 1987. Our clubhouse serves many purposes, but one of its most important uses is to allow our members to meet each other and to share their enthusiasm for computers.
Our socials, currently on Tuesday and Fridays attract members who drop in for help or just to chat. (See our Calendar.)
The clubhouse also offers facilities for members who wish to explore specialized areas of interest. Members organize Special Interest Groups using the resources of the clubhouse.
We offer the wide range of services to our members thanks to the participation of our systems volunteers who maintain our windows and linux computers.
Website: Our webportal (Content Management System) is also produced by volunteer club members and includes on-line HTML and PDF editions of our club newsletter in colour, forums, chatroom, private messaging, and much more.
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