A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE EAST PRESTON SILVER SURFERS COMPUTER CLUB

In 2003, an advertisement in the West Sussex Gazette weekly newspaper advertised a fund for local worthwhile projects from the “Help the Aged's” Citizens' Action Millennium Awards.
An application was made on behalf of three people who had shown an interest in forming a computer club in our village. They were Ron de Gottal, Alma Barker and Frank James. Sadly we changed the day of our weekly meeting from Wednesday to Thursday to suit the majority and Ron had to give up attending as he was fully occupied on Thursday, so John West took his place as an applicant.
The club was helped by the Village Hall governing committee, by the Village Council authority, namely the Secretary and the Chairman. The document was supported by the Chairman of our club, Mr. David Hughes.
We were successful and a total grant of £3,450 was made available and was accepted by the club on 9/10/03. We bought software, computers, a scanner, paid for telephone rental and the rent of the hall.
Frank James was granted a lifetime membership ot the Millennium Awards Fellowship!
In August 2004 we made another application for funding to Awards for All. In November 2004 we were awarded £3.983 for a projector, screen, software and replacement monitors.
In February 2006 we submitted another application for funding to Awards for All. Later that year we were awarded £3,500 which was used to purchase computers, software, monitors, a router and wireless adaptors.
We are now in our 6th year and are able to support ourselves financially, due to the large number of members, almost 100 with a waiting list of 50 or so.
The original idea was to launch the club with Linux as the operating system, however we had no competent teacher. One of the staff at the local library whispered that there was someone with teaching experience ready and willing to help. This was Paul Knapp, without his help we would have certainly foundered.  He has been our rock from which knowledge has been disseminated, he has always been on hand for help in every way.   Brian Piner appeared on the scene early on, and gradually others with IT skills joined the band of helpers and made the club into what it is today. We have Geoff Love, a very capable Hon. Treasurer, and Ray Voss as Hon. Secretary, who keep us in financial and administrative order. Peter Dodd created and maintained our first website, his wife, Erica is another teacher.  Another valuable member of the committee is Catherine Pendrill-Cosier who with her profesional skills has organised the collection and storage of our equipment at the end of each session.  Lionel Oddell created and maintains the current website, he is also an occasional teacher as is Harry Mills. Tony Martin is another member of the Committee. Patrick Simms is a founder member and also serves on the Committee. Margaret Knapp. Paul’s wife, another IT teacher helps when she can. We are a Registered Charity, no. 1106827 since 17-11-2004