PCC Fun Facts & PC History
1981-Feb PCC Club started with 35 members. President: Ivan Peterson.
Dates when some of the PCs were first introduced.
1977-Jun Apple II. The Apple I was a circuit board with no case or keyboard introduced in 1976-Jul.
1977-Jun Commodore PET.
1977-Aug Radio Shack TRS 80.
1979-Jun Texas Instruments TI-99/4.
1981-Jun Osborne 1.
1981-Sep IBM PC.
1982-Dec 200 members.
1983-Sep
3M PCC Officers: President: Tom Moore. Vice-President: Jim Fox. Secretary: Dale Piepho. Treasurer: Dick Hartman. Director-At-Large: Peter Heitman.
Committee Directors: Software Advisory: Dan Pendergrass. Library: Dick Fisch. Education: Joe Smrdel. Hardware: Art Edhlund. Newsletter: Kathe-Sue Erickson. Disc Testing: Carl Abrahamson. Election: Ivan Peterson. Rules: Jim Fox. Program: Barb Lother.
Sigs: Apple: Dan Pendergrass. Commodore: Jim Wilson. IBM PC: Jim Fox. Osborne: Stephen Klein. TI: Tom Jempty. TRS-80: Mary Simpson.
Disk of the month for sale for $5 (Games on #1 and PC-File on #2).
Instructor lead Basic and Intermediate Programming classes for $15 each. In latter years classes on Dbase and VisaCalc were also given.
The 5 ¼” Disk Testing program provides members a free box of unformatted disks that members format and report issues. Members get about four boxes of disks a year. This saved members about $80 a year for disks.
Data Bytes monthly newsletter was up to 30 pages with a a glossy heavy cover like a magazine that was printed outside 3M. It was mailed to members monthly. At its peak Data Bytes generated $250+ a month in ad money. Latter the newsletter was renamed eBytes.
1983-Oct Largest 3M Club membership of any 3M hobby club.
1984-Jan
3M PCC Officers: President: Carol Seibold. Vice-President: Gary Wenger. Secretary: Dale Piepho. Treasurer: Dick Hartman. Director-At-Large: Peter Heitman.
Committee Directors: Software Advisory: Dan Pendergrass. Library: Dick Fisch. Education: None. Hardware: Art Edhlund. Newsletter: Kathe-Sue Erickson. Disc Testing: Carl Abrahamson. Election: Ivan Peterson. Rules: Jim Fox. Program: None.
Sigs: Apple: Dan Pendergrass. Commodore: Jim Wilson. IBM PC: Jim Fox. Osborne: Stephen Klein. TI: Tom Jempty. TRS-80: Mary Simpson.
1984-Feb Apple Macintosh introduced. Director-At-Large: Rich Heichert. Apple SIG: John Hansen. Commodore SIG: Wayne Dunshee. HP 150 SIG: Chad Hansen. 3M Corporate announces IBM PC purchase plan for all 3M non-union members. Membership 800+ with 60+ new each month.
1984-Mar PCC membership by Hardware: 240 Apple, 230 Non-owners, 65 IBM, 60 Commodore, 55 TI, 55 Misc, 15 TRS, and 15 Osborne.
1984-Apr to Dec no Data Bytes newsletter.
1985-Jan Membership 1,000+. Club has a dial up bulletin board BBS * FidoNet *. Modem speed is 300 or 1200 Baud with a 10 MB hard drive. Max two concurrent users dialed in. This was before the Internet and was the only way for a user to connect outside your home. Many of the modems were acoustic with foam couplers that you pushed the old dial phone headset into. Yes, most phones were dial pulses and not tone. Modems cost $300+. Long distance calls cost a fortune. PCC membership by Hardware: 274 Apple, 196 Non-owners, 173 IBM, 144 TI, 113 Commodore, 28 Mac/Lisa, 27 Misc, 24 TRS, 16 DEC, 11 Heath, 8 HP-150, 5 Atari, and 4 Epson.
1985-Feb
3M PCC Officers: President: Jim Schenz. Vice-President: Larry Pollard. Membership Secretary: Tom Kreuzer. Recording Secretary: Dave Dreher. Treasurer: Jacquie Durbin. Director-At-Large: Pete Halden.
Committee Directors: Education: Sharon Middlendorf. Election: Rich Heichert. Disc Testing: Carl Abrahamson. Library: Dick Fisch. Newsletter: Dan Willis. Program: Jeff Nielsen. Rules: Jim Fox. Software Advisory: Dan Pendergrass.
Sigs: Apple: John Hansen. Commodore: Wayne Dunshee. IBM PC: Jim Fox. DEC: Steve Smits. HP-150: Steve Kretzschmar. Mac/Lisa: Paul Marshall. TI: Tom Jempty, TRS-80: Mary Simpson, and Lotus: Sue Bay.
Membership info was done on the DEC TRAC mainframe using the 1022 database language. It was created by Dale Piepho and Tom Kreuzer took it over. The Club is selling 5 ¼” blank disk for single sided double density “160K” for $15 a box of 10 or $21 for 10 double sided double density “320K”. No ads in the eByte because it just started back up.
1985-Mar Macintosh 512 sells for $2,795 which adjusted for inflation is $6,680.
1985-Apr Selling PC-File III database for $35 and blank disks to generate money in the “Bargain Basement”. New items added monthly.
1985-Jul Over 1200+ members. For the first time the Apple is not #1 in membership by computer/Interest group: IBM 338, Apple 302, Commodore 147, TI 108, Lotus 100, Macintosh 69, HP-150 44, TRS 42, DEC 26, Atari 14, Heath 12, and Osborne 11. A PC-XT with 256K RAM and 10MB hard drive sells for $3,895.
1985-Oct The club is looking to buy a permanent bulletin board system at a cost of $6730. IBM PC AT $3883, color monitor $569, graphics board $163, DOS 3.0 $45, WheelPrinter $1310, and Hayes 1200 Baud modem $375. The club is looking to raise dues from $5 to $8 because of the lack of ads in the PCC Data Bytes. The PCC Data Bytes costs $650 a month to publish which is down from the $1000 it cost at the beginning of the year. It is planned that advertising will cover most of the publishing cost.
1985-Nov Members are using 5 ¼ single sided disk as double sided to cut costs. A box of 10 is sold by the club for $15 single sided and $22 double. 3M disks are too good when the single work as double.
1986-Jan
3M PCC Officers: President: Jim Schenz. Vice-President: Larry Pollard. Membership Secretary: Ken Luthy. Recording Secretary: Sue Bay. Treasurer: Jacquie Durbin. Director-At-Large: Pete Halden. Director-At-Large: Wayne Dunshee.
Committee Directors: Diskette Sales: Dwight Nelson. Disc Testing: Jim Birdsall. Program: Jeff Nielsen. Rules: Jim Fox. Software Advisory: Dan Pendergrass. Newsletter Staff: Judi Peterson, Pete Halden, Jeff Nielsen, JimSchenz.
Sigs: Apple II: Dale Piepho. Commodore: Wayne Dunshee. DEC: Burt Schneider. HP-150: Steve Kretzschmar. IBM PC: Jim Fox. Lotus: Sue Bay. Mac/Lisa: Paul Marshall. TI: Richard Ferber. TRS-80: Paul Iverson.
1985-Apr In 1979, 64 K of RAM cost $400. In 1986, 256 K Ram is $50 or 32 times less.
1985-Bill Gates presented Microsoft Word for DOS at a PCC Meeting.
1986-Mar Adam Osborne founder of Osborne Computers and head of Paperbasck Software spoke at the Feb meeting.
1986-Jul PC Magazine editor Bill Machrone spoke at the meeting. PC Magazine was the largest monthly magazine ever with 812 pages published 22 times a year.
1987-Apr Help-Net started in PCC with club members supporting hardware and software.
1987-Nov 900 members.
1988-Apr 841 members. Special Interest Group counts IBM: 512, Lotus 123: 247, Mac: 204, Apple II: 147, HP150/Vectra: 90, Commodore: 81, TI 99/4: 32, DEC Rainbow: 31, and TRS: 18.
1988-Oct-Nov Russ Parham is now the IBM/Compatibles SIG Director.
1989-Feb “Bargain Basement”/PCC Shopper discontinued where the club buys and resells items.
1989-Feb Apple Macintosh has been added to the IS&DP list of preferred computing platforms.
1989-Jul Phone dial-up Prodigy on-line services available to PCC members fro $9.95 month. This is before the Internet and provided news, sports, weather, stock quotes, shopping, electronic mail, etc. The PCC BBS now has 415 MB space. Vendors are moving away from providing both 5.25” and 3.5” disks. Current members 832. Special Interest Group counts IBM: 545, Lotus: 235, Mac: 260, Apple II: 109, HP Vectra: 67, Commodore: 65, Desktop Publishing: 22, DEC: 9, and TRS: 17.
1990-Jan Club BBS now has 9600 Baud Modem. Article by Russ Isbrandt about “Working with OS/2”. New 3M PCC Coffee Cups are selling for $3.
1999-Mar 800 members. Many new people became members to get to cheap dial-up Internet Service Provider (ISP) offered by the club. Bob Boettcher is President. The club has a new external web site at www.mmmpcc.org that the club bought and maintained. We switched to our current free web site from Google back in 2011. Mike Griffin leads the Mac SIG with about 100 members.
2000-Jul First PCC Picnic to spend the money the $15,000 the club has in the bank. Picnic every year since. Did not have regular meetings and no eBytes. Talk was to disband the club.
2005-Apr 225 members.
3M PCC Officers: President: Tom Kreuzer. Vice-President: Bob Boettcher. Membership Secretary: Vern Born. Recording Secretary: Ray Farm. Treasurer: Mike Griffin. Rules Chairman: Jim Fox. eBytes editor: Linda Brown. Director-At-Large: Phil Erlandson. Director-At-Large: Mark Lafon.
Sigs: IBM PC: Russ Parham. Mac: Mike Griffin.
Changed PCC Web site from www.mmmpcc.org to www.themining-pcc.com because 3M Legal does not want clubs to have MMM or 3M in name.
2006-Jan 197 members.
3M PCC Officers: President: Tom Kreuzer. Vice-President: Linda Brown. Membership Secretary: Vern Born. Recording Secretary: Ray Farm. Treasurer: Mike Griffin. Rules Chairman: Jim Fox. eBytes editor: Mary-Clare Holst. Program Chairman: Russ Parham. Director-At-Large: Mark Lafon
Sigs: Mac: Mike Griffin.
2006-Aug
3M PCC Officers: President: Linda Brown. Vice-President: James Homan. Membership Secretary: Vern Born. Recording Secretary: Ray Farm. Treasurer: Mike Griffin. Rules Chairman: Jim Fox. eBytes editor: Mary-Clare Holst. Program Chairman: Russ Parham. Director-At-Large: Mark Lafon. Director-At-Large: Tom Kreuzer
Sigs: Mac: Mike Griffin.
2007-Jan 189 members.
2008-Dec 165 members.
3M PCC Officers: President: Linda Brown. Vice-President: James Homan. Membership Secretary: Lowell Tews. Recording Secretary: Ray Farm. Treasurer: Mike Griffin. Rules Chairman: Jim Fox. MacSig editor: Mary-Clare Holst. Program Chairman: Stan Miller. Communications: James Beardsley. Director-At-Large: Tom Kreuzer
Sigs: Mac: Mike Griffin.
2010-Jan 160 members.
2011-Jan 161 members.
2012-Jan 163 members.
2013-Jan 155 members.
2014-Mar 159 members.
3M PCC Officers: President: James Homan. Vice-President: Linda Brown. Membership Secretary: Paul Ebert. Recording Secretary: Stan Miller. Treasurer: Mike Griffin. Communications: Andrew Petriuusi. Director-At-Large: Tom Kreuzer
Sigs: Mac: Mike Griffin.
2015-Jan 146 members.
2016-Jan 141 members.
2017-Jan 135 members.
3M PCC Officers: President: James Homan. Vice-President: Linda Brown. Membership Secretary: Paul Ebert. Recording Secretary: Stan Miller. Treasurer: Mike Griffin. Communications: Andrew Petriuusi. Director-At-Large: Tom Kreuzer
Sigs: Mac: Mike Griffin.
2018-Jan 132 members.
About 4,600 people have joined the club from 1981 to 2018. If a person left the club and then came back, they were considered a new member. Peak of 1,200 active members in 1985.
Old Data Bytes/eBytes monthly newsletters
Links to PC History
Old PCs http://oldcomputers.net
Timeline History of Computers http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/
PC Mag History https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390910,00.asp
IBM/Microsoft PC Operating Systems
1981-Aug PC DOS 1.0
1983-Mar PC DOS 2.0
1984-Aug PC DOS 3.0
1985-Apr PC DOS 3.1
1985-Nov Windows 1.0 introduced
1986-Mar PC DOS 3.2. 1991 DOS 5.0. 1993 DOS 6.0. Last 1994 DOS 6.22.
1987-Dec OS/2/Windows IBM introduced.
1988 Lawsuits brought by Apple against Microsoft for the Windows GUI. It went on till Apple lost in 1994.
1988-May Windows 286 and Windows 386 introduced.
1990-May Windows 3.0
1992-Apr Windows 3.1
1993-Jul Windows NT 3.1
1993-Nov Windows for Workgroups 3.11
1993-Nov Windows 3.2
1995-Aug Windows 95
1996-Aug Windows NT 4.0
1998-Jun Windows 98
2000-Feb Windows 2000
2000-Sep Windows ME
2001-Oct Windows XP
2007-Jan Windows Vista
2009-Jul Windows 7
2012-Oct Windows 8
2013-Oct Windows 8.1
2015-Jul Windows 10
2021-Oct Windows 11
2026-? Windows 12