The New Bern Computer Users Group (NBCUG) conducted an online survey of its members using a free polling service called Sparklit at http://www.pollit.com. The purpose of the survey was to get a handle on member's ages, their PC equipment and software and what they thought of the club so that it might be improved and meetings made more interesting. Over 30% of the 325 members with e-mail responded to the survey. Final results were posted at http://www.always-online.com/nbcug/results.htm along with results from earlier surveys for comparison.

In 1994, before Internet became available in New Bern, local PC enthusiasts chatting on Donnie Benners’ bulletin board system (BBS) started having monthly breakfast meetings at the Berne restaurant. This was the beginning of NBCUG. Today there are over 400 members with 76% listed on the club's e-mail list hosted by Always-Online. NBCUG meets on the third Saturday of every month at the Knights of Columbus hall and charges $2.00 admission to pay $150 rent of the hall. The club's web page is at http://www.always-online.com/nbcug.

It has long been known that seniors dominate NBCUG’s membership. Today 92% of members are over age 55 compared with 89% in 2002. NBCUG’s members may be seniors but their PCs are very uptodate. 47% have PCs running faster than 1gHz and 41% are using Microsoft's latest operating system Windows XP. The migration to high-speed communications such as Cox Cable or Sprint DSL service leveled off at 32%, up 2% from 2002. Twice as many members now use cable vs DSL but 66% of members still use 56kbps dial-up modems.

In the 2002 survey 82% of members had Windows 98 or ME as their operating system. Today only 49% use 98 or ME. The reason may be that 25% of members bought a new PC in the past year that came equipped with the new Windows XP operating system.

Microsoft continues to dominate the browser market with their Internet Explorer which 90% of members use, including the mail program that comes with it called Outlook Express, which 72% of members use. The #2 mail program is Eudora followed by #3 Microsoft Outlook that's part of the MS Office Suite.

99% of members find the Knights of Columbus an acceptable meeting place. Only 4% of members, about the same as last year, think NBCUG should be organized better. The club has never had a formal charter or elected officers. Volunteers run the club until they tire of the job. I’ve been moderating meetings for over 8 years and have managed the club’s web page and e-mail only because nobody else wants the job. Every year I say I'm going to retire.

54% of members have 2 or more PCs in their homes, about the same as last year. Only about 21% are networked together.

96% of members said they have an antivirus program they keep updated but 15% claim they became infected with a virus within the past year. It could be that some are claiming infection when the virus was first detected before actual infection occured. Since NBCUG moved the e-mail list to Always-Online the club can boast that it has not had a single case of a virus reaching members in mail sent to the list. Always-online does a successful job of scanning all mail for viruses.

We asked members if they were satisfied generally with the topics presented at meetings and got a 97% favorable rating. It looks like things are going pretty well at NBCUG.