ThE SpoTliGhT: USERGROUPS iN REViEW
AAAUA (AlAMO AREA ATARi USER ASSOCiATiON)


Vital Statistics
    AAAUA (Alamo Area Atari User Association), P.O. Box 79-1426, San Antonio, TX 78279-1426
    President: Russell Stowe, voice Phone: (210) 981-2625 [President's number] (210) 344-3522
    [Executive Assistant's Number (Thelma Sunvision)]
    Meeting Location: Balcones Heights Community Center, 107 Glenarm
    Meeting Dates/Times: First Tuesday each month from 7:00pm - 9:30pm

Club History and Activities
    This exclusively 8-bit club was formed in 1982. It wasn't always entirely 8-bit, though. In 1988, with the creation of the powerful ST line, STers became disgruntled with attending club meetings in association with mere 8-bitters, so in that fateful year the STers expelled the 8-bit members from AAAUA. In the break-up, the STers were generous enough to split half the treasury, hand over the software library and allow the 8-bit segment to keep the name AAAUA.
    Since that time, the members of AAAUA have been on an active recruiting drive to pick up new members. They solicited garage sales and bookstores, distributed flyers, submitted newspaper ads and even canvassed neighborhoods! A dedicated organization indeed!
    With a current membership of 42 regular local members and 17 remote subscribing members, AAAUA meetings are busy affairs. Typical activities at any particular club meeting include:

Hardware/software demos	Game Contests (patches awarded to winners)
Swap meet	Training classes (help with hard-to-learn programs)
Club disk preparation	Newsletter editing and preparation (labelling, mailing, etc.).

    In addition to actively supporting its own Atari owning members, AAAUA is also active each year in participating in the local Girl Scout Computer Awareness sessions. Computers and demo software are displayed and classes are given on the history of Atari computers.
    This Editor gives AAAUA five stars (*****) for excellence in Atari 8-bit support!
    [If you have a club you'd like to see reviewed in these pages, please contact the AC Exchange Editor, Jim King, at the address given in the masthead on page 3. My main function hereon the Staff of AC is to serve as liason to the usergroup community and maintain a list of current 8-bit support usergroups. I welcome inquiries from readers concerning usergroups  and from usergroup representatives who wish to make their presence known to this magazine. -JK]