by Clive Amos

s Volunteer of the Month, I would like to introduce Randy Esdon. Randy is one of our resident geeks, his involvement with computers began in 1977 at LaSalle High School when he became intrigued with an elderly mainframe computer. After acquiring his first PC, an Apple, in 1985 and the next year moving to an IBM XT, Randy stayed just behind the bleeding edge of technology. Upgrading his systems as the components dropped in price from the expensive pinnacle of their first introduction to the market. Randy recently finished upgrading his system to an AMD 750Mhz CPU, which is a comfortable step back from the 1 Ghz CPU's that are now available.

In '89 Randy joined the Canadian Armed Forces where he received training as a Naval Electronics Technician with a specialty in fire control. For the rest of us, that means a radar technician with a specialty in controlling the aim of weaponry using radar. Randy is regularly at sea tending to his duties but when he is ashore; you can often find him helping out at the clubhouse.

Joining BB&C in 1993, Randy "hung out" in the conferences on the BBS where he shared his interest in PC's with other enthusiasts. In the days before the World Wide Web and the kind of email we now take for granted, using a BBS was one of the few ways open to the public to quickly and inexpensively communicate digitally with people. Not only locally but, using echo-mail, around the world too. He has been helping our Librarian catalogue books on an as needed basis for about 6 years. He built a number of computer systems out of spare parts to sell at the auction that was held when the BB&C clubhouse was being moved to its present location. Prior to the move, Randy contributed a major effort to clean the new clubhouse. Afterward, he planned, setup and networked the Lab systems. Since then Randy has been our "hardware guy" replacing components as they wore out and generally maintaining the Training Lab systems that are vital to the courses taught at BB&C.

I would also like to mention that not only has Randy contributed a great deal to Big Blue & Cousins he also finds time to help out at that other club he belongs to. In 1998 he joined the Victoria Linux User Group (VLUG) where he is currently serving as the Membership Director. Randy is a very community minded individual that we are very lucky to have as a member of our club.

Given on behalf of myself and the members of Big Blue & Cousins, this award symbolizes our appreciation for the time and effort you have given us to make our club better.

Thank you Randy,

Clive Amos
President, Big Blue & Cousins