MacCamp

It's Saturday morning, I'm dozing in a mountain cabin overlooking tall trees, a creek, snow on the ground and more Macintoshes than a medium-sized corporation. Eight o'clock comes early when you have been hacking half the night, but the distinctive sound of Macs starting up rouses me more effectively than any alarm clock. It's time for breakfast at PMUG MacCamp.
It is remarkable that MacCamp, an eight-year-old activity put on by the Portland (Oregon) Macintosh Users Group (PMUG), has never been replicated by other user groups, or private companies.
Twice a year, around seventy members take over the Silver Falls Conference Center in the Cascade Mountains, bringing their Macs and wiring up for a weekend of classes, networked CD-ROMs, email, and total immersion in things Mackish.
Silver Falls Conference Center is an Oregon State-owned facility for retreats and training sessions. It consists of several huge cabins with woodstoves, electric heat, bedrooms for twelve people and tables and chairs for all their Macs. There is a dining area/classroom, and two other classroom areas, one big enough to fit up to 40 computers and all attendees. There is enough AC to support this load, which has grown over the years from Pluses and SEs to Quadras sporting 16" monitors and CD-ROM drives, plus the stray laser printer or two. Since 1991 we have needed to practice power management to avoid blown circuit breakers, but lately there are more PowerBooks and energy-efficient CPUs, so the stress on the electrical system is dropping off a little.
All the Macs in each cabin are networked via Ethernet. The cabins are all linked via routers. AppleShare, Send Express, Timbuktu and (until recently) TOPS enabled each member to send and receive files and mount each others' volumes on our desktops. The MacCamp administrators have experimented with Ethernet setups, star controllers and other expensive hardware, most of which is loaned to PMUG for the purpose of demonstrating their respective capabilities. Also loaned for the MacCamp classes are expensive color projectors, usually In Focus products, and various Mac IIs and Quadras from Apple, The Computer Store and other local vendors.
Considering that there is over a quarter million dollars worth of equipment sitting at the camp that weekend, and that attendees quite often are individuals who will make purchase decisions for their companies, this is great advertising for the donors.
MacCamp has evolved considerably since its first year, held at a Boy Scout camp building near the current site. It was an old wooden monstrosity, built surrounding a giant fire pit (the only source of heat) with a second floor mezzanine where bunk beds were slightly warmed by the rising heat. Like Mercury, we froze on one side and toasted on the other; bravely attempting to shiver our way through the classes while grasping our mice with cold, stiff fingers. The very next MacCamp was moved to the Conference Center, where we have been ever since. 1986 seems like a very long time ago.
MacCamp was a place to watch the Mac evolve over the years. People brought mostly floppy-based 512s and Pluses with 20-meg hard drives that first year; each new camp reflecting some significant evolutionary step. One year it was large hard drives, back when a 140-meg cost $1200; another year gave us a wave of Mac IIs with color monitors. The next year people started bringing removable media and tape backup units. The last MacCamp was dominated by '040 machines and several Newtons, with CD-ROM drives quite common. A few of the new voice-controlled AV Macs made an appearance as well. April '94 brought the first wave of PPC Macs.
Classes have been traditionally divided by fall and spring Camps, with fall classes concentrating on hacking and utility software: ResEdit, INITs and cdevs, managing hard drives, understanding fonts, disk and file rescue techniques, hardware upgrades and the like. Spring MacCamp is devoted to productivity software: PageMaker and Quark XPress; MS Word beginner and advanced classes; database and spreadsheet classes. There are usually three tracks of classes, with two on Saturday and one on Sunday, taught by member volunteers who get their MacCamp admission paid by the club. The cost for all meals, lodging and classes has averaged around $109 (now $149). PMUG MacCamp continues to be a popular activity, usually selling out every time.
Evenings are free so people spend their time checking out each other's systems to see what new extensions, desktop images and menu modifiers are being used. There is a marathon gaming session, with many people playing network games, within and between cabins. Lots of people swap pictures, sounds and icons; everybody catches up on the latest share- and freeware. (Pirating of commercial software is discouraged at PMUG activities.) Instructors roam the cabins answering questions and helping with system problems.
Spring and fall offer the best weather for these events. Sometimes there is snow, but it almost always rains. This is a Good Thing because nobody will feel guilty for sitting behind their Mac all weekend instead of hiking the trails or visiting the falls. We only leave the cabins to schlep our equipment to the classrooms, and to eat. Silver Falls employs excellent cooks, and the meals are legendary around PMUG.
Considering what a great idea this is, and how long PMUG has been doing it, I am amazed that other user groups have not tried emulating it. Maybe a little publicity will get things going.
PMUG operates a members-only graphical board running First Class. Anyone can join PMUG for $36/year in the USA, which includes their excellent journal Mouse Tracks (write for international rates), and come to MacCamp. PMUG's mailing address is PO Box 8949, Portland, OR 97207 and email is jeffrey@pmug.org.

Michael Pearce is founder of PMUG, having bought his first Mac in April, 1984. He works as a consultant helping Mackers in Portland, Oregon and teaches classes at MacCamp.

Note: The view of two of the cabins is from the porch in front of the dining area, across a huge meadow. It is not a scanned photo, but an original image by artist and PMUG member Bob Woods, who teaches the graphics class. It was used as the T-shirt art for the Fall '93 camp.