Late last year the
Queensland Naturalists’ Club was successful in receiving an $8000 grant from
the Gambling Community Benefit Fund.
a) reduce its reliance on other Clubs’
equipment,
b) reduce its reliance on the use of members’
equipment,
c) upgrade and replace old or inoperative
equipment,
d) provide current technology to enable the
Club to run its business and meetings professionally, and
e) facilitate high quality presentations,
displays, publications and a website to further promote the Club’s activities
and thereby increase membership.
The major items
purchased were:
a) a laptop computer and projector and
associated equipment and software for use at the Club’s meetings and outings,
and for special projects (e.g. production of publications), and
b) a laptop computer and printer and
associated equipment and software for use principally by the secretary to carry
out the Club’s administration. The new printer includes a 1200 dpi colour
scanner, fax, colour printing and colour copying so replaces the existing black
and white photocopier and black and white printer.
The laptop and
projector have been used at each of the monthly general meetings since the
beginning of 2009. At these meetings guest speakers have utilised the equipment
to give presentations on a range of natural history topics to audiences of up
to sixty members and visitors. The new secretarial equipment is now being used
for conducting the day-to-day business of the Club. An example of the use of
the microscope attachment is shown in figure 1 below.
The new equipment
will greatly assist the Club in meeting its objectives. On behalf of the
Queensland Naturalists’ Club I’d like to express our gratitude to the Gambling
Community Benefit Fund for their financial support. I would also like to thank all members of the
Club involved in writing the successful grant application, purchasing the
equipment and complying with the conditions of the grant.
Leith B Woodall
President
Figure 1: A magnified image of the under surface of a maidenhair fern, showing the fruiting structure (sorus), captured using the new equipment. The associated software allows for detailed measurements to be made and images to the easily labelled and used in presentations and publications. This image was presented by Harry Hines at the July 2009 general meeting to demonstrate the new equipment purchased from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund grant. The combination of the new computer equipment and the projector enabled the audience to clearly view this very small plant structure with excellent clarity.
