Development

Press, 30 June 1983, Page 18

Development

Development of the new, plastic, computer-printed, membership-card system took about 15 months, and achieving the card itself in its final form took nearly a year. The development of the idea locally was carried through — against various set-backs — by Mr Graham Menary, the assistant general manager of AA (Canterbury). Mr Menary knew something similar was in operation in America and Canada, and this knowledge indicated that it was possible to feed a plastic card through a computer printer. The machinery and the technique still had to be found here, though, and there were plenty of people to say it could not be done. The plastic card was deDevelopment of the new computer card system has not been the only computer “first” for AA (Canterbury). The local association was the first in the New Zealand AA movement to make extensive use of a computer system, using CBL (Canterbury), Ltd. AA (Canterbury) was also first to provide online information to answer membership queries, and it now has a series of visual display

signed by Mr Menary, with the help of Mr Murray Johnson, a staff member of the Dunedin-based firm, Wickliffe Press. The main technical difficulty in attaching the cards to ihe carrier forms was with the problem of static electricity in the plastic. To overcome this, the Wickliffe technical staff had to modify the firm’s communicator machine with a special piece of gadgetry. The later stages of development included the Christchurch firm, Address Plate Services, Ltd, which liaised with an Auckland company to get the actual printing of the cards done in Auckland. The computer processing side of the development was done in conjunction with CBL (Canterbury), Ltd. units for very quick reference. AA (Canterbury) also pioneered an on-line cash receipting system that linked a v.d.u. screen to both a printer and a cash register, so the cash was balanced and the membership records up-dated automatically when the membership card was stamped valid. Now, AA (Canterbury) has led the way with plastic computer cards linked to an up-graded computer package.