June 6 Today in OPC History

On June 6, 1991, the Committee on Denominational Computer System delivered its report and recommendations to the Fifty-Eighth General Assembly meeting at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Committee chairman, the Rev. Douglas A. Felch, reviewed the history of computer usage in the OPC administrative offices. In 1984 a Northstar computer was purchased and was still being used by the program committees. The Committee on Foreign Missions had a Macintosh computer and a modem, and the Controller and the Stated Clerk used IBM/compatible computers. The Committee on Christian Education was integrated into the Great Commission Publications Macintosh system via networking.

Mr. Felch stated that the result of the different operating systems was that the sharing of information was challenging. Further, the software and computers being purchased by local OP churches and ministers was so varied that sharing of documents on floppy disks was, although often advantageous, frequently inconvenient or impossible because of incompatible equipment. Consequently, the committee's recommendation to the Assembly was to encourage churches to use Microsoft Word or Microsoft Works and to implement a system of modem communication and facsimile machines.

Picture: Assistant Clerk Stephen Phillips using the Stated Clerk's IBM/compatible computer at the 1991 General Assembly.