HAL-PC
In 1979, Nelson Ford got his first personal computer, a Radio Shack Model II. In 1980, he got one of the first IBM-PCs available in Texas and shortly after that helped start the Houston Area League Of PC Users, which became the largest PC user group in the country with well over 10,000 members.
User groups in other major cities were normally run by the few people who had started the group, which tended to limit their growth. As president of HAL-PC, Nelson Ford established a system of special interest groups (SIGs) and had the leaders of the SIGs also serve as HAL-PC's board of directors. With this source of new leadership for HAL-PC and term limits for officers, HAL-PC was assured that no one person or small group of people would run the group into the ground. The SIGs also assured that all members could find something in HAL to match their particular computer interests.
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