OUR CRAFT Special Interest Group - 28 June 2013

I went to our ComputerPals office today to collect and bank monies before the end of our financial year, and while there I wandered into the next door meeting room - and this is what I found........

...

......our popular Craft Group, busily having fun and social friendship with our craft expert, Vice President Judy!

So, I lined them up for another panorama photo, and hope that nobody has two heads

The Craft and Cards Group is very active, meeting each month on the 4th Friday, 9.20am to 11.45am. You need to bring scissors, glue, card stock or whatever you have. Contact Judy for more information, and come along and have lots of fun and glue.

PRESERVING THE HISTORY OF PARRAMATTA COMPUTER PALS

At the end of May, 2013 some of our Trainers were having lunch down the hall from our office, and met Council's Archivist Peter Arfanis who was looking for missing paintings. Some weeks previously, our Committee had a discussion about the preservation of our Club's historical records - minutes, annual reports, newsletters, photographs, etc.

 Our Club has been in existence for nearly 7 years and it was thought it was time to think about doing something to preserve our records. So, when they met up with Peter they sought his help in providing information about archiving our records.

Today, Hazel, Judy and me met up with Peter to discuss which documents, etc should be preserved, and how they should be preserved, especially our many digital documents, photos, etc.

We showed Peter our office and training room and then settled into our discussion with him.

Peter was very helpful, he gave us detailed information concerning the archiving of a club or society's records, and also advised us of a way to preserve our digital and paper documents.

 Peter was impressed with our courses, etc available to seniors in the Parramatta area, and offered to provide further assistance. An invitation was given to Peter to attend our next members meeting.

We had already formed a small committee, and that committee will now undertake research of all our Club's current and historical records, with a view to ensuring they are safely preserved.

RECORD NUMBER OF MEMBERS AT OUR JUNE 2013 Members Meeting

Wow, our regular monthly members' meeting broke all records last Friday, with nearly 80 members attending, and most of them lining up to pay their annual membership fee. Our club is certainly "the place to learn, and to meet new and old friends".

Our President Deborah welcomed new members and reported on a number of Committee decisions, the upcoming social lunch at Merrylands, and the Open Day on 2nd July

Deborah also spoke on the Committee's response to comments placed in the Suggestion Box

Margaret presented her Secretary's Report and announced the Club has received a Community Grant of $4,879 from Parramatta City Council to help Seniors to Stay Connected.

She had earlier featured in a news article in the Parramatta Advertiser, about the Grant and also our forthcoming Open Day











                                                            Treasurer John reported on the Club's financials, in between him and Michael busily writing out heaps of receipts for payment of annual membership fees

Training Co-ordinator Michael then reported on
course vacancies in Term 3

Committee member Hazel outlined the Photobook Course
that she will be conducting in Term 3. So make a booking to learn about the processes to make your own photobook.

Deborah presented the monthly "Mug of the Month" to Bill New, an Inaugural Member. Bill is an enthusiastic member who participates in meetings and other club activities, and he also helps with setting up and clearing up at our meetings....congratulations and thanks Bill

Dr Joanne Curry, Computing and ICT, University of Western Sydney was Guest Speaker.
Joanne is a Health Care Improvement Practitioner and specialises in Patient Journey Modeling, and her presentation was about the use of smart technology, including tablets, to manage our health.

Following the bountiful morning tea, prepared by our wonderful catering volunteers, Deborah, Jon and John conducted their regular Questions and Answers   segment.




It's coming up to the end of the financial year, so I'll be busy finalising the Club's accounts for presentation at the Annual General Meeting later in the year. Cross your fingers that I balance! 

POPULAR MANAGING YOUR DIGITAL PHOTOS COURSE - June 23013

 Jon is our club's long-time Trainer for the course "Managing your digital photos"'

In this course, you learn to download your photos from a digital camera, using a range of methods. You also learn how to use Google's Picasa3 to make your photos look better, organise them and email them to your family and friends.

 As you can see, this is a very popular course, with 7 keen students.
Jon has 2 Assistant Trainers, Beverly 
and myself

Today the office was a very busy place, Jon with his course - with 7 students, 2 assistants and himself, all squeezed into the Training Room.
                                                     As well, the office area was busy, 

with our happy Volunteer Office Assistant Aileen joining up new member Mike, who read about our Computer Pals in the Advertiser and also on the internet. Welcome to our friendly club, Mike!
                   Deborah was also there, conducting One on One computer    lessons with two students. 

 

 Jon is playing a video of the Gadget Man, Peter Blasina to illustrate the way that millions of pixels work in a digital camera, and it is always 
interesting and worthwhile viewing- Peter is well-known and years ago was the Editor of the magazine Video Camera. I was present  many years ago when he introduced the new digital version of Pinnacle's video editing programme.

 Halfway through the afternoon, we all invaded the office area for a coffee break and lots of talk

So, you can see how vibrant and exciting our Computer Pals club is for our members and volunteers.....do you agree?

TABLETS/iPADS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP - 7 June 2013

This afternoon was the SIG meeting for members with Android tablets and iPads, held in our club Training Room.
The meeting was conducted by our popular
Trainer and President Deborah, with help from Peter and myself.

Five members, Christina, Ron, Ruth, Luz and Jennie fired up their iPads and Androids to download AVG Anti Virus and Anti-Theft Protection after
                                     it was demonstrated by me

Jennie, Christina, Ron,
Ruth and Luz
with their tablets, listening
to my audio demonstration
of a wired and blue tooth
external speakers that enhance
the tablet's audio



Deborah and Peter demonstrated how to search for and download apps to tablets.

It was suggested at the meeting to re-arrange the monthly Smart Phones SIG and Tablets/iPad Sig to another format of::       Apple iPhones/iPADS in the morning session
                                                                               and
                                       Android Smart phones/Tablets in the afternoon session

It was another informative SIG meeting of Trainers and Members, so if you have, or may buy, an iPad or Android tablet, come along to the next Tablet SIG meeting.

EVERNOTE SHORT COURSE - 3 June 2013

I signed up for the Evernote Short Course some time ago, and today is the day we do the course. It's a  full house today, six students.... Serena, John, Margaret, Michael, Peter and myself

 The Trainer is Deborah, and her Assistant Trainer is Jon. Both are experienced in using Evernote.

We started by downloading Evernote to our student computers, and also to our device, a smart phone, or tablet, if we brought one - I did, my Google Nexus tablet.

Evernote is an example of cloud computing. It's the easy way to remember everything, and everything you store in your Evernote account is automatically synched across all of your devices, your desktop, laptop, smart phone or tablet...whatever.

We each created a new free Evernote account, and downloaded it. Then we created and edited a New Note. From there, we learnt to browse, organise, search our Notes.

It was soon the morning tea break, and we happily chatted about all we had been taught by our excellent Trainers Deborah and Jon.

Back into the training room to learn how to share individual notes through Evernote  by way of email, facebook and on the web, even if the recipient isn't an Evernote user.

I really enjoyed learning about Evernote, and I'm sure it will be used regularly. So, if you have a smartphone or tablet, put your name down on the Evernote waiting list to do the next Short Course.