With one voice, the entire
membership attending our January meeting, called for the return of our
presenter, Shirley Hughes, in a signal of their approval of her insightful,
interesting and engaging presentation. Digging the depths of Google and
examining the electronic muscle of other search engines like Anywho.com, Ask.com,
Wikipedia.org, U Tube, Yellow pages and others, Shirley traveled the internet to
bring us a most informative view of the capabilities of the computer as a
“search and find” instrument, a dictionary, a telephone book, a knowledge
source, you name it, nothing is hidden from view. With this presentation.
Shirley has won a permanent position on our speakers list. She will return for
the March mini meeting and again for the monthly meeting on April 18th.
Shirley teaches computer technology
at Broward College, has a Masters Degree in Computer Science Education from Nova
Southeastern University and is a Microsoft Certified Professional, Trainer,
Applications Specialist and a specialist in Microsoft Office. She has many
Hunters Run members as clients, who acclaim her expertise and service
efficiency. She operates her own business, RTJ Notary Services and can be
reached by phone, 561-503-8868.
We are very pleased with the
positive response to our selection of presenters. We spend most of our effort in
locating and selecting qualified people to conduct our meetings. We thank you
for your continuing support and will make every effort to create an effective
learning experience for our membership.
We began our new season with an
informative presentation of basic computer usage as well as a look at some more
advanced functions. Melanie Kafka, a student in the FAU Computer Science
curriculum, made her debut at our club with a concise, thoughtful, versatile
program that attempted to reach both the novice users as well as the more
advanced. Entitled “Computers and Senior Citizens: Making the Right
Connections”, she began with the very basics of how to use the mouse, the
keyboard, cut and paste and ventured all the way to saving files, pinning
programs to the task bar, and ending with some of the highlights of Apple’s Ipad.
A voluminous power point handout will enable members to review all the material
covered.
Melanie will be back for our first “mini meeting” on Thursday, January 26 to
enlarge on some of the items presented, with time for any and all questions.(
Entry to this meeting will require a written question to be handed in at the
door. on any problem you may have encountered.)
Our next monthly meeting will feature Shirley Hughes, a computer teacher at
Broward College. Her main topic will be an in depth discussion on the proper and
most effective use of Google. This is an area all of us; novice, intermediate
and advanced users, can use expert advice in searching and finding important
information on anything and everything. Don’t miss this meeting!
We are able to report that our
least attended meeting of the year on Wednesday still attracted 52 members,
despite the impending Pesach holiday. The attraction this month was in the
presence at the lectern of Scott Macaluso, who returned as instructor after
having led the February meeting to great approval. Scott handled the great
Microsoft program “Word” as well as the versatile photo program “Picasa” with
the finesse, knowledge and delivery of a professional. We are very pleased with
his efforts on our behalf this year and look forward to his return next year.
(In a separate mailing, we will attempt to organize his smaller sessions we
spoke about at the last meeting.)
Our regular meeting program for the year has come to an end and we are grateful
for the positive response we have had from our members. If attendance is a good
measure of success, we believe we can mark this year as a successful one. Len
and Phyllis Nightingale, Pamela Tabak, Jan Rottenberg and I are most pleased
with your positive comments and vow to continue to bring you meaningful,
educational, enjoyable and useful meetings in the coming year. For now, we wish
our snowbirds a good and safe return to the north and to all, a healthy and
enjoyable summer.
There is no substituting for the
masters! Pamela Tabak returned to us this past Wednesday to the rapt attention
of some 65 members whose numerous questions gave credibility to that statement.
When an audience does not stir, and stays till the very end, it tells us that
the information is registering and the interest is ever present. Many of
Pamela’s past clients welcomed her return and those that were new to her
experienced an evening full of good, useful information.
After admonishing her audience about the handling of phony emails (a problem
exacerbated by the Japanese disaster), she went on to explain many of the basic
functions that are so vital to effective computer use, as well as how to protect
your machine from malfunctioning by performing periodic maintenance. Files and
folders, how to create them, find them, edit them, etc. were an illuminating
part of her presentation. For the full tutorial on the March 16th meeting, go to
our web site newhrcc.com. (Hold down ctrl key & left click on mouse.) You will
find the tutorial by clicking on the Hot Tips link, then click on Tutorials for
March, 2011.
Our next, and last meeting of the year will be held on Wednesday, April 13.
Scott Macaluso, our young, dynamic presenter from our February meeting, will be
returning to wind up our program for 2010-11. We hope that you will be with us
for this last session. Remember that it will start at 7:00 PM, with two 45
minutes sections for novices and intermediates.
Hope that you are continuing to enjoy these meetings and are following them with
visits to our web site. This one is especially important because it contains the
tutorial of Pamela’s March presentation.
The meeting last Wednesday ended
at 8:30…no one left! The questions continued, attention was riveted. At 9:00 PM
we decided to end the session…but the interest continued with a circle of
members around our speaker. Scott Macaluso’s dynamic presentation ( including
appropriate humor), started with a walk through the fabulous Google search
engine, featuring street maps, satellite images, driving directions and great
street views… shopping.google.com, comparing the pricing of scores of products;
news, and much more. YouTube, Amazon, the interactive dictionary and thesaurus
rounded out the novice portion of the program. In the intermediate section,
Facebook, so current in the news from the middle east this week , was a main
topic with the intent of making our membership aware of its use, how to enter
the program and the need for caution in exposing personal data. What followed
was an interesting discussion on medication; a pill identifier, side effect of
medication, how to ask medical questions, etc. Cheap tickets.com was the source
of the following topic, an exercise on how to use that site to reserve airline
tickets, hotels and an auto. Reaction from our attendees was universally
positive, providing the impetus for our adding Scott to our permanent staff of
future speakers.
Our March meeting will feature a return of our mentor; technician, teacher, web
designer, author, Pamela Tabak. She will be right here with us, not on Skype,
having been able to arrange a trip to Florida at the time of our meeting. We
look forward to that session, and we know those of you who know her will
likewise. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 16 at 7:00 PM, in the
Men’s Card Room, with the same format as the past two meetings, first half for
novices, second portion for intermediates, with our advice that all members stay
to enjoy and learn from both segments.
After these past two weeks, there are no questions left about the incredible
influence of the computer on the entire world. Events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya,
Bahrain et al, were capable of evolving because of the instantaneous
communication through Facebook and Twitter, never experienced before the age of
the computer. It is yet one more reason for all of us to make the use and
understanding of this instrument a vital part of our lives. Your club will do
whatever we can to help in that pursuit, with meaningful sessions that hopefully
will advance your understanding .
What a treat! David Freedman kept an audience of 85 club
members focused on his carefully prepared power point presentation, that covered
a wide variety of subjects and techniques. A first time experiment, dividing the
evening into two parts to deal with both basic information as well as somewhat
more advanced, seemed to present something for everyone. From “Why is windows
called Windows” to ITunes U, a fascinating program that provides, among other
features, free courses and educational programs. We should all be proud of the
fact that David is one of us, living right here in Eastgate and available to
friends and neighbors who might need technical assistance.
Our next session will be conducted by Scott Macaluso.
Scott has trained new computer owners for the Gateway company and has
specialized in training seniors. He is in his last year at FAU and owns a
company that provides graphics and web pages for large corporations.
Our raffle attracted 48 members to our web site and was
won by Martin Manin. His wife Marilyn, was on hand to accept the fifty dollar
Office Depot gift card.
Coffee and cookies rounded out another successful
meeting of our newly re- formed HRCC. We are delighted with the positive
feedback and look forward to bringing you interesting, informative and useful
information in the future.
A full house was in attendance at
the first meeting of the new season. 103 members were treated to a potpourri of
computer information, from the very basics of left and right mouse click to the
creation of a new folder, the insertion of a picture in an email and much in
between. The session had something for everyone and was greeted with copious
note taking and the attention of all present, even past the nine o’clock closing
time. Ernesto Cividanes, a majority of our respondents reported, was clear,
concise and understandable. We can ask no more from our guest presenters and we
are pleased with the response of our attendees. Ernesto is scheduled to conduct
the March session on the 16th.
(We would want you to know that we are very conscious of the difficulty reaching
all members at their prospective levels of competence. It is an ongoing, vexing
problem that we are aware of and we are looking for solutions. Look for a
follow-up email that will describe an experiment aimed at resolving this dilemma
in a new meeting format for the January meeting. )
Our session on January 5th will feature David Freedman. David is well known as
our resident expert, having spent the better part of his career in management
with IBM. He has been a well received instructor at several of our past meetings
and we look forward to another illuminating session next month.
We are pleased to report that our membership has reached 142! That attests to
the growing recognition of the role of the computer in our lives and the
concurrent need to increase our knowledge of its operation. We are devoted to
creating an atmosphere that emphasizes the need to expose our members to the
necessary information that gives more meaning and enjoyment in the use of the
computer.
One of the ways we strive to accomplish this, is with our club’s web site. It is
in that space that we record monthly tips, an opportunity to have your questions
answered and information about future meetings ,pictures of past meetings,
president’s report, etc. Time, effort and money are spent to keep this site up
to date. In an effort to motivate you to use it, we have announced a raffle
prize of a $50.00 Office Depot gift certificate . To enter, hold down CTRL key
and click on this link: http:\\www.newhrcc.com then scroll down to the bar
on the left side of the page labeled, Learn and Compete, click on it and then
follow the trail of “buttons”
that are embedded on each of the pages until you
reach step five, where you will enter your name and email address and click
to enter the contest. Your participation will signal your willingness to use the
web site…that will please us, but more importantly will add to your knowledge.
We will have the drawing for the winner at our January meeting.
We thank all our members for their attendance at this first meeting and hope to
see you at the next four.
A hearty welcome back to computerland from Len, Pamela, Phyliss, Jan and myself. We are all set for an
information filled year and ready to supply you with all the answers to your
questions and concerns. We have added two new very promising educators, Ernesto
Cividanes and Scott Macaluso to our teaching staff and with David Freedman and
Pamela Tabak, we expect a vibrant and animated season to enfold.
The computer continues to play an ever enlarging part of our lives, creating the
need to expand our knowledge and understanding of its usage and workings. That
leads to a growing need for your club to satisfy the needs of its members. That
is our mission and we intend to do whatever we can to expand your horizon and
provide the information to accomplish that task.
Again, welcome back to the Hunters Run Computer Club and to the five sessions,
beginning December 15th .
See you soon.
Once again, by
the magic of the audio/visual Skype program, our April meeting came to us from
Toronto, Canada with our creative, hard working teacher, Pamela Tabak
conducting. Despite the diminished presence of many of our snowbirds, we had 52
members present, a testimony to the interest the club has engendered in its
first year of operation.
It was a most
informative session on the versatile Microsoft Word. We found that there was
much more to this program than just a word processing system. Among other
functions, one can make labels, calling cards and work with a most versatile
process for posting pictures, making an album, etc; and the many icons on the
taskbar that allow changes in the text, sizing, insertions, erasing and on and
on. Wow! Worth a study to make use of all its capabilities.
To top off the
evening and in fact, the entire year, a gift to each member, created by Pamela, enabled all to have
tutorials with the lessons from four of the five meetings held this year. (A
printed handout was distributed at the March meeting.) It is indicative of
Pamela’s intense devotion to advancing the computer knowledge of all seniors. I
know you all join me in thanking her for her thoughtfulness that motivated this
special effort.
Looking back on
2009-10 we recall the first meeting in December when Pamela advised us to make a
“Restore Point”, create a Guest Account and place a password on your account to
protect your computers from the inevitable when our grandchildren come to visit.
In January we learned about the Magic and Mysteries of e-mail. February’s
meeting came to us via Skype from Toronto with more e-mail instruction,
especially for AOL users. In March, we had David Freedman with all kinds of
short cuts, cut and paste, etc. for Smart Computing. April brought us Pamela
again by Skype from Toronto with all that good information on Microsoft Word.
This just about
wraps up our activities for the first year of our operation. We wound up the
year with 98 members, with an attendance that began in December with 83
attendees and with over 50% of our membership attending every meeting. We hope
that you will score this as an initial success and affirm this with your
continuing membership for next year.
My very special
thanks to Pamela for her strong effort and scores of hours devoted to making
this club a vital part of HR…to Len Nightingale for his ever present advice and
conscientiousness…to Phyliss Nightingale for her knowledgeable assistance and
for a most efficient operation of our registration table and to Jan Rottenberg,
known for her never ending support of so many projects here at HR…to all of
them, you made this first year a memorable one.
We are in the
process of planning next year’s activities. When we have a schedule to announce
we will e-mail it to you without delay. In the meantime, you have the best
wishes of Len, Pamela, Jan and myself for a healthy, enjoyable summer. See you
in December 2010.
What a wonderful evening! For one and
half hours David Freedman, computer expert with a long career in computer
technology, covered a broad field of information that kept 42 members rapt
attention. Not one closed eye, nor one early departer, they were exposed to a
vast amount of practical knowledge that, I’m certain, was put to use in short
order. From the very basics of right click of the mouse to cut and paste,
creating short cuts, smart use of the keyboard, what to do if your printer won’t
print and a discussion that prompted spirited questions on virus protection,
spyware and malware, this was an information packed session that is certain to
go on the record as one of our best. We look forward next year to David’s
participation in our meeting schedule.
On Wednesday, April 7, Pamela Tabak will
show you what you have missed while using Microsoft Word and how you can use
it for more than just writing a letter.It’s a
terrific program that is packed full of functions that make this a most
important part of your computer activity. Once again, Pamela will be
conducting this remotely from Toronto, using the Skype communicator as she did
so deftly at our February meeting. This will be the final session this year,
which makes us kind of sad that it has come to an end.
On the other
hand, we are most satisfied with the results of our first year in operation. Our
attendance at every meeting was always over 50% of our registered membership.
According to the feedback we have had, these sessions were well received, as was
our web site and the tutorial process that Pamela has instituted. We are already
in discussion about next year and that is where you, our members should be
involved. While we always ask for your suggestions, we are now really anxious
to have you tell us how we can make this club even more useful and enjoyable,
in whatever way you propose to do so. Just email me, (halphil@comcast.net),
or Len Nightingale (lennight@aol.com),
or Pamela (pamela@computertutorinc.net)
with
your thoughts and they will be on our agenda for discussion, I assure you.
We look
forward to hearing from you and seeing you at our April meeting.
Where there’s a will there’s a way …especially
in this digital/computer age. On Wednesday night just passed, our members
witnessed the truth to this statement when, by necessity, our February meeting,
the third of this new club, was conducted remotely from Toronto, Canada by our
creative leader, Pamela Tabak. That was necessitated because Pamela’s husband
was taken ill and he had to return to Canada to be treated. (We wish him a quick
and complete recovery ASAP.)
Between visits to the hospital and helping her
clients, Pamela made time to prepare for this meeting, as well as create
tutorials for our web site. She used a program called Skype, an audio/video
communication device that enabled our members to hear Pamela’s voice while
viewing the power point presentation she had prepared. She took the opportunity
to explain how members could use this program which can be downloaded free from
the web. The tutorials can be reached by members only, using an I.D. and
password which was distributed at the meeting.
We are most pleased by the reaction of our
members to our programs thus far. We have added a link in our web page, entitled
Feedback asking all of you to continue to tell us what you like or dislike about
what we are doing, and what we can do to bring you the kind of programs that
will enhance your use and enjoyment of the computer.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday,
March 17. The topic is Smart Computing and the session will be led by David
Freedman. David has a long career with computers, having worked for 25 years
with IBM as a systems engineer, an account executive, a regional sales manager
for personal computers and in various other management positions. After
retirement, he became a consultant to IBM, Microsoft and other companies. He
enjoys helping his Hunters Run neighbors and we look forward to an interesting
and informative evening.
In the meantime, visit our HRCC website, check
out the February tutorial and view some pics of the attendees at this past
meeting. An interesting note…Hilda Gropper is our newest member and she won our
raffle the same night she joined the club. Jerry Hyshiver was the other
winner….both pictured on our site.
While Pamela is not available for home visits,
she is always able to give technical assistance remotely, using the same process
as we used at our last meeting. Make certain that you have her address in your
email address book, so that she can respond to your message.
We have copies of Pamela’s new book, Computer
Tips for Seniors.
One of the best attended computer
club meetings was held on Wednesday, January 20th in the Men’s Card Room. Over 80
participants enjoyed learning about the Magic and Mysteries of Email. An
attentive audience held their questions until the second half of the evening,
creating an intensive learning experience witnessed by the interest displayed by
so many. This intriguing topic has so much to offer, the club has decided to
devote the February 24th meeting to this same topic.
After only two meetings of this new
club, we can count 86 members on our roster. There is no better proof of the
need for a computer club at Hunters Run; nor is there any wonder that the
interest is so intent. The computer has become such an integral part of our
life, we are all anxious to make this experience more interesting and effective.
As our motto attests, “we don’t just teach, we help you to understand.”
Interesting note…we had
some MAC users in attendance that found the information totally applicable to
their system. Nice to know.
Members may find, on our new
professional web site, a number of tutorials on the meeting just held. For the
next seven days, the information can be accessed by logging onto our web site,
clicking on any of the links on the left of the page and entering the ID
hrccand PASSWORD
hrccenterThesetutorials, about using
email, can then be printed and kept along with the tutorials rom each of our
meetings.
We are grateful to Pamela Tabak for
the many hours she devotes to our web page, our meetings, the tutorials and all
the other support that she is so willing to provide. All of this she does as a
volunteer, without any remuneration. She is truly devoted to educating seniors.
We all owe her a debt of gratitude..this club could not succeed without her.
Next meeting: Wednesday, February 24th,
same place, same time.
Topic: Mysteries and Magic of Email
part 2. See you there.
What a wonderful start to our new HRCC! We had a record attendance at our
inaugural meeting on Wednesday December 16th and a banner night for new members.
We’ll get the numbers to you as soon as they are tallied.
Pamela T one of our
attendees in their chair until the session ended. The number of questions were a
witness to the interest and attention of a great interactive audience.
Nothing pleases us more than to learn what pleases you!
We will make one change for future meetings. We will ask you to hold your
questions until the lecture portion is over. This will allow for a better flow
of information and assjanhat all the content of the subject matter will be
covered. We thank you in advance for honoring this.
The tutorial for last night’s meeting is now on our website and new tutorials
will be posted after each monthly meeting. The tutorials will be posted for
seven days only so please click on the TUTORIAL button on the left side of this page and then on the
TUTORIAL LINKS that interest you.
This month you will also see two other tutorial links: Cleanup & Speedup and
Computer Maintenance-Windows XP. These were topics that were not on last night’s
agenda but were part of the discussion. Pamela has added those tutorials for you
to print and keep safely for future reference.
When you log on to the HRCC website, photos from the December meeting are
located under the MEETING PHOTOS button. Click this button to see your picture amongst
the crowd!
The JANUARY meeting will be held on Wednesday, the 20th. The topic is THE
TREASURES AND MYSTERIES OF EMAIL. While you may have been able to send and
receive your messages, there is much more to learn about how to use the program
efficiently; how to store the emails to be saved , how to download pictures, how
to make special folders, how to make rules to manage incoming emails, how to
block unwanted ones and so much more.
Please add Pamela Tabak's email address to your e-mail address book so that
all her communications reach you; especially answers to your questions.
We wish all of you a healthy, happy and peaceful New Year and look forward
to seeing you again at our January meeting.
