Minutes of the January 10, 2008 Volunteer Meeting
of the
2:00 pm Past President
Meeting agenda, per distributed, as well as online.
In attendance: Bob Nelson, Julie Fogel, Tony Coburn,
Request for additions or
corrections to the minutes of the September2007 Volunteer Meeting resulted in no additions or corrections.
Minutes were approved as written and
posted on the Roswell SeniorNet website by motion and second motion.
Treasurer’s report: (Brian
Perry) – assuming duties as newly- elected treasurer, Brian reports that the
treasury is in good condition. Written copies of his report were distributed to
members present. See attachment two: Jan
2008 treasurer. He states treasury
info is in MS Access file, and he is still in the process of familiarizing
himself with this program.
Some treasury reports are
created with Quicken, per Don H.
There was discussion of
backing up files, and suggested that the president be forwarded a backup copy
of all files as they become available, stored on a dedicated flash drive. This method can also be used to transfer
files securely to a large external drive file for SeniorNet archive files. This plan was agreed upon by Brian and all
present.
President’s Report: Don H. states 85 persons are currently registered
for the Spring quarter classes. Registration
was reported as up-to-date as of today.
As regards registration,
per Don, Lois Dean is currently helping with publicity. Our former publicity chairman, Fred Wooten,
has returned to full-time employment, and has not had the opportunity to distribute
flyers or make necessary phone calls.
Suggested by Julie F., the president or treasurer should publish an
end-of-year report, with registration statistics such as numbers of males,
females, residence info, that will help in developing class schedules and
content and aid publicity.
Don gave a report on the
current health of volunteers John Szedon, Ed Glynn, and Jerry Moore.
Curriculum report:
Julie F. states that
course evaluations were again, very positive.
There are issues with MS Works that need to be addressed this
quarter by omitting Lesson 9 in the currently printed manual. This is necessary due to modifications in
access and appearance of the national SeniorNet website used to teach this
lesson in online discussions. It is
suggested that dropping the 9th lesson will be not be crucial to
teaching MS Works skills, and the discussion page described in the manual is
difficult to access, if not impossible during class time. Registration on the SeniorNet website is also
very difficult to accomplish on classroom computers. Elimination of the 9th lesson
should be reflected in the new 2008 course catalog for Summer. Don states he and Bert saw similar issues in
the Internet and Email class manual
– manual revisions would reflect the modified SeniorNet website – or omit that
part of the lesson. Re-writing of the
Internet/Email class manual is not currently ongoing. Some classes have handled website issues by
instructing students to write in corrections to the text. Per discussion, the SeniorNet has archived
the old website and there is a link to that on the new site, under the Help
menu.
Course reports
Digital camera: Julie reports plans to conduct
the course are still active, but not yet executable. The manual is being written and revised with
the help of photo expert, Jerry Moore.
Jerry is having health issues, which is slowing work on the course.
Therefore, there is no set date to introduce that course.
PowerPoint: Brian P. reports he is still at work on the manual, but also is thinking
about whether there is any market for such a class at our center. PP is aimed at professionals still active in
the workplace; seniors using computers at home only would not find such a
course useful. The Exec. Comm. agrees –
indicating the question will continue to be open to discussion. Consideration of adding course material from
the national SeniorNet, including very good student exercises and instructor
notes, will be included when Julie and Brian meet to continue course
development.
Tech report: Don reports that he and George
have completed changes on the classroom and alcove computers that include
installing IE7, Generations, putting the 1800 photo printer and instructors
laser printer on the network and removing PSE4. Alcove computers have also been
set up to access the alcove laser printer. In addition all classroom computers
are set to share a folder on the network. Don requests all members, especially
Exec. Comm. Members and instructors report problems or “different” computers:
notify him by email (drhogan@bellsouth.net). Plans to install a server may include
enlisting outside tech support.
There is a test computer
now at the front of the classroom – it may be used by instructors to test programs
or help illustrate differences in lessons using Windows Vista to students
having new home computers.
Generations Online: Julie
states there is a new version which is supposed to be different.
Annoyances: Classroom computers have dialog boxes with Adobe Photoshop/Adobe
Acrobat which seek to organize files, especially when inserting removable media
such as CDs or flash drives. These
dialog boxes need to be disabled.
Manual report: George Fuller has had new manuals printed and placed in the file cabinet
next week. The key to open the file cabinet with manuals (only this cabinet)
will be at the front desk in Jessica’s office.
From now on the software
file cabinet will be locked, and the president and tech staff will have the
key.
Lab report: Bob N. reports we averaged 3
coaches each Friday during Fall session.
Having a Photoshop coach present was extremely helpful. There
will be a sign-up sheet for lab volunteers: Please sign up. See or email Bob. (bobnel@earthlink.net)
Winter Staffing: Jack Thompson reports full staffing with some difficulty. This reflects the volunteer issues, lack of
participation, failure to fulfill requirements for a certain number of coaches
in some classes.
Volunteers: Don H. is taking over from
Beth Korn as volunteer coordinator. He reported that he sent the current
volunteer list to national. National will no longer send membership cards. They
have gone “green”.
Student CDs: Bob N. states student discs are copied and ready to be labeled and
badges are ready, per current class rosters.
Other business:
There are issues with
Excel, using flash drives instead of CDs, which might better serve the
exercises, which require frequent file revision. CDs make this difficult. Suggestions were put forward to purchase
inexpensive small capacity flash drives for each student and add a small amount
to the class fee to cover that, or suggest each student bring a flash drive of
their own. Most instructors do not want to go back to using 3 ½ inch floppies.
Publicity report: Don reports that Lois Dean
that written some articles that are being sent to local (
Course issues:
Internet/Email – per Don, the browser IE7 has been installed on classroom computers,
and manuals should be revised to reflect that.
Remember to include instructions for using tabbed browsing. The class manual changes include rearranging the
email sessions which are now “back to back”.
EBay –
no issues.
Excel
–
Quicken
- Per
Fundamentals – (Julie) – With the loss of John Sz. and
Computers for the Terrified – (Julie) – there are 4 students enrolled!
Exploring Windows George Fuller reports that he is considering some changes to clarify
content.
Word –
no issues.
Anti Virus
–
Graphics
– no instructor,
Photoshop Elements – Per Emory from Exec report – There are enough
coaches, and the class is still using the Elements A-Z text, purchased from
local bookstores, rather than a printed manual.
Suggestion to recruit new coaches is to approach members one-on-one, so
they are less likely to refuse. For
upgrading to the newest version of PhotoShop
Elements, 6.0, we have received a disc from National.
Memoirs
– (Tony) – He has a sufficient number of coaches for those students registered.
No manual is planned, only handouts.
This class is different from most others we teach: computer skills are
not really taught, it is more similar to a writing skills seminar, using Word
and photo scanning techniques with our HP scanner, photo manipulation and
inclusion of graphics in the design of booklet pages. Students will learn a lot from each
other. It is suggested that the
SeniorNet site offers a link to a template for course manuals. Memoir examples from any members are welcome
to be presented in this class.
Installation of new officers:
From the Exec. Committee
group: Thanks to all outgoing officers, especially
Congrats to the new officers: John Szedon, president.
Brian
Perry, treasurer
Jerry
Moore, vice president
Other business:
Don is training
instructors for the
Don states the
Don thanked all volunteers
for there dedication and cooperation during his term as president.
Meeting adjourned at 3:05
pm.
Respectfully submitted by