Quantum Reading Learning Vision comes to ParraPals

Despite the miserable weather, about 55 members came along to our August monthly meeting.  Our guest speaker was Tim Connell at Quantum RLV, which sells and distributes equipment and software to make life easier for people with vision impairment.
Quantum RLV has been around for 25 years - it

Dolphin Easy Text software

used to be at Rydalmere and known as Quantum Technology but is now based at Thornleigh.
Tim demonstrated a range of products - optical magnifiers; hand held electronic magnifiers; text to speech equipment; and specialised software such as Dolphin EasyText.

Tim surrounded by members

When John announced morning tea, Tim was rushed by members wanting to look at the equipment and ask him questions.

But morning tea was worth waiting for too.  In the absence of Hazel G. and her sister Beryl, Lyndell managed the morning tea, with plenty of willing helpers.

John Moxon presenting Bev Pieremonth with a ParraPals mug.

The volunteer of the month was Bev Pieremont, one of our many willing buddies, catering assistant and office worker.  Congratulations Bev.

Jim and Rosa are now computer savvy

Husband and wife members Jim and Rosa recently joined our ComputerPals club to learn together how to use computers.

Now, after undergoing a five week course Beginners 1 Windows 7, both Rosa and Jim are much more confident and competent in the basics of understanding and using computers.

Although they presently share a home computer, I suspect it wont be long before they each have their own computer!

Following completion of their first course, Jim and Rosa  attended our ComputerPals club meeting yesterday, and sampled the very social atmosphere and spirit of our club meetings, held monthly every third Friday.

Welcome to Parramatta ComputerPals and the world of computing Jim and Rosa!!!

Using Family Tree Maker Course

I have been a user of the Family Tree Maker Genealogical programe for some years, and when Trainer Deborah announced a short course featuring FTM I decided to enrol . I have attended other family history courses run by Deborah and was impressed by her knowledge and professional presentations.

So, this morning I drove to my cousin and club members Ron Taylor's nearby home and picked him up. Ron is also a reguler user of FTM. On arrival at our ComputerPals club training rooms, we found that we were amongst 9 members attending that course, but we all squeezed together in the training room. We were too many for the six computers, but Deborah told us that would be ok, as she had brought her laptop along, and her course would be presented by way of the screen, using her laptop containing her personal family history.

Deborah's short course, over two hours, covered how to -

• identify the benefits of using genealogical software
• enter data into Family Tree Maker and also, importantly, to record sources
• create reports from FTM
• use FTM to plan and follow up our research
• connect to Ancestry.com to match people on our family tree to Ancestry records
• export our family tree to a GEDCOM file and upload it to Ancestry.

Deborah's knowledge of FTM was excellent and she imparted her knowledge to us in a clear manner. Although I regularly use FTM I learned a number of things that made my attendance at the course worthwhile. Short courses of two hours on one day are ideal for family historians.

I  recommend members watch for future family history courses to be run by Deborah, and get on the waiting lists early.