Parramatta Computer Pals for Seniors 3rd birthday party coming up

Is it really three years since we took that huge leap of faith to start a Computer Pals club in Parramatta? We'd been meeting and talking about it for months,and had no premises, no computers and no money.

But we did have the support of Parramatta City Council's Community Capacity Building Team, as well as the Australian Seniors Computer Clubs Association. Additionally, we had the promise of assistance from three well-established clubs at Castle Hill, Wentworthville and Epping.

So in January 2007, we held a public meeting and attracted 50 seniors. By the end of January, we'd held three meetings, found a storage room for our second hand computers, and Council paid for a room in the Council Chambers Building for us to hold weekly training sessions and a monthly meeting at the Parramatta Heritage Centre.

And the rest is history. We now have 10 modern computers and plenty of other equipment - projectors, printers, a scanner, laminator, screens as well as office furniture. And two rooms - recently re-carpeted - we call our own, although of course they belong to Council.

Check out our website above to see the variety of courses we run, and the discussion topics at our monthly meetings.

All seniors are welcome to our 3rd birthday party on Friday 15th January at 9.30 till 11.30 in the Gwen Logan Room, Level 2, Council Chambers Building. We would also be delighted to see those of you who haven't seen the club for a while - you would be amazed at how much we've changed. We are still the very friendly group of people you met in 2007 or 2008. That certainly hasn't changed.

Happy New Year

Christmas has come and gone, and we - meaning the management committee, trainers and other volunteers - are now gearing up for the first of our four terms for 2010. Three of us were in the office today, and Judy Joyce has organised a working bee for the next two weeks. We will be busy organising course notes, additional publicity, cleaning the training room and reception area, installing new equipment and software, and doing our best to make sure the training room computers run smoothly!

As you can see from the photos, our Christmas party was great fun. If we don't want to hold the party at our place again, John and I will have to move! As you know, the only reason it was held at our place was because your secretary (moi!) mucked up the booking. But most of the credit for its success must go to our catering co-ordinator Marg Green and her band of willing helpers, as well as our members who whole heartedly supported us. It was good to see Yvonne's mother for the third time - she really must enjoy it - and a number of spouses.

Our classes start again on January 27 (mid week) and run through till April 1 - Easter Thursday. Once again there are a wide variety of courses to choose from. See Courses for the list.

Preparing for this afternoon's lesson on Blogging

Whilst John is teaching Internet and Email this morning to his four eager students, I am at home preparing some notes. (We had a busy and sociable weekend and spent last week down the coast having a relaxing break).

In preparing these notes, I am using three software applications. These are Microsoft Word 2007, the Internet (Google of course), and a little tool you have probably never heard of called MWSnap. This enables me to take screen shots to place in the training notes, but is much more versatile than Windows Print Screen (PrtSc key on your keyboard). I can "snap" and copy (as an image) a menu or any rectangular area. You can download MWSnap at www.snapfiles.com/get/mwsnap.html.

A similar program is called Faststone Capture. Do a Google search for Faststone Capture and see whether you'd prefer to use that rather than MWSnap.

I'll see you (Google Tool students, that is) at 1.00pm. You can create your first blog then.

Gmail, iGoogle and blogger

As comments on yesterday's blog make evident, John took no part in the Google tools training yesterday. He has a bad cough and is not at all well today.

Nevertheless, we had a really good session. The first task was to set up a Google account, which three students had already done. The students are all quite computer literate, most of them having enjoyed lessons for at least a year, so that didn't take long. The next task was to set up a customised iGoogle page. This will be ongoing of course, as we investigate the many Google tools available and discover which of them we each enjoy most.

We then had a look at Deborah's blog on her current travels in the USA and became followers. After that we looked at this blog and put some comments on it.

By this stage we'd nearly run out of time, just as we were beginning the task of setting up a Googletools group in our personal Gmail accounts. We couldn't believe how fast the session had gone.

Parrapals first blog

Tomorrow afternoon, Parramatta Computer Pals for Seniors starts its first course in Google Tools, becoming familiar with an amazing group of Google applications. Margaret Tucker and John Moxon will be running the 10 hour course, and six members are enrolled. The cost is $40.

Members will set up a Google account if they don't already have one, and become familiar with Gmail, Google calendars, web albums, blogs and more. There will be room in the curriculum for members to follow their particular interests.