HOW DID THE COMPUTER GROUPS GET STARTED?
Charles Rennaker polled the residents of Shadow Mountain Village during September and October of 1997 to see if any interest in forming a computer club. Mary Clark was the first to respond. A meeting was scheduled.
Mary Clark
Retired Air Force Nurse
First meeting:
Preliminary meetings were held at the Kiva center on December 9, 1997.
Meeting Minutes:
Computer Club Meeting minutes for December 9, 1997
Attendance: Mary C., Mary D., Roberta K., Barbara W., Dave W. and Charles R. [organizer]. We discussed the club format to see if my ideas were of interest. Those without computers plan to purchase a computer as soon as they are comfortable with what they want. We decided to establish a regular day and time at the next meeting set for December 15, 1997. Available meeting space to be discussed with the park manager Marline Penfield.
Computer Club Meeting minutes for December 15, 1997 Charles Rennaker [organizer]
Second meeting:
Attendance: Mary Clark, Mary Drew, Roberta Kush, Barbara Wetter, Dave Wetter and Charles Rennaker [organizer].
The group discussed the concept "hardware" and "software". How hardware and software work in harmony was explained [at least they are in harmony some of the time]. A number of the basic hardware components of computers were discussed in broad terms. General procedures involved with software [programs and operating systems] was explained. The final phase of this meeting was moved to the Rennaker house for hardware and software demonstrations. During this part of the meeting we went over "disk copy": operation in Windows 95. The group has decided to have Tuesday at 3:30PM as our regular meeting time beginning January 6, 1998. I plan to use a VCR, and the existing TV at Kiva, and tapes that I have prepared for explaining how the computer is utilized. We welcome experienced computer users as well as those that want to be.
Since the first regular meeting in January of 1998 we have seen the club increase to 25 active members, some of which are no longer active in the group but are very active in the use of a computer. Two of the original members remain today along with additional members that just enjoy "talking" computers and keeping up to date on techniques.
An advanced computer group was organized in late 1999 to study the Microsoft Excel spread sheet program. The instructor was Levy Roberge who has forgotten more about Excel than most people will ever know. She works with excel every day and never uses the mouse, takes too much time, she has learned that using "hot keys" is quicker. The meetings were held on Saturday and ran for about four Saturdays. The group learned how to create a program that will balance your checkbook by entering deposits, checks and charges, along with creating a graphic chart describing the process.
A new beginners group was formed in 2000 that continued till some moved to the Tuesday group. A second beginners group was formed in the fall of 2001 and continued for about a year. The members of the new groups that choose to continue transferred to the Tuesday group.
The current Tuesday group regrouped in April of 2007 to convert to a beginners group to accommodate several new computer users and the older members decided to renew topics typical of a beginners group.
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Page updated September 15, 2007
