Annual General Meeting

At the AGM on 19 July, Teresa Urutia was elected Chairperson, Sue Connor, Secretary and David Salter, Treasurer. The following SeniorNet members were elected to the Executive Committee for the ensuing year. Barry Bailey, Peter Bunkall, James Heron, Peter Jones, Veronica Kemp, Brian Milne, Shona Spicer, Patrick Stephens, Peter Thomson. If you want to see the various roles and responsibilities assigned to the Committee Members this year, click here. The Guest Speaker was Roger Currier, the President of U3A who reviewed the many interesting facts about YouTube.

Honorary Members

Honorary Membership recognises those Members who have provided meritorious service to SeniorNet Kapiti and have been an Executive Member or a Tutor for a minimum of 10 years. At the AGM, Honorary Membership was granted to June Gratzer, Lois Goodsell, Lois Brinck and John Penny.

Click here for a list of all our Honorary Members

Registering for Courses

Please note that Elaine (04) 905 3744 is now the person to contact regarding enrolment for Courses.

Why not check out our classes and see if there is something to interest you – click to see our Course Timetable and costs. The course ‘Introduction to Computers’ is free and well suited to get into the basics of computing.  Please pass this information on to friends and family.  Remember that we also have reduced charges for any member wishing to repeat a course.

Regular Workshops

Regular Workshops are $5.00 per session (except Q&A, which is a large gold coin). The current regular workshops are Q&A, iPad-iPhone & Android tablet Workshops each month and no prior booking is required. Click to see our Workshop and Special Interest Group (SIG) Timetable. If you have already completed a Course and need some additional help to clarify a few points, we are, as always, delighted to help at one of our How Do I…? Workshop sessions, where the charge varies depending on how long we spend helping you (max $10 per hour).

Tutors and Assistant Tutors Wanted

It may appear that we are always requesting for tutors and assistant tutors to join SeniorNet and that’s because we are!  So please contact Sue (at our main email address kapiti@seniornet.co.nz) and she will discuss the options with you. Join our friendly and supportive group and bring your ideas forward for discussion. Experienced senior/lead tutors are always on hand to train you to become assistant tutors and this is also a great opportunity to keep up with all the latest advances in the computer world. Tutors also need to keep themselves updated so enrol in a course or go along as an assistant tutor.

Our Website – Staying Connected!

Our website is very easy to use and if you want to be informed when new articles appear, you need to go to click on the “Follow” button which appears at the bottom right-hand side of this screen. Enter your email address and click Sign me up. After that, you’ll get a short email from “Wordpress” when new material is posted. Your email address is kept in the strictest confidence and never shared with anyone else.

Computer literacy in the 21st Century

Have you travelled overseas lately? Did you notice a difference in how much technology is used to process you as you move through the system at airports? If you have an e-passport you certainly will be aware of this continuing change. To add to this challenge technology processes are different at individual airports. A basic understanding and confidence in using technology is now a “must have” to minimise stress levels when travelling.

Whilst working my way through the entry process at San Francisco International Airport recently I recalled the people, before I left New Zealand, who when I mentioned that I’m involved with Senior Net commented to me – “I don’t want anything to do with computers’ or “my partner does all the computer stuff.” I found these comments a bit scary. There’s no doubt about it, technology is influencing our daily lives at an increasingly fast pace. If you continue to put up barriers or remain in denial this will only increase the level of frustration you experience as technology continues to quickly impact on our lives.

Whilst your partner may be the “doer” with your desktop or laptop computer, if you own a smartphone or tablet these devices are computers as well. Just about everything your partner can do on her or his desktop you can do on these.

Almost every person in every part of the world uses some form of computer every day.

 

Having a general, basic understanding and confidence in using computers can help you function in today’s world.

So do be prepared for the future. If your partner is currently the person who is managing bills on line, communicating with family via Facebook etc, planning travel, using TradeMe, think about how you would manage if he or she is no longer there to do this for both of you.

Who’s going to pay the bills if you have no knowledge of the process or technology or even more importantly access to a key password? Family? Yes, they will be keen to help however wouldn’t you feel better if you had your independence and could do it yourself. It’s so easy to let someone else take over the reins, it’s a lot more challenging to make the decision to learn how yourself. Once you have, hugely more satisfying. Start by sharing the responsibility. It will certainly relieve some of the stress from your partner should you be travelling overseas in the future.

Do it now!  You’ll surprise yourself.

Golden Ager

Note from the (new) Chair, Teresa

Again, this term we are offering one-off workshops that have proven quite popular. This term we have already held a Downloading Music workshop, but still to come we have Scams and How to Avoid Them, and a workshop on learning more about Microsoft Excel (the spreadsheet creation program).
If you are interested in attending either of these please contact Elaine at (04) 905 3744 to sign up. Because of the popularity of these workshops, we are limiting attendance to 20, so book early.

I ran across this today and thought to myself “Once again some anonymous smarty pants has said it better than I ever could.” It however does sum up how I’m feeling about the subject today.

 “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Anonymous

Sponsorship

Please support our sponsors: Noel Leeming, Vodafone, Westpac Bank and Grey Power. Remember to take your SeniorNet card with you as substantial discounts are given on most items at Noel Leeming (not just computers!).

Have fun computing

Chair Teresa