Victoria Computer Club

Winter waves

Bring a digital camera or smart phone to capture late winter / early spring images. If you want instruction for using your camera, come a little early and team up with another member.  Bundle up.  Afterwards we may go for a snack nearby.

The Annual General Meeting of the club was held Thursday February 13th, 10:00 am at Silver Threads, 286 Hampton Rd, Saanich, BC V8Z 1H1.

17 members attended, achieving the quorum of 5.   Membership dues remain unchanged at $25 per year. Gift cards will continue to be purchased.

Senior response to emails, presented at 2020 AGM.

The picture shows that half our members open the Events emails, and that it takes a day or two for them to open it.  The slide show explores

• what to expect when emailing fellow seniors,
• filtering to just read notable emails
• approaches for urgent communications vs those that can wait
• and what to expect of yourself too.

Here are the results of the desired attendance survey.

Click for more and larger  slides.

Surge in unsubscribes from our mailing list

In the last month we’ve had 10 members unsubscribe from emails coming from the club, more than in the last 12 months…  All but two of the members have many months left in their memberships.

Because we run only one mailing list,  unsubscribing means we cannot send you any more emails, such as our “Upcoming Events” monthly emails.  We do still email renewal reminders and payment receipts.

If you want to re-subscribe, please go to the following webpage and fill in your email, first name and last name:  http://eepurl.com/gaEmdr Only you can do the re-subscribing… Admin cannot do it for you, per law in Canada.

There was very little in the messages that people unsubribed from… e.g.

OOPS, the Computer Club AGM is next week, Thursday, February 13th 10am, not in March as mis-stated in the Survey email…

Some ISPs labeled the email as suspected spam.  Which is strange, given that the email had no links or sales pitch.  And unsubscribers were at several ISPs.  And, surprisingly, members who need to renew are not unsubscribing…  Go figure!!

Winter Virtual Technology Conference, February 8 – 10 am to 1 pm PST. Attend APCUG’s FREE 2020 Winter Virtual Technology Conference (VTC) from the comfort of your own home. Even though there are two tracks, you only need to register once. Before the event, you will receive an email with directions and links for attending both conference tracks. Make sure you have the latest version of Zoom for your device.
https://zoom.us/download

If you are hesitant to use Zoom for the first time, please get in contact with the VTC committee and someone will do a 1:1 session with you so you become familiar with how Zoom works. virtualconferences (at) apcug.org

When you attend the conference, please sign in with the same name and email address you used to register for the event. You do not need an Eventbrite or Zoom account.

REGISTER AT Eventbrite – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2020-winter-virtual-technology-conference-tickets-90438246229

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTIONS AT www.apcug2.org

TRACK 1
1:00 PM ET
The Browser – Your Most Important App
Hewie Poplock, APCUG Rep., Central Florida Computer Society & Sarasota Technology User Group; Chromebook Evangelist

2:00 PM ET
What will 5G mean to you?
Ron Brown, Program Coordinator, Silvercom Computer & Technology Club

3:00 PM ET
Getting started in researching your Family History (even if you have been researching for years)
Jeri Steele, Genealogist

TRACK 2
1:00 PM ET
The Future of Technology
Dave Dockery, President, Tampa Bay Technology Center

2:00 PM ET
Introduction to Home Automation
Bill James, Vice President, Computer Club of Oklahoma City

3:00 PM ET
Creating a Podcast for your group
Michael Crose, Board Member and Podcast Creator, Tampa Bay Technology Center

The University of Victoria, Department of Computer Science would like to invite you to
attend a series of free courses to help you gain confidence about the digital world.
The sessions are designed for senior citizens (60 or older) with little or no prior experience
with computers. The sessions will cover Google and search engines; email; Facebook,
Twitter, and the concept of social media; Microsoft Word and digital productivity; and
more. Each session will have a component on online privacy and outline steps to take
to stay secure in the online world. A short question period at the end of each session will
be held, if time permits. We welcome suggestions for future content and improvements.
The sessions will be held from 10:00 am – 11:30 am in ECS 250 and ECS 258. Please enter
through the north entrance, facing away from Ring Road.

Sessions for Spring of 2020:
Saturday January 11, 2020 – Social Media (Facebook and Twitter)
Saturday February 15, 2020 – Microsoft Word