Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch
Like most people, I can’t say a lot of good things about 2020. It was a tough year. Because many of us are getting a little older, we were stuck at home for much of the time. There were some benefits. People got a chance to catch up on reading or binge watching favorite television shows. It was also nice to not have to buy a lot of gasoline for your car.
There is one one other benefit of being stuck at home. I am surprised that more of our club members haven’t taken advantage of it. I’m talking about the many Zoom workshops that are offered on‑line.
Every month our club offers between 20 and 30 of them. The subjects are varied and informative. If you have something in particular you’d like to talk about, the facilitators are almost always amendable to doing so. Unfortunately, the attendance is usually pretty low.
I usually sign up for all the workshops that I can. I’ve found that repeating them often discloses a little tidbit of information that I either didn’t know or forgot about. The discussions among the attendees are also helpful.
Many times I’ve learned about programs, websites, computing techniques that I didn’t know about. I usually keep a notes program open to write myself reminders to check new things.
If that isn’t enough content, the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG) provides even more workshops. Some examples of recent topics are Drones, Printer Buying Tips, Windows Tips, Using CCleaner, Modems, Routers, and Wi-Fi. These workshops and many more cost the same as our club offerings. They are FREE for all paid club members. Pat forwards the links to register.
So why aren’t members utilizing these free services? I don’t know the answer, but I can speculate and offer some responses.
• Zoom is too hard to use – more than 300 million daily Zoom users might disagree. The program is available for nearly every device and operating system. There are thousands of tutorials to help you.
• I don’t have a web camera – you don’t need one. At most of the meetings I’ve attended, at least half the cameras are usually off.
• I don’t want to sign up for a Zoom account – you only need an account if you’re going to host a meeting. To attend a workshop, all you need is the logon information for the meeting.
• My computer/internet isn’t fast enough – I’m not going to list them all but I’ll just say that system requirements are pretty minimal. They still support Windows 7.
What are you waiting for? Why not make the best of being stuck at home for the pandemic? Sign up now for a workshop.
Keep on clicking and thanks for reading.