Linda Shannon-Hills
On Monday, August 12, the SaddleBrooke Ranch Technology Club held their inaugural membership meeting. It has been a very busy year for SBR TC. President Larry Schweitzer welcomed the members in attendance, then gave an overview of the accomplishments of the club this past year. Some of the highlights included the creation of the board of directors that have developed the infrastructure of this club. The club has a strong technology committee that maintains the hardware and software of the computers for the room along with other hardware and software needed to keep the room operating. The monitor program has 35 volunteers, giving over 1395 hours of their time. They have been available for members to come in during Open Lab times to get help with technical problems or questions they have about their computers.
The club has offered 42 classes which include Photoshop Elements, iPhone Basics, Excel, NextDoor, Mac Photo Editing, Family Tree Maker, MAC Basics for beginners, and TV Cut the Cord with 217 members attending.
Our Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have generated a lot of interest: SMART HOME, Apps for Smart Phones and Tablets, Maker / DIY Raspberry Pie and Open Discussion SIG which has included several different topics.
Our Incorporation Team has spent numerous hours creating the documents which has allowed the club to achieve the status as a non-profit, 501(C)(3), the articles of incorporation and our final set of bylaws. With the help of many, we have passed our first audit with ideas to help the club improve financially in future years.
The growth of the club, membership of 279, is an outstanding achievement for our first year and with the work of many volunteers, we look forward to growth in the coming year.
Many, many hours have gone into the development of our club website, using Club Express. Our webmaster, Jan Boyett continues to make updates to the home page, added under documents the Technology Tips and other interesting articles. The Events and Calendar share our meeting schedule, class schedule and SIG schedule. During the month, there are many Open Labs for members to choose.
The club has just added sponsorship opportunities for businesses, displaying on the front page of the website. We encourage our members to thank the sponsors when they can.
The club starts the new fiscal year with a solid financial base and a fiscally responsible budget for 2020 with conservative growth and plans to improve the club. Establishing the club as a 501(C)(3), allows us to purchase software and hardware at a discount to expand our offerings to membership and strengthen our club.
Membership renewals will start at the end of December 2019, for the coming year.
The next SBR TC General Meeting will be on Monday, November 4 at 4:30 p.m. in La Mesa Room. The speaker will talk on “How to improve on your Backup
Process”.