Linda Shannon-Hills
Since the pandemic required changes in how we live our lives, the SBR Technology Club also knew the club needed to adapt to meet our member’s needs. The club’s volunteer monitors have stepped up to be available by appointment for members to receive help with questions on using their smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Others are coming in to get help in setting up Zoom and how to use it for video chatting with family, attending SBR HOA Coffee Talks, workshops, classes, and so much more.
The various workshops that have been offered via Zoom have been extremely popular. One attendee told us, “Watching the instructor on my screen demonstrating how to do a function and then doing the same function was so much easier than attending a class.” Each month the club offers more workshops. Coming up in the next few months you will find Mac workshops: “Meet Your Mac, Welcome to Big Sur;” “1 Password for Mac, using Time Machine;” workshops on the iPhone and iPad; workshops on Microsoft Office: “Excel: Beyond the Basics, Tips and Tricks;” “Word: Beyond the Basics, Tips and Tricks;” and “PowerPoint: Developing a Basic Slide Presentation.” Members interested in photo editing, there will be workshops on Photoshop: “Beyond the Basics, Tips and Tricks.”
Interest in doing genealogy and family history researching continues to grow, especially with more time at home. The club has invested, with the assistance from a grant won from Pinal County Board of Supervisors, in a digital scanning and archiving system. Our mentors have been learning the system, and are ready to assist our members in scanning slides, negatives, important documents, as well as old photographs. Watch for a listing of the future workshop, “Scanning Your Memories.”
The workshop “Learn the tricks to hosting a Zoom video meeting” is coming soon. As more volunteers are ready to lead a workshop, you will find the club’s list of workshops growing. Check the club website at www.sbrtechnology.club for more information.
Returning this fall are Special Interest Groups (SIG) via Zoom. As the name implies, SIGs are meetings of people who share a common interest in a topic, scheduled as regular events once a month, bi-monthly, or quarterly. September was the first SIG session on “Cutting the Cord” facilitated by Richard Brosnahan, providing updates on streaming services for movies, television, and documentaries. More services come out all the time and the group can discuss what they have been using and the cost. This SIG will be helpful in evaluating the pros and cons of streaming versus cutting the cord on cable or satellite. This SIG will be offered monthly. Check the club calendar on the website.
Another returning SIG is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Wolf Tombe, a retired Senior Scientific Technologist in the U.S. Federal Government will facilitate regular SIGs to discuss how AI can help our daily lives, what new technology and products will include AI, Quantum Computing benefits for future AI development, and so much more.
Watch the club’s website for additional SIGs. If you would like to join the SBR Technology Club, visit the website at www.sbrtechnology.club.