President's Notes (09/06)
President's Message
Members Helping Members
by Phil Sorrentino
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
Well, that’s what it’s all about. That’s why
SPCUG was started and that’s why people
continue to join SPCUG. Just think about all the ways members help members.
The Monthly Meeting, the Monthly Forums, the SIG schedule, the Monitor, the
Web Site, the Yahoo Group, and Members Helping Members (Originally in the
Monitor, now moving to the web site.) We are blessed with a very dedicated
group of leaders, administrators and teachers. Most of these people are
providing help for many of our members. So, we’ve got a lot of members
helping members. But I’d like to expand specifically on our Members Helping
Members project. This project provides a list of members who are very
experienced in a particular computer area and are willing to provide a brief
telephone help session. It’s like a private help line to knowledgeable
people in the neighborhood (you will never get an answer from someone out of
the country).
Until recently, the list of people and their subject
areas has been available in the Monitor, monthly. This information didn’t
change very often and occupied a whole page of the Monitor. Every page in
the Monitor must be paid for, every month, so to have a page that didn’t
provide new information was an unreasonable expense. This type of
information is more suited to a page on a Website, where the information is
easily accessible by all members and can be changed when needed. So, the
Members Helping Members information is in the process of being moved to a
page on our Website:
www.spcug.org/membershelpingmembers.htm .
Members Helping Members goes back many years. It was in
1996 that it was set up formally by Anita Plutchik. Anita prepared the
original text description for the Monitor, and coordinated the volunteers
until recent times. Anita was even listed as the volunteer to call for help
on text-to-speech software. Some of the other subjects that were covered by
volunteer members were: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Word Perfect, Access,
Digital Photography, Genealogy, Print Shop, Print Artist, Quicken, Windows,
Web Page Design, Mail Application, Hardware, Networks, and Personal Digital
Assistants. Over time, topics of interest have changed and people have also
changed. We are now reviewing the topics and people and will have some
additional changes in the list as it moves from the Monitor to the web site.
If you would be willing to be one of the Members Helping Members, just
contact me and I will add your name and area of expertise to the list. By
the way, many of the people who used to depend on Members Helping Members
have moved over to the Yahoo Group to get their questions answered. This is
a very viable way to get help. However, there is still a need for a more
personal, interactive opportunity to get help from another member with some
specific expertise.
Here’s something to think about. There are currently around 1,000 SPCUG
members. At the last Volunteer Luncheon the attendee list was about 70.
That’s only 7%, or about one in 14. So, for every member helping out, there
are 14 who are being helped. In other words, 7% of the members are helping
the other 93%. Which group are you in? I hope, at least for some period of
time, or some subject, you find yourself in the 7% group. If you are never
in the 7% group, think about trying to help out. You don’t have to
contribute in a technical capacity; there are many different areas that you
could help with. Contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Pat Wheeler at 922-0182
or wheelerpat922@comcast.net and she will bevery glad to help you
get into the 7% group. Maybe we can increase that group so much that it will
become the 10% group. It would be great to have a Volunteer Luncheon that
size. :
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Copyright 2009. This article is from the June 2009 issue of the
Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota
Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL
34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit
computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and
our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication
the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For
further information about our group, email:
admin@spcug.org/ Web:
http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members
and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User
Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are
members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC
Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.