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| Minutes of the Roswell Senior Learning Center Volunteers Meeting | |
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Roswell Senior Learning Center
Meeting Minutes
Date: January 6, 2011
Time: 10:00 am
Place: Roswell Senior center
Event: Volunteer/Executive Winter Meeting
Agenda
1.
Greeting and Call to Order
Frank Padula
2.
Approval of Minutes
Helen Reese
3.
Introduction of new President
Frank Padula
4.
Presidents Report
Tony Cobourn
a.
Jerry Moore update
b.
New Manuals- RSLC, Windows 7
c.
Spring and summer schedules
d.
New Volunteers
e.
Volunteer needs
5.
Treasurer Report
Brian Perry
6.
Tech Webmaster Report
Don Hogan
a.
Server update
b.
Windows 7
7.
Manuals Report
George Fuller
8.
Staffing Report
Jack Thompson
9.
Publicity report
Frank Padula
Course Issues:
1)
Excel
Jack Thompson
2)
Internet & Email
Bill Buttrick
3)
Fundamentals, Office for Beginners, Security Strategies,
Keyboarding Anne
Tilly
4)
Computers for the Terrified
Bill Startt
5)
Windows 7
John Rittenburg
6)
Word 2007
Frank Padula
7)
Photoshop Elements/Picasa
David Glodowski
8)
Ebay, TreeMaker, Facebook
Don Hogan
9)
PowerPoint
Brian Perry
10)
How to Write a Memoire
Tony Cobourn
11)
Digital Camera
12)
Open Lab Sessions
Other Issues
Adjourn
Greeting and Call to Order:
President Frank Padula opened the meeting promptly at 10:00
am. In the absence of Helen Reese, (the outgoing secretary),
a motion made by John Rittenburg to approve the minutes of
the last meeting was seconded by Don Hogan and followed by
an affirmative vote of the attendees.
Marilyn Blatt was kind enough to start taking today’s
minutes due to the belated arrival of the new secretary of
the Roswell Senior Learning Center.
Frank Padula announced his end of term as President and
introduced Tony Cobourn as the new incoming President of the
Roswell Senior Learning Center.
Tony began his tenure by covering an update of the
medical condition of Jerry Moore who is currently
hospitalized in Texas in critical condition and is not
envisioned to be able to resume his teaching of the Digital
Camera Course in the near future.
Tony further addressed the volunteer shortfalls in
light of the recent passing of Bob Nelson, the illness of
Jerry Moore and the retirement of Julie Fogel.
Frank Padula will serve as Vice President this year.
The Secretary for the New Year is Howard Goldmacher.
The Lab session coordinator will be temporarily
filled by Miriam DePriest, while
the search for a long term Lab Sessions manager continues to
be a pressing need.
The Digital Camera Class normally taught by Jerry
Moore is currently without an instructor with four, (4),
students enrolled for the January 13 class.
Otto Moehrbach has volunteered to make student badges and
flash drives as necessary for students, using the office
student registration book as a resource, although individual
course instructors need to provide the files necessary to be
copied to flash drives.
Tenth Anniversary of the Start of the Roswell SeniorNet
Learning Center.
Discussion centered on what sort of celebration, if any,
might be appropriate in honor of the tenth anniversary of
the Senior Learning Center.
The center started humbly with a few computers and a
few dedicated volunteers and has grown steadily into an
organization which provides a valued service to Roswell and
neighboring communities. An
interactive discussion with the city of Roswell Management
needs to be initiated to determine the extent to which the
City might be interested in promoting/sponsoring an event,
such as an open house, held at the Adult Recreation center
wherein the event
could serve to publicize the accomplishments of the Learning
Center, create greater community awareness of the very
affordable course offerings of the Learning Center, the
benefits which accrue to Learning Center Volunteers
as well as gaining
feedback from the community at large as to what needs they
might have regarding the courses they would like to see
offered.
The initial action with Roswell city representatives will be
taken by Tony Cobourn and Don Hogan will contact Bert Emma
and Julie Fogel on background of the Learning Center’s early
days as source data for an article for publication in local
print media.
New Volunteers:
Tony introduced five, (5), new volunteers at the Learning
Center. Their names are:
Tom Frazee, Bob Haskins, Joan Rush, Susan Ryan and Stuart
Hauzer. We wish
to welcome these new volunteers and look forward to their
energetic participation in the Roswell Senior Learning
Center programs. Tom and Bob are IBM retirees which will be
extremely helpful in applying for the IBM Equipment Grant
program, which requires a minimum of three retired IBM
employees to be members of the applying organization.
We currently have four IBM retirees as Learning
Center members.
Volunteer Wall of Fame:
It has been suggested that pictures aligning the Computer
Lab need to be updated, along with pictures of new
volunteers. Action:
Emory Reese will be contacted to see whether he might
participate in the updating process.
Treasurers Report: Brian Perry
Brian reported the financial condition of the Learning
Center as of January 6, 2011, which is included as an
addendum to these minutes.
Student Registration:
The winter session enrollment currently stands at 61
although there are six, (6) courses with fewer than three
students each currently enrolled.
This compares with a fall registration of 58 where
there were five, (5) courses with less than three students
enrolled.
Financials:
Our expenses exceeded income for the Fall quarter by
approximately $195.
Currently, our checking account stands at $15,144.66
and our Money Market balance is $10,944.98 yielding a total
cash position of $26,089.64.
Volunteer Expense Reimbursement:
Brian requested that individuals needing reimbursement for
Learning Center expenditures should please notify Brian by
email, (treasurer@roswellslc.org), along with the
appropriate documentation.
He will then cut the necessary checks which will
await the recipient in the Treasurers blue binder in the
SeniorLC box.
Learning Center Affiliation with SeniorNet National:
SeniorNet National has changed their business model in ways
which have caused the Roswell Learning Center to reevaluate
the relationship. National no longer provides updated or new
course manuals, leaving that considerable task and cost to
the individual learning centers and levies a fee for the use
of the SeniorNet trademark which appears largely
disproportional to the benefits they provide.
The number of SeniorNet affiliated member centers
nationally has plummeted from hundreds to less than 40 most
recently due in part to National competing directly with
affiliates for courses available through their on-line
programs. The
Roswell Senior Learning Center is formulating their position
with regard to this matter and will enter discussions with
the City of Rowell before further defining their position.
Action: Tony Cobourn and Board.
Webmaster/Technical Support: Don Hogan
All computer lab machines have Windows 7 as their operating
system.
Machines in the alcove do not but will be upgraded in the
near future.
The Server is not currently functional but is not required
for operation of the computer lab. Repair or replacement is
being evaluated.
The web page,
roswellslc.org
is up to date. Manuals for the winter session course work
are available, although not in the cabinets as yet.
Our relatively new overhead projector which is still
under warranty needs to be packaged and shipped to
California for repair.
The old projector of somewhat poorer image quality is
available for use until the repaired unit is returned.
The webmaster will be away and unavailable during the
month of February. One of the primary benefits for
volunteers is access to updated software for their home use.
The tech support team was authorized by vote of the
attendees to purchase from Microsoft during their once
yearly buying opportunity, (under the auspices of our 501-3C
non-profit educational corporation), 40 copies of Office
2010 at ~$45/copy for the use of the RSLC.
Staffing: Jack Thompson
Staffing of courses with coaches continues to be a problem.
Most requests for support go unanswered.
It would be most helpful if the staffing coordinator
could access a list of volunteers by skill set which would
allow a better matching of coaching skills and course
requirements. John Rittenburg indicated that he might just
have the raw data to generate that kind of volunteer list.
Publicity: Frank Padula
With the City of Roswell cutbacks on the production and
mailed distribution of the brochures of Seasonal programs
and learning center course offerings within the Roswell
Parks and Recreation Centers, we have lost one of the best
generators of prospective Learning Center students.
Efforts in the form of tri-fold brochures left at the
Roswell Library have not been able to generate sufficient
interest thus far.
Effort is being made via emails to current and past
Learning Center students as well as the Ramblers membership.
Course Issues:
There were no significant course issues other than needing
an instructor for the digital camera course. The enclosed
financial statement shows the number of registrants for each
of the courses as of January 6th with one week
before courses begin.
Those courses with enrollees of less than three will
need to make a decision on whether the course will be
withdrawn for lack of interest
Respectfully submitted for Review by:
Howard K. Goldmacher
Secretary, Roswell Senior Learning Center
770.642.7261
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