November General Meeting Topic
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The
Club
will hold its annual elections first and all members are urged to
attend. The slate of officers is given in the President's Report
below.
Officers shall be elected to a one
year term, while Directors will be elected to two year terms. The terms of
current directors, Frank Fritchman and Bob Mugge, will end in December of this
year. The terms of Karen Brown and Joyce Knouse will continue for the 2008 club
year. Also, Warren Sanders will replace Ron Uncapher as Past
President. The past president acts as the fifth director.
The program to follow will include first a
short presentation by Karen Brown on Ergonomics related to the use of the
Computer. This will be followed by a panel of "Experts"
answering your questions regarding the baffling behavior of your
computer. Forward your important queries in advance to Bob Foster via
email noclew1@hotmail.com,
as these written questions will be answered prior to taking questions from the floor.
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| Board Meeting |
The
next board meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 13th, at 3 pm
at the Rec. Center. All interested parties are invited to attend.
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President's Notes
by Warren Sanders
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The
November meeting will offer the membership an interesting set of
opportunities. First will be the
opportunity to vote for the officers and board members who will lead the Club
for the next year. Second will be the
opportunity to ask a panel of knowledgeable people the questions you have been wanting answered.Third will be the
opportunity to sign up for one of the laser printers we are giving away. Fourth will be the opportunity to hear
reports from each of the outgoing officers.
Sounds like a very exciting meeting to me. I hope a large percentage of our members
will be in attendance for our Annual Meeting.
The slate of officers and Directors is: President, Jim
Peterson;
Vice-President, Bob Mugge;
Treasurer, Dick Schmeling; Secretary, Jan Schneck, Director, Vince Alline; and Director, Dean Miller. I feel all are very capable persons and that they will provide excellent leadership for our club during 2008.
This month's program
of questions and answers is something many of you have been requesting,
and I hope that we have many good questions.
I think that we could devote a couple of programs per year to this
format. Send your questions in if you can but if not, bring your questions and hear
the answers.
The laser
printers to be given away were donated but did not sell at the garage
sales. I will have pictures of them, and
they will be given away to anyone who wants them. We need to get them out of our inventory, and
would like to have Club members get them.
We also have two desktop Xerox copiers which will be given away, so be
thinking about how you could us one of them.
I want to
update you on a few other items of interest. With regard to a classroom at the Rec Center,
Jeff Gagley has informed me the work scheduled for the room we will be
using should be completed around the first of the year. We are excited about the potential of having
a better facility for our classes, and we plan to publish a schedule of classes
to be held next year. We will be
purchasing computers (laptops) for the classroom, so we can hold classes with
the attendees actually participating, rather than just watching the instructor.
The Clubs
Computer Give-Away project provided 33 complete systems to worthy families in
the area on October 6 and 19. This is a
very worthwhile project and gets the Club some nice publicity. I am very proud to be associated with
it. I am also happy to announce that the
Community Church Trustees have given us permission to be permanently housed in
the building where we have been working on computers for both the garage sales
and the Give-Away project. That means we will not need to move several van loads of materials to and from the
'workhouse' for each garage sale. We can
store everything right there. In
addition, the Community Church Crafters and Habitat for Humanity have agreed to
share the proceeds of the sales in the computer room with the Club to help us
fund the costs associated with the Give-Away project. That means that we will not need to be asking
other organizations for funding of the project.
I have very
much enjoyed being your President for the last 18 months. I hope we have moved forward and made
the Club better during that time. A lot
of exciting things have happened during that period, and I know the new
officers and the new board will make the Club even better next year. Thanks for your support during my
tenure. And remember, it is your Club,
and you can make a positive impact by participating in any of the many ways
that are available to you. Volunteer to
teach a class. Serve on one of the
committees. Help with the Give-Away
project. Be a Board Member or
Officer. Present a program (or even
suggest a program). There are a lot of
ways that you can help to make your Club even better.
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CONGRATULATIONS!
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Many,
if not all of you, know Dave Hudgens writes a column for the Knoxville
News-Sentinel about activities in Tellico Village. In his
October 17th article Dave wrote about the great work you and
fellow club members did in making donated computers ready and available
for needy families. What a great use of the talents represented
by this club! Thanks to all who served and to Warren for his
leadership. Here is what Dave had to say in his article.
"Computer users do a good turn. I've written
about how members of the Village Computer Users Club check out and
refurbish computers and related equipment for the two big rummage sales
in the Village. They make sure the gear is in working order for
prospective buyers.
But discriminating shoppers snap the
newer units with the Windows XP operating system, leaving perfectly
good machines running Windows 98 without a home. So with the consent of
the rummage sale people, the club decided to make the unsold units
available free to needy folks in the area who don't have a computer in
the home. They asked the Loudon County Interagency Council to help find
worthy folks. Teachers also made recommendations.
On a
Saturday morning recently, the computer gurus gave away 33 complete
computer systems. Each came with a working color printer, with ink
cartridges and a ream of paper, a sound system, cables and word
processing and spreadsheet software - "everything you need to get
started," said Computer Club President Warren Sanders.
The
computer systems were lined up on tables in at the former model home
next to the Community Church, each bearing a number. When the
recipients arrived they picked a random number from a jar, and a club
member would load up the corresponding system.
It was hard
to tell who was having more fun that morning: the recipients of the
free computers, or the computer club gurus who were handing them out."
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Computer Education
by Bill Peterson
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There are no classes scheduled for the month of November.
If
you have a subject or interest to you or one you would like to teach,
please contact me by email or see me at the general meeting.
We need your assistance to continue our Education classes. Here is how you can help - answer these questions!
1, What subjects do you recommend we teach?
2. Are You willing to teach a class on a computer subject?
3. Do you know of someone who would teach a class?
4. Overall do you have suggestions for improving our Computer Club educational programs?
Send your answers to Bill Peterson at - lapete@chartertn.net |
Membership
by Bob Kutschera
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Last
month we added seven new members to our club. Their names are
listed below so you can look for each of them at our next meeting and
welcome them.
Dave and Glenda Dombrowski
Burtis Pattson
Martha Payne
Joyce Petrak
Kenneth & Karen Wood
Every October we began accepting payment of dues for the next year and will continue that practice this month. Please remember that dues are now $15. In an effort to ease congestion at the
reception desk at the monthly general meetings, we are requesting you
send your renewal dues to Robert Kutschera, 203 Ootsima Way, Loudon,
TN 37774-2820.
Please make your check to TVCUC and include your email
address so we can email confirmation of your renewal. Of course, if
you wish to have a hard copy receipt, we can send that to you as well.
We hope you will take advantage of this method of
payment and we look forward to seeing you in 2008 which should be an exciting
year for TVCUC. Thank you for your participation and support of the Tellico
Village Computer Users Club.
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Special Interest Groups
by Don Stieghan
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Three
SIGs are now meeting each month at the Chota Rec Center.
The meetings last for about an hour and half.
Genealogy-first
Thursday at 3:00 PM
(contact Don Stieghan at 458-2142)
Digital
Photography-second Thursday at 3:00
PM (contact Jim Noonan at 458-9940)
Computer
Hardware-third Monday at 3:00 PM
(contact Bill Peterson at 458-2997)
Music
on the Computer-on summer vacation
Do
you want to be a part of these exciting programs or just ask questions about
SIGs? You can receive meeting
announcements and organization information.
Just send your e-mail address to me at tvdon@chartertn.net, or call me at
458-2142 or see me at the general meeting. Also, help is available to start additional SIGs
by expressing your special interest. You
do not have to be the expert to lead
a SIG, to propose the organization of one, just have an interest in the subject
matter.
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Free Stuff and Helpful Sites
by Frank Fritchman
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Here is a reminder thanks to Ron Uncapher.
As
in spring, the change from Eastern daylight savings time to Standard Eastern
time has changed. Instead of October 28, the last Sunday of October, the
change will occur on November 4. Note also that if your operating system
is Windows XP or Vista and you have kept
abreast of the updates, your PC will correctly update your onboard time.
If, however, you are using an earlier version of Windows, you will not have
been updated, and you must correct the time yourself. On Sunday, October
28, you old PC will have updated the time ('fallen back' one hour). You
will have to move it up and then on Sunday, November 4, move it back again, or
not. -----------------------
For
those of you who like to be sure your programs are up-to-date, Vince
Alline ran across an article which may be of interest to some of
you. Click on the line below and see if this is something you may
be interested in.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135031/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws
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EMAILS THAT SELF DISTRUCTSooner
or later every computer user experiences that smack-the-forehead
moment. You know the one: When you email a message to the wrong party
or send out something you really meant to delete. A recent article in
Smart Computing offered some advice which will give you more control
over your email."
" A variety of services offer what they call secure, tracked, or
self-destructing email. Some sites, such as Will Self-Destruct (www.willselfdestruct.com) and KickNotes (www.kicknotes.com),
provide message recipients one-time access to a secure Web page that
contains your message. Recipients get an email directing them to the
page with the message, which is accessible only once. After that, the
message is deleted."
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Smart Computing
by Ron Uncapher & Frank Fritchman
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Subscribe or Renew
Your Smart Computing subscription and help TVCUC get credit towards free
subscriptions.
Many of you subscribe to the computing magazine, Smart
Computing. Do you know that your club
can earn and has earned free subscription to the magazine? You may have been at a meeting when a
subscription was given away as door prizes.
Well, you can help earn more of those free subscriptions. When subscribe or renew and let the
publisher know you want the Tellico Village Computer Users Club to give credit to the club.
To do this, go to www.smartcomputing.com. In the blue panel on the left side of the
homepage, go down to User Groups.
Click on User Groups and you will link to the User Group Program
page. The text on that page will tell
you about the free subscription program.
In the Orange (yellow) panel at the
left, click on Subscribe or Renew Today!
This will link you to the page where you can renew you
subscription. Fill out your data. Then, as you scroll about half way down the
screen, you will come to Give Your Group Credit For Your Order. Select Tellico Village Computer Users
Group, Loudon, TN and the group will be credited when
you complete your order.
You may also renew or subscribe by phone at (800)
424-7900. Just tell the phone person
that you want your group to get free subscription credit.
Thanks for your support.
Ron
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When
you take advantage of Ron's information, here is the type of
information you can expect to find. These tips are taken from the
current issis of the User-Group page of the SmartComputing web site.
"· Clean
Your DVDs: DVDs are best cleaned with a lint-free, nonabrasive cloth.
Dampen the cloth in clean, lukewarm water. (If your water is especially hard or
contains excess minerals, use bottled water.) Starting at the center of the
disc, wipe in a straight line to the outside rim; don't use a circular motion.
Repeat until you've cleaned the entire disc. For very stubborn messes, try
water with a mild, nonabrasive soap or isopropyl alcohol. Commercial DVD
cleaning solutions are also available.
Never use compressed air to blow a DVD clean. Compressed air can be very cold
and may thermally shock the disc, causing separation or cracks, either
immediately or down the road.
· Big Format, Better Pics: Always take
landscape photos at your camera's highest quality setting, meaning its
uncompressed RAW file format, if your photo-editing software supports it. Your
photos will take up a lot more memory card space, but they'll be much, much
sharper and better looking in large prints. And if you find that you want to
blow up and keep just a small portion of a photo - such as a bald eagle soaring
through the enormous canyon you shot - it won't look as fuzzy or jagged as it
would if you enlarged it from a low-quality image. If the RAW format isn't an
option for you, high-quality JPEG or TIFF files from a camera with 3MPs or more
can look very good, too.
· Delete Files In Vista:
If you want to bypass the Recycle Bin and have deleted files removed from the
hard drive immediately, right-click the Recycle Bin and click Properties.
Select the Do Not Move Files To The Recycle Bin radio button, select the
Display Delete Confirmation Dialog checkbox if you want Windows to prompt you
for permission each time you delete a file, and click Apply".
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Photography & Cartoons
by Frank Fritchman
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Since
no one sent me photos this month I will use some I am proud
of. Not because of my ability to take a picture, but because they
show what great work our club did the computer give away project.
We
could not get even half of the comuters produced by this project in one
picture. This was one of three rooms full of systems.
Here is Dale Noll registering our first family in this years give away project.
Here is Dale again working under the very watchful eye of Vince Alline who kept us all in line!
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Hopefully our drought is over and we can all begin to
enjoy a long and beautiful fall. Be sure to have your cameras out and
ready for beautiful fall shots and for some special Thanksgiving
pictures.
If we have any hunters out there who get lucky and bag a trophy buck or turkey, we would love to share the picture.
Be thankful this month! We are blessed to be
Americans and able to live here. Most of us are in good health
and those that have health issues have the best health care in the
world. Thank someone for their service this month. To a
Service man, to your pastor, to someone who serves us at the POA, or at
the Good Samaritan -- find a reason and thank someone. You will
have a better month!
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