Amador Computer Users Group

The Amador Computer User's Group has had a long history of service to the community. Since the founding of the club in 1994, members have APCUG's 2000 Jerry Award presented to the Amador Computer Users Group

donated software and computers to local schools, volunteered their time to the Amador County Public Library teaching patrons how to use the Internet and computers, built a Website for the Library, repaired and updated the Hospice of Amador's computers, founded a scholarship fund and much more. The following is an overview of some of our current ongoing and past projects.

[A joint effort of ACUG members and business sponsor Webcentric Computer Services]

January 1999 to the present.

Several years ago when the Amador County library was gifted six new Dell computers, the Amador Computer Users Group saw this as a wonderful opportunity to be of service to the community.

Four of the computers were dedicated to Internet use but the library system needed help setting them up. ACUG’s Webmaster, Barbara Kreiss, came to the rescue by designing, developing and installing an Amador County Library Website with interesting and educational links that would benefit young and old alike. Forms were also designed that allowed kids and teens to submit their own book reviews and see them published on the Web, and an on-line publicity contest to name the animated Website mascot [a book worm] served to bring needed attention to the Library’s new services offered to the community. Help and “how-to” files were developed and installed on the site to aid new users.

In addition, the club decided they could be of further service by volunteering several hours a week to help new users learn how to use the computers, the installed software, and to find their way around the Internet. Several club members volunteered, and one member has logged nearly 350 hours of volunteer time. The volunteers find they walk a fine line in dealing with the public. They don’t want to compete with organizations teaching computer classes as a business but at the same time they are often confronted with users who have never touched a computer before but are trying to do a legitimate search on the Internet.

The club continues to look for ways to help the community develop interesting and useful ways to make computers work to the benefit of all.

Sincerely;

Frank Blauvelt, Director
Amador Computer Users Group

Our Hospice of Amador project involved setting up and maintaining a computer network for the Hospice as well as checking out several donated laptops and installing required software on them. This organization provides medical and psychological services to terminally ill patients, and their immediate family, who wish to spend their final days at home with family members and loved ones near by. Our first job was to completely check out the donated computer laptops to make sure they were all in proper working condition. The laptop computers are used by the Hospice nurses to keep and maintain patient records, allowing the nurses to spend more time with the patients and less time in the office doing paper work. We then networked all of their office computers together so that they could make the best use of the equipment to accomplish their mission and improve their service to the community. We continue to maintain the computer equipment, provide repair service when needed and install and maintain any new equipment purchased or donated to the Hospice as an ongoing project.

We have also been approached by the Hospice to build a Website for the organization to aid in getting out information on their services and benefits to terminal patients and their families. My business partner and ACUG Webmaster Barbara Kreiss, was asked to give a presentation to the Hospice Board of Directors, and as a result, a Hospice committee was formed from their board to pull together the information, ideas and documents they wish to present on their site.

Sincerely,

John T. Tinney
APCUG Representative, Program Committee, Board Member and Past President Amador Computer Users Group
Owner-Partner (Retired) Webcentric Computer Services

ACUG Scholarship Project

September 20, 2000 to the present.

The Amador Computer Users Group Scholarship Fund:

The Amador Computer Users Group received a JERRY award for community service from the Association of PC User Groups in February of 1999 that was awarded during the Fall 1998 Comdex APCUG conferences. In deliberating how best to use this money, the ACUG Board decided that students in our mostly rural community, did not have the educational opportunities and exposure to computer technology that larger metropolitan area schools offered, and that the prize money should go toward improving this situation.

Toward this end the prize money was set aside to found the ACUG Scholarship Fund to encourage local students to attend college or technical school to study in computer-related fields. Club members were sought to form a scholarship committee during 1999. A second JERRY award, won in 2000, was also placed in the fund.

Currently, our scholarship committee is active in determining fund raising methods to increase the ACUG scholarship fund to allow larger scholarships and to provide ongoing funding for future years. The club itself, sets aside monies each month from the treasury towards the scholarship fund. The committee, in concert with high school guidance counselors, also developed the criteria for student selection and recommends to the ACUG Board of Directors specific students to receive these scholarship awards each year. The Club has currently awarded two scholarships, one in 2001 to Amador HS student Adam Arellano, and another in 2002, awarded to Amanda Guyett also of Amador HS.

The ACUG Scholarship Fund is intended to provide scholarships to deserving Amador county high school graduates. Our ultimate goal is to provide the opportunity for young people in our community to have access to a technical education, resulting in opportunities for high-income employment. Our hope is that this will not only be of assistance to the individual students and their families now, but that perhaps in the future those same students will also provide a pool of computer-related talent for the betterment of the rural counties of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains.

Sincerely;

Kim Still, Publicity Director, ACUG Scholarship Fund Chair
Amador Computer Users Group

California State Library Project
* Winner of the 2000 Jerry Award for Short-Term Project

June, 1999 through October, 1999.

This project was undertaken at the request of the Amador County Library and Al Bennett, Coordinator, Rural Initiative of the California State Library. ACUG was asked to send a representative to a focus group on rural library needs that met in Jackson, CA. I volunteered to represent the club and participated in that session as well as making a trip to the State Library in Sacramento to participate in a Library Rural Needs Assessment Group. I also ended up representing small business [Webcentric Computer Services] with the break-out technology committee.

The Sacramento meeting provided recommendations to the California State Library for action regarding the Rural Initiative, which is the development of plans for the Library's role in fostering development of library services throughout rural California. The goal is to find ways to help strengthen rural libraries and make them an indispensable asset to their communities.

One of my recommendations was that the State Library contact the APCUG as a liaison to all of the Northern California User Groups, and that User Groups were a resource that Libraries could tap for volunteers to help with computerization and tutoring of patrons in the use of computers. The idea being to help close the so called "Digital Divide" and promote and encourage public access to computers and the Internet.

Several other of my recommendations were for the rural libraries to reach out to their patrons via the Internet by utilizing Websites, by providing meeting areas for computer user groups which would then also serve the public, and for the State Library to provide support for this as well as Web page space, links, documents and forms online for the rural libraries to access.

Although my participation has ended, I understand that the Initiative is on-going and that a report will be published and distributed to interested parties.

Barbara Kreiss, Webmaster, Program Director, Asst. Editor
Amador Computer Users Group
Owner Webcentric Computer Services

[A joint effort of ACUG members and business sponsor Webcentric Computer Services].

The Amador Computer User Group ARC project was initiated with a request from Mike Rolf, Director of Services for the Amador and Calaveras County chapters of the Association for Retarded Citizens. Mike asked for help in assessing both new and donated computers, with the goal of networking most of the computers in their new computer lab. The idea was to be able to access the Internet from any machine. John Tinney, ACUG member and former owner/partner of Webcentric Computer Services headed the project (until his retirement) with owner/partner Barbara Kreiss. This included a thorough look at each machine, purchasing of needed parts, installation of hardware, and setting up five machines to access the Internet through a server. Two additional machines in the lab are used strictly for learning programs such as typing tutors. After assessing each machine, we rotated the least capable machines to the typing station, upgraded memory on several machines, added 10/100 fast Ethernet NICs [Network Interface Cards] to several machines, and configured the newest most capable machine as the server using ICS [Microsoft's Internet Connection Sharing]. An 8 port hub was installed so that the network could be expanded in the future. Staff was trained on the use of the machines and network. Webcentric was asked to further advise on the purchase of a new machine and several Video Cameras for the purpose of possible visual communications between ARC's Calaveras and Amador County facilities, which was completed with the purchase of a new machine and video cams in early September of 2001. The new machine was set up with Windows 2000 Pro and acted as the server for the network. Printers, scanners, and software essential to the assistance of the developmentally disabled were installed for the use of the patrons of ARC in late September. Further advice and training was given on anti-virus software and backups for all critical machines for the office staff and the networked lab. In March of 2002, Webcentric gave further help and advice on upgrading to Windows XP.

Barbara Kreiss, Webmaster, Program Director, Contrib. Editor
Amador Computer Users Group
Owner - Webcentric Computer Services

Argonaut HS Student Programming Project
* Winner of the 2002 Jerry Award Honorable Mention
for Short-Term Project.

[A joint effort of Scott and Julie Taggart, programmers, Janice Davis, AHS counselor, and Barbara Kreiss, coordinator, Webcentric Computer Services under the auspices of the Amador Computer Users Group].

As coordinator, I was very pleased at the success of this project. Argonaut High School broke new ground in its curriculum by forming a C++ Programming Class for interested students. When the teacher who initiated the class left unexpectedly, ACUG was contacted to help fill the position by AHS counselor Janice Davis. ACUG in turn, asked me to find a solution. Having had a great experience in the past with a similar program taught by local programmer Scott Taggart at Amador High School, I did not hesitate to call on Scott & Julie Taggart for help. Julie's expertise working with students, and her patient and gentle style while teaching programming, was a plus. Their willingness to tackle the Argonaut Student Programming Project on such short notice and their generous donation of considerable time and effort, was greatly appreciated by the students, staff and everyone involved. Stepping into such a position and situation is by no means an easy job, but the professionalism and enthusiasm both brought to this project enabled the class to continue successfully to the end of the school term. I feel sure that without the Taggart's hard work and dedication, the school would have been forced to discontinue the class leaving the students stranded.

Regards;

Barbara Kreiss, Webmaster, APCUG Rep., Contrib. Editor
Amador Computer Users Group
Owner, Webcentric Computer Services

Amador Senior Center Computer Lab & Outreach Project

[Project leaders: Kim Still, Karen Crabtree]

Ongoing project started August 2002

At the request of the Amador Senior Center director Laurie Webb, members of the Amador Computer Users Group are assisting seniors with the use of computers in the center's new lab. Members are also traveling to senior's homes and tutoring them on how to use their computers and are "on call" for assistance over the phone. Especially helpful to shut-ins, learning to get online and around the world on the Internet offers seniors a "window on the world". Timely access to medical, tax and other important information, and the ability to communicate with distant loved ones can be of great benefit to those not able to get around "like they used to". A visit from friendly ACUG member volunteer Karen Crabtree doesn't hurt either.

Amador Senior Center Broadband Project
* Winner of the 2004 Jerry Award Third Place
for a New Project.

[Project committee: Karen Crabtree, Barbara Kreiss, Ted Langlet, Gene Sproul. Business Sponsor: Communications Advantage.]

New project starting June 2004 through August 2004

Summary: At the request of the Amador Senior Center director Laurie Webb, ACUG president Ted Langlet, and three members of the Amador Computer Users Group formed a committee to assist her in choosing a Broadband Internet technology and provider by doing the background research necessary for her decision, including contacting local vendors.

ACUG was instrumental in getting wireless installed for our local Senior Center and with the generosity of Communications Advantage they will receive it for free!

Using the computer is of greater importance to our citizens (Amador County ranks first in terms of the per capita population for people 65 or over) who do not have the ability to run out to shop in large shopping centers since we don’t have any available without driving an hour or more. The wireless allows our citizens to surf for medicines, health information, shopping from the comfort of the Senior Center, emailing friends and family and so much more plus it allows our group to better serve our members in teaching the internet.

The new free wireless was installed in July 2004 by Communications Advantage and has been a big boost to the citizens as well as the many groups who meet at the center. This is a great example of how talking to others can bring such great results in helping the community.

Karen Crabtree,
ACUG Program Director

Amador Computer Refurbishing Project
* Winner of the 2006 Jerry Award Third Place
for an Ongoing Project.

[Project Chair: Sherdean Swift. Project committee: Karen & Earl Crabtree, Graham Paul, Richard Kennon, Alan Trimble, Dave Butow, Craig Hobson, Ryan Oates.]

New project starting 2005 through January 2007

For the last two years, ACUG has been receiving donations from the
members to donate to the public in need of a working computer system,
who don't have the ability to pay for a new system. We advertised in
the local newspaper that we were accepting donations of working
computer systems.

The response was so great; we had to rent storage space to accommodate
the growing number of units donated. We reformatted the computers and
opened a free lab to the public to use. We donated refurbished
computers to financially burdened families with teenagers in High
School, Area 12 Agency on Aging, and seniors who are bed bound.

We also donated computers to an elementary school who in turn gave the
computers to students who could not afford one. The components which
were not serviceable were taken to the county landfill and properly
disposed of.

The funds won in this years contest will help continue this program. A donation of storage space is needed. This project is currently on hold while the Amador Computer Users Group seeks 501c3 status.

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