The Computer Group

meet at the Village Hall, Caerwent.

every Friday 9.30am to 1.00pm.

except the 2nd Friday of the month when it is 10.00 am to 12 noon.

Please click "here" to access the updated Computing Group Programme for 2008

*please click all the images below to access larger photographs

CALDICOT U3A COMPUTER GROUP.

The object of U3A is for members to pass on their knowledge and experience to others in order to add to their enjoyment of life. This we have tried to do in the Computer Group but as the Group grows and many new and [computer] inexperienced people join us, the clearer it becomes that a more formal approach to teaching is required.

As a result, John Mussell was tasked with finding suitable beginners courses, a duty he carried out with admirable enthusiasm. The results of his findings were discussed in detail at the meeting on 26th October by some 40 members and it was unanimously agreed that we should take this matter forward as soon as possible.

Mike Tew - Convenor

The Computer Group 10th Anniversary Party

photo: Cutting our 10th Anniversary cake is Past Convenor, Dennis Appleton, seated is new member, Audrey Gould, standing left to right is our U3A Chairman Pam Caines, Computer Convenor Mike Tew and I.P.Chairman Glenice Dallow.

The Anniversary cake

On 21st September the Computer Group celebrated 10 years of activity with a party attended by guests from Chepstow, Monmouth and Forest of Dean U3A Computer Groups, as well as local dignitaries, our Chairman, Pam Caines and past members. Altogether over 50 people took part and a good time was had by all! As part of the festivities there was a display of members work, a slide show of photographs and an array of old computer and related equipment, including an old Sinclair computer.

Richard Blount was awarded the "Worker of the Year" cup by Rob Taylor-Heard who started the Digital Imaging [Photography] tuition over 5 years ago. Perhaps the best display was the birthday cake made by Paul Bennett's wife, which was decorated with the Microsoft images with which we are so familiar, as well as "byte" marks! Dennis Appleton, who founded the Group, gave a brief review of the progress made from the start with just 6 members to today when we have over 60 members. He summed up the mood of the Group perfectly with his closing words "here's to the next 10 years"

Mike Tew. 27/09/2007.

Caldicot U3A Computer group Potted History 1997 - 2007

By Dennis Appleton (retired Convener)

Eileen and I joined Caldicot U3A in 1996 to join the U3A bridge group.

At the 1997 AGM, Grace Watts was elected as Chair-person of our U3A and I was elected as Vice-chairman.

I must have mentioned, in conversation that I had worked in the computer dept. at Llanwern before retiring and I was asked to take over the editing of the monthly newsletter, which was, at that time, being handled by Barry Markham, a member of Chepstow U3A.

One thing seemed to lead to another, and it was suggested to me that there were some members of the U3A who had an interest in computers and would I mind calling a meeting of the interested members.

From a quick scan of the meeting dates of the other interest groups, it appeared that Friday mornings were free - so the first meeting was called at 10am on the first Friday in September 1997 - in the bar of the leisure centre.

Half a dozen interested members turned up at that first meeting, whereas our current membership is around 60 - an indication of retired people's increased interest in computing and the Internet over the last decade. We are now often referred to as the generation of 'Silver Surfers'.

We had no equipment when we started and it was not feasible for the members to bring in their own desktop machines to the leisure center each week. However, the manager at the leisure centre came to our aid by loaning us the use of a laptop for our initial meetings.

Subsequently, Herbert May, who is sadly no longer with us, acquired 2 second-hand desktop machines for us and the leisure centre provided us with a trolley and cupboard space.

Not only did we not have any equipment, we did not have any clear idea of what people might want to learn. (What's new?) However, Reg Shore had passed the CLAIT (Computer Literacy And Information Technology) and the IBT2 (Information and Business Technology level 2) courses and he was happy to make his notes available to us. So we opted to use CLAIT as the basis for learning about word-processing and spreadsheets etc.

I am very grateful for the support and encouragement of Herbert and Reg in setting the group up.

As a matter of interest, Reg at the age of 97 is still a member of the Computer group and has rarely missed a weekly meeting since the group was started

Up to this point I had been using a Commodore Amiga machine to produce the newsletters but it was obvious that I would now, reluctantly, have to buy an IBM compatible machine running Windows 98, to be in step with the rest of the group and understand their problems. (Note: Yorkshire men do not like parting with their hard earned brass!!)

The leisure centre decided to raise the rent for the room, the cupboard space was inadequate, we were sharing the cupboard with the cardiac rehabilitation group who had many large pieces of equipment, and we had gained some new members. So we looked around for a new venue. At that time, the Art group were having their weekly meetings at the home of a lady called Joyce Nicholas in Redwick and she kindly invited us to meet at her home each Friday morning.

It was also around this time that Paul Tidmarsh and some colleagues were holding a series of meetings at the Caldicot Library, to introduce the concept of a community website, and they were asking local organisations to submit material for inclusion on their web page. John Barry volunteered to liase with Paul and extracts from our monthly newsletter soon started to appear on the web. Ron Lapthorn took on this responsibility when he joined us and it has now developed into a U3A web page of which we can be proud.

David Evans has also been involved passing information to the website, in his public relations role for Caldicot U3A, as well as feeding U3A news items to the local newspapers, giving our U3A plenty of media coverage.

After Joyce died we had to look for other accommodation and we have, at various times been at the Burton Homes, the Day Luncheon Centre and finally here at Caerwent Village Hall.

We assisted Grace Watts and Lynette Wood to compile a book of member's experiences that was the Caldicot U3A millennium project. The title was 'The Time of Our Lives' and 200 books were published, which were very well received.

Since then we have had two lottery grants, which have provided us with the laptop and projector, the 12 desktop computers we use today, also the operating system and application software we are running on those machines.

I resigned as convenor 4 years ago and I greatly appreciate the effort that Mike Tew has put in to keep the ever-expanding group going. He has also served his term as editor of the monthly newsletter - a job, which has now been taken over by Jim Jenkins. Last year Mike arranged for a tutor from the University College of Newport to give us a course, lasting several weeks, on the Microsoft Office suite. He also arranged for our members to visit the University computer lab for Internet sessions.

In addition to the people that I have previously mentioned, thanks are also due to -
· Jim Fenton for his valuable advice on what kit to buy and his 'hands on' maintenance skills
· Nita Fenton for her digital imaging tuition and talks on creating mailing labels
· Fran Taylor for her Publisher courses
· Bob and Ann Taylor-Heard, Bill Whatley, Jim Jenkins, Dorothy Witcomb and more recently Richard Blount for their contributions to digital imaging tuition.
· Ron Lapthorn for his role as photographer for Caldicot U3A. He has taken 100s of pictures of the activities and outings of all our U3A groups, many of them appearing on our web page. He has also produced some entertaining slide shows.
· Paul Bennet for his talks on the use of Excel as an accounting package.
· Doug Pyburn for his talks on Excel, also the setting up of web pages.
· Dave Edwards for looking after beginners on a one to one basis.
· Rob Shawcross for recounting his many experiences of communicating with call centre staff based in Bangladesh; also for his interesting talk on the use of iPods.
· Marilyn John and Maureen Rhymer for supervising the monthly photo competition - and Marilyn and her helpers for so ably organising the catering at our social functions.
· Not forgetting Roger Slade who keeps an eye on our income and expenditure. Also Norma and Glenice who act as receptionists and keep the attendance records.
· I must also mention the members of the Computer group committee, which meets monthly. Their job is to try to resolve any problems which may have been raised by members of the group; to discuss future programmes of tuition; agree tutorial responsibilities and generally help and advise the Convener in any that they can.

We are basically a self-help group where people with a special computing/digital imaging interest are willing to pass on their knowledge to those who want to learn.

Without the efforts of people like this, the group would not be able to function.

So finally, at long last and in conclusion - I say - "here's to the next 10 years."

Presentation of Open College Network Certificates

At Caldicot Library Tuesday 17th September 2007 Councillor Liz Hacket-Pain, Monmouthshire County Council's cabinet member with responsibility for community learning, leisure and culture, presented Caldicot & District U3A members Graham Blount, Joan Tarr, David Evans and Auriol Horton with Open College Network certificates in information literacy.

The area of interest that all of them chose to research was Family History which was helped considerably by the fact that all Monmouthshire Libraries not only have free access to the internet but also to such websites as Ancestry.com.

 

A Presentation of " Multitasking " by Ferenc L. Dely

*Click the photograph above to access a slide show of the presentation

A presentation given on " Multitasking " by Ferenc L. Dely, incorporating a demonstration on how to create the "U3A Logo" from scratch and using it on a newly created "Seasonal Greeting Card" together with the "Computer Group" end of term Photograph taken in August 2005 by Ron Lapthorn

 

Computing Slide Show

*Click the photograph above to access a slide show of the Computing Group

 

THE COMPUTER'S SWALLOWED GRANDMA

The computer's swallowed Grandma
Yes, honestly, it's true
She pressed 'Control' and 'Enter'
And disappeared from view.

It's devoured her completely
The thought just makes me squirm
Maybe she's caught a virus
Or been eaten by a worm.

I've searched through the Recycle Bin
And files of every kind
I've even used the internet
But nothing did I find.

In desperation I asked Jeeves
My searches to refine
The reply from him was negative
Not a thing was found 'Online'.

So, inside your 'In Box'
My Grandma you should see
Please 'Scan', 'Copy' and 'Paste' her
In an e-mail back to me.

Poem from Daily Mail, submitted by Valerie Waite

© Caldicot and District U3A mmvii