Dreamland Computer Club

by Mike Sorem

 The year 2006 is now history and 2007 has begun. Last year brought many new things to the computer club and members, some good, some sad. Our 10th Anniversary Open House was held in January; however, we also lost several of our members due to their moving away from Dreamland Villa or their passing. We miss them all and their places within our club will be hard to fill.

 We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are now looking forward to all the new adventures the New Year has in store for us. Some of these adventures or "challenges" will involve computers, I am sure. The computer club is here to help. If you have never been a member of the club or have been away for a while, perhaps now is the time to consider joining your friends and neighbors in Dreamland Villa and become a member of the Dreamland Computer Club. We would be happy to have you as our guest at one of our sessions or meetings to see what we are all about. No need for a formal invitation, just come and introduce yourself. Come and join us at our monthly membership meeting held the first Wednesday of the month, 9:00 AM at Farnsworth Hall. A short business meeting is held, and then we have a guest speaker from the world of computing to snow us new products or share techniques to do new things will our

computers. We also have our classes, special interest groups, and Saturday morning question and answer sessions. We would love to see you.

 The December general membership meeting was held December 6 in Farnsworth Hall with approximately 40 members and guests attending. The main business for this meeting was the election of three new members to our nine member board of directors. Janet Harbaugh, Tal Hilton, and Tom Santoro were elected to the board. We welcome them and thank them for their commitment to the club. Thank you also to outgoing board members Dee McBain, Howard Hanson, and Mike Sorem for their dedication to the club over the past three years.

 Our guest speaker for the meeting was Kathy Jacobs, author, speaker, and Phoenix PC User Group Vice President. Kathy's professional background in computers extends back to the mid-80s. She has a computer science degree from back in the days before IBM made personal computers. Over the years she has used many different pieces of software on a wide range of hardware She gave us a multimedia presentation about the one utility program she uses most frequently, TechSmith's SnagIt, a program you can use to capture anything on your screen, then easily add text, arrows, or effects, and save the capture to a file or share it immediately bye-mail or instant messenger. After her presentation she held a drawing for several door prizes. The Computer Club was asked again this year to judge the Christmas Decorating Contest sponsored by the DVCC Board of Directors. After much consideration of the beautiful displays submitted for judging, winners in the three categories were chosen. Thank you to all of you who participated in the judging and to all who have put up so many beautiful decorations making the "Villa" twinkle and shine for the Christmas season.