November, 2001      Diablo Blue     Page 11

(Continued from page 10)

 

I encourage you to think about this for just a few minutes. Is there something that you could do to help others, so that you can see whether or not I am right? You will certainly see that the returns from investing that effort to help others far outweighs the investment. Can you give just a little bit of your time, doing whatever you do best? Perhaps that is:

·          Making a few phone calls to try to arrange something we need (speakers for a SIG, a meeting place for a SIG, advertising for the newsletter, etc.)

·          Trying out a new computer program, and then writing a review of it for the newsletter, sharing what you liked and did not like about the program, so that other members can benefit from your experiences.

·          Spending a little time in a one-on-one basis with a new member who just got a computer, or who just got a new program for his computer, and who is completely lost trying to figure out how to make it work.

·          Donating some of your time to help church workers, or workers in some charitable organization, who are having trouble getting the most out of their computers.

·          Spending a few hours sitting in a booth at a computer show, telling people that stop by the booth what your local User Group has to offer.

·          Presenting a program to your user group, or to another user group in town.

·          Speaking to a class in the public school system, telling them how computers are used in real life, and possibly sparking that interest that encourages them to work harder to learn how to use computers, or speaking to a group of public school teachers, teaching them things they don't know about computers, to better enable them to teach their students.

·          Leading, or helping to lead, a special interest group, enabling UG members interested in a particular subject or program, to get together and share their experiences with others that have that same interest.

·          Joining us in the UG's Refurbishing Computers project, to help recondition old computers to be donated to some worthy non-profit agency, or other worthy recipient.

·          Spending some time adapting computers to aid the handicapped, so that a quadriplegic confined to bed or a wheelchair, and totally dependent on others, gains some control over his own life, whether it is something as simple as being able to turn the TV on and off without help from someone else, or whether it is a powerful as being able to communicate his thoughts, wishes, and ideas, when previously he may have been unable to seriously communicate with the outside world.

The elected officers, and the Special Interest Group leaders are all wonderful people, since most of them are Givers, rather than Takers. It is a real pleasure interacting with this group of generous UG Members, and they do a number of things to help make UG successful for the rest of the membership. But they can only do so much. There are many things that could be done, but are not currently being done, and I would be willing to bet your UG's President cannot in good conscience ask these Givers to give even more. Not that they would not accept the responsibility; they probably would, but he/she would run the risk of burning them out. What your President needs is a few more people to become Givers.

If you would be interested in helping your local User Group in any particular way, please let your President know. Things get pretty hectic at a meeting, so just mentioning your interest runs a risk that he/she may forget it when someone comes up after you and brings up something else entirely. But if you would write down your name, phone number, and the particular skills you have which you think your local User Group might be able to use, and perhaps an indication of the amount of time you would be able to devote each month, and either bring this to a meeting, or mail it or email it to your President [Alan Mildwurm is DVPC’s president, you can email him at awm@mildwurm.com], he/she will do everything possible to match you up with a job you can handle, and you can start reaping the rewards of being a Giver.

And if your UG President can't find enough to keep you busy, contact president@apcug.org, and I bet Dan can find some committee in APCUG that could really use your help.