Welcome to a new column. Each month we will try to acquaint you with a different HAL-PC function, activity, or purpose. The goal is to help you receive maximum benefit from your membership, and to contribute to the ongoing growth and development of yourself and of HAL-PC.
SIGs - What Are They and How Do I Attend Them?
A SIG (Special Interest Group) is a discussion forum, not a formal class, where users share knowledge of the SIG topic. Some users may be more experienced but there are always rank beginners. We all started as dumb and dumber. Beginners are our business. SIGs may be devoted to a single software program (Windows 95, Corel Draw, Word, etc.) or to a category of PC and software usage (Genealogy, Internet, Build or Buy a PC, etc.)
The SIG Calendar in this Magazine lists the 70+ SIGs that meet weekly or monthly at our 8000 square foot headquarters and resource center. They are free to you and your immediate family as a part of your membership. You may bring a guest one time to acquaint them with the benefits of joi ning HAL-PC. If you aren’t attending some SIGs you are missing some of the best free learning opportunities in town. New PC users may want to start with the Beginning Windows 95 SIG to learn the basics of the operating system.
Arrive early for a good seat. Some SIGs get crowded, and you want to see the wall screen where information is projected. Sign in by the door. Some SIGs have door prizes.
The SIG may have a program followed by a Question and Answer session.
Participate - ask questions. You get out of the SIG what you put into it, and the best way to learn is to ask questions. SIG attendees elect the SIG Leader annually. SIG Leaders arrange meeting programs, preside, and monitor the Q & A.
Afterwards, meet the SIG Leaders, get to know them, and thank them for their efforts. Realign the chairs and remove any drink cans and trash that may have been left.
Remember - we are all volunteers and there is no paid staff to do such work. So help keep YOUR meeting rooms tidy for each other; and please help protect the equipment.
Tom Lassiter, a HAL-PC member, is on the Board of Directors where he serves as Membership Secretary.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.