Senior Computer Users Group of Greater Kansas City
– History – By Teresa Weaver and Bob Bowser
These narratives were written by Dr. John Hunkeler, Harold Duvall, with updates by Teresa Weaver (2013) and Bob Bowser (2018).
Dr. John D. Hunkeler
EDUCATION: A Lifelong Pursuit of Excellence
In the winter of 1990, I attended an international meeting of ophthalmologists. At that meeting, I learned about an educational program called SeniorNet. The program offered an opportunity for seniors to become involved in personal computers, lifelong learning, and growth. I was so impressed by the service the program provided to seniors that I brought the idea back to Kansas City and the Hunkeler Eye Clinic. At the Hunkeler Eye Clinic, we understand that seniors are active and have a desire for continued quality of life. This made the project a natural for us.
To make the program truly a community effort, I brought the idea to Sprint executives. The combination of learning, communications, information networks, and computers seemed like a natural for cosponsorship. They agreed. Our next step was to find a good computer lab for the program. We wanted a place that offered a good location, professional teaching, and the greatest access to computer technology. Johnson County Community College offered these assets.
The program took a great deal of coordination between Janis Wall, RN, MPA of Hunkeler Eye Clinic, Cathy Peterson, Community Affairs Director of JCCC, and Marcia Kenley of Sprint . They succeeded, and the program began with the fall semester of 1990. Today over nine hundred students have taken SeniorNet classes at JCCC. The fall of 1993 is a landmark semester. Through the work of the area coordinator, we had the highest enrollment of any semester.
Many of the SeniorNet members have come to Hunkeler Eye Clinic for eye care. They never fail to let us know how highly they think of the program and the instructors. The program is a success because it meets the needs of the students, just as we try to meet the needs of our patients. The Hunkeler Eye Clinic is proud to be a co-founder of this successful program for lifelong learning.
As JCCC Sees It
We are pleased to have become an official SeniorNet learning site. SeniorNet is a nonprofit organization based at the University of California, San Francisco, providing support services to senior adults using computers throughout the United States, Canada and the international community.
Course offerings have expanded since 1990 to include introductory classes for both IBM and Macintosh computers, as well as courses in word processing, spread sheets, telecommunications, ancestral computing, Quicken, Windows and other software packages.
In May 1993, Johnson County Community College received the Aging Advocacy Award at the Kansas Governor’s Conference on Aging in Lawrence, Kansas. This award is presented to organizations that actively demonstrate a
On a Roll in the Midwest
by Harold M. Duvall – (No longer affiliated with us. Moved out of state).
When I first started with SeniorNet, there were only nine members of the infant group. Hunkeler Eye Clinic and Sprint had recently contributed the financial wherewithal to make it an active group. We had only recently begun classes at Johnson County Community College. At one of the first meetings, I foolishly commented that what was needed was someone to organize a local group and promote it in the community. Kathy Peterson quickly responded with “Why don’t you be that person?” and we will provide the meeting space. I gingerly accepted, little knowing what it would involve.
We now have many courses at Johnson County Community College as well as at the Area Vocational and Technical School in Wyandotte County. Kathy Peterson and Kim Brown have been the moving powers behind these additions. We are hoping to create an auxiliary site for classes on the Missouri side of the state line.
There are now five new Pentel computers in the JCCC flex lab. These were donated to SeniorNet by the Intel Company for the use of members. On several afternoons each week, SeniorNet volunteers will be available for individual tutoring. It is not necessary to be taking a course at JCCC. Being a SeniorNet member and being eager to learn are the only requirements. Of course, anyone taking a class is more than welcome to come for extra tutoring as well.
In the last five years, the membership has grown to over three hundred and fifty hearty souls who want to stay abreast of the technological advances represented by computers and telecommunications. We have a volunteer calling committee, regularly polls members about the direction we should go and to help each other solve computer problems. Through the volunteer efforts of our members, we have a monthly newsletter, the SeniorNetter by name. Now we have established a SeniorNet website, as you can see, and are looking for a sponsor for it. We are instructed and were assisted in creating this Web page by Webcrafters Computing.
In the course of providing speakers for our monthly meetings I have met a number of young businessmen around the Metro Area who have not only shared their expertise with our members but have graciously offered discounts to members. This represents savings on the purchase of computer hardware and software as well as on services, repair and even Internet access.
Each Spring Sprint has a gala graduation ceremony for those who have completed classes at JCCC and AVTS, and we end the year with a Christmas celebration in the Hunkeler Eye Clinic. All work and no play make Jack and Jill dull, but that’s not the story with SeniorNetters. We do try to enjoy life to the fullest.
With the help of all these folks, we are growing by leaps and bounds. Thanks to you in 1990, when the Overland Park Learning Center was formed under the sponsorship of Hunkler Eye Center, Kansas City, Missouri, Sprint, and the Johnson County (KS) Community college there were only nine members of the infant group and classes had just started for seniors at Johnson County Community College. Our membership has progressively grown until we now have at any one time over 400. Membership comes from the Metropolitan area, which includes Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas, Johnson County, Kansas, and includes several who are from out-of-state Missouri and Kansas, e.g., Odessa, Missouri, Lansing, and Paola, Kansas, which represents a fifty-mile radius. A newsletter was begun in 1994 by Marcie Vogel and Teresa Weaver.
Initially, we started addressing the needs of seniors who were interested in the information age by having monthly meetings with programs. Realizing that the formal class setting offered by Johnson County Community College was placing too many stresses on our members, we started, in 1997, to offer tutoring and workshops to them, taught by peers.
Still on a roll…Teresa Weaver.
In May of 1998, the steering committee (now known as the Coordinating Council) was formed after receiving a letter from a member questioning, “Why could we not be more responsive to members’ social needs?”. The area coordinator, Harold M. Duvall, scheduled our first meeting on May 5th to address this question. The consensus was that our group was a computer user group, not a social group. Our mission is to serve the technical needs of the membership and to respond to member expectations. Initially, goals were set to explore: Social/Interaction and Computer needs, Funding, and an off-campus site. At a subsequent meeting, we further defined our Purpose: “To meet the computer needs, individual and group of SeniorNetters”. Membership of the first committee consisted of 15, and monthly meetings would be held on the first Monday before the regular program meeting. The Chairperson was Teresa A. Weaver.
During our first year, considerable progress was made to address our goal. Results were:
- TASK FORCE FORMED – To explore establishing a partnership with KCPT so that we could use their computer lab for classes. Contract executed in Dec 1999.
- GRANT- Proposal written to fund equipment. Unsuccessful.
- SURVEY – of the membership was conducted regarding perceived needs. Accomplished.
- SNUGGLES – A social group was started to meet monthly at a local restaurant, the purpose is to share computer experiences and projects, and to meet social needs.
DISK- (discuss ideas, share knowledge) started in Nov 1998.
- A WEB Page was designed and implemented by our member Marcie Vogel.
These accomplishments completed the calendar year of 1998 and represented an impressive beginning for the newly formed steering committee.
Calendar year of 1999.
Accomplishments:
Archivist appointed and policy written as to just what will be retained.
Evaluation coordinator appointed for monthly meetings, and a comprehensive report presented at the Steering Committees monthly meeting. This helped us formulate plans for future meetings.
A proposal was written to assist in soliciting funds.
A presentation was aired on Channel 4. Harold M. Duvall featured.
A library for computer books was established, using a member’s home.
A library for software established using a member’s home.
Volunteer instructors were recruited.
Treasure for education funds established.
Formal Committees established: Program, Public Relations, Policy, Education, Small Groups, Finances, Social, Evaluation, and WEB page.
A satellite at Lawrence, Kansas, was started.
Calendar Year 2000.
Accomplishments:
Individual Tutoring started.
Position of Membership was created.
A Senior-to-Senior project was started and will be a standard item in the newsletter.
Calendar Year 2001.
Task force formed to write By-Laws.
By-laws submitted and after a few changes approved and local name changed to Senior Computer Users group of Greater Kansas City. The Umbrella organization is still Senior Net.
The steering committee was renamed to the coordinating council, and the committee chairs’ names changed to coordinators.
Umbrella Job Descriptions were written for Coordinators to use as a guide in formulating a working job description for their committee.
From 2001 to February 2009, the senior computer user group, or more familiarly known as SenCom, became its own entity when, on November 26, 2003, we became a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit. We severed our relationship with Senior Net in December 2004. Our membership has leveled out to over 200. Our structure is now President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, and 10 Directors. We are essentially utilizing the job descriptions developed in 2001, but are in the process of updating them. We updated our bylaws to reflect all the new changes.
Our education component has grown with our partnership with the 50Plus program of the Johnson County, KS, Parks and Recreation. We now have a classroom at their Olathe center. An arrangement was made that we would receive a part of the class fee, this, and membership dues have made it possible to not only maintain and upgrade our equipment as needed but to purchase paper and stamps, and door prizes.
Our classes have expanded to include offerings across the computer spectrum, specifically tailored to seniors and at their own pace. Because of our volunteer instructors, we can offer these classes throughout the year, with the exception of July and August. The classes are advertised in the 50 Plus catalogue. Additionally, a notice of what we offer is now included in the monthly Best Times, a publication of the Johnson County, KS Area Agency on Aging. It is through this medium that our classes are filled and new members have been recruited.
In July of 2011, we were advised that we would have to move our workshops as the City of Olathe decided to close down the school where the 50 Plus program and SenCom were housed; this necessitated our putting all equipment in a rental. until a new site could be located. 50 Plus was unable to find a suitable site for us
December 2011 we formed a partnership with the Shawnee Kansas Parks and Recreation Dept and started classes in 2012 at 6535 Quivera in the former police station.
In addition to the advertising in Best Times we now have workshops advertised in the Shawnee Parks and Recreation catalogue that is mailed out to residents as well as listings on their web site. Our WEB Site (www.kcsenior.net) reflects who we are and what we offer to our current group of 209 members and the community at large.
Other activities that are geared for the general membership are our monthly meetings at Johnson County Resource Library, where we have informative computer related programs, preceded by a Q and A session and ending with door prizes.
A popular meeting is held monthly at a local restaurant and is followed by a Q & A session. We now have significant interest groups and they are: Genealogy, Senior Techies, and iPad. Through these venues, members and guests have the opportunity to share computer knowledge and form friendships.
We started out as a volunteer association, maintained by volunteers, and still are. As far as we know, we are the only one like this in the state and country.