Wow! It’s almost tax time again…and for ICON’s January program, David Oliver showed us how to get organized using our computers to list income and expenditures for the past year. He explained that no magic bullet exists to make doing taxes easy, but organization is the key to making this dreaded time of year less “taxing”! He suggested using spreadsheets for ease of maintaining accurate records, to list income, assets, and expenses, and pointed out that you can use the free “Open Office” suite if you don’t already own a spreadsheet program. (You can find the 64.2 mb download location in the “Links” database at ICON’s web site, or get a copy on CD at any ICON function.)

David also suggested that if you need some help creating and using a spreadsheet, you could benefit by attending the “Office Apps and Desktop Publishing” SIG (every 2 nd Saturday at 2:00 PM)

The Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG) held their annual meeting in Las Vegas during January, and ICON is the proud recipient of two awards. We again won third place in the prestigious “Jerry Awards for Community Service”. This award nets us $500.00 for the purpose of continuing our community outreach at Southside Senior Center and St John’s Hospital, where we teach basic computer and Internet skills. Many thanks to Bill Patrick for organizing and maintaining this important community service project for the past 6 years. Bill has had lots of help from other ICON members in teaching these classes over the years. I can’t name all those who have been involved, but you know who you are, and ICON owes you our deepest gratitude and sincere thanks!

ICON also won third place in the “large user groups” category for “Web Sites of Excellence”. Sarah and I are as proud as peacocks to have designed and built an award winning web site for the benefit of ICON’s members! Without Sarah’s expertise and ongoing commitment, this would not have been possible. ICON is very fortunate to have you!

Online Editor's Note: The program described below had to be postponed. Check the Monthly Program page for the newly planned program. During these long winter months, when the weather discourages us from venturing outdoors, we tend to spend more hours at our computers. I think this is a good thing; however, this “inactivity” can lead to sore neck and shoulder muscles, carpel tunnel syndrome, and other such maladies, if we don’t take precautions to avoid them. ICON’s February program will feature Dr. Phil Martin, who will share with us, the importance of “desktop ergonomics.” He will also show us some stretching exercises that will help us avoid the potential damage caused by long hours of mousing and keyboarding. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn the importance of correct posture as it relates to computer use.

ICON’s new SIG schedule has been a big hit! In response to some of your bleary eyes, we have delayed starting our SIG meetings on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays until 10:00 A.M., and we’re hosting a brown bag lunch break between meetings. The response has been very positive, so I gather you are happy with this change???

I encourage all of you to attend, and participate in, these functions. Throw some chips and a sandwich in a sack and stay for lunch…Yadohnwannamissathing!!!

Our new “Web Design SIG” has been very popular so far. It will be held each month on the 4 th Tuesday evening at 7:00 P.M. at Midtown Carnegie branch library. ICON’s “AWARD WINNING” webmaster, Sarah Marshall is leading this SIG, and says: “anyone who wants to have their own web site can do so with just a little basic knowledge of web design.”

ICON’s ever popular Desktop Publishing SIG now includes Office Applications (such as word processing, spreadsheets, slideshow presentations, etc). If you have specific questions, or just want to learn more about these types of programs, be sure to attend every 2nd Saturday at 2:00 P.M. You just might be surprised at what you learn!

For those of you who have always enjoyed making greeting cards, don’t worry; Faye says she will still be around to help us with them.

Our “Focus on Networking” begins with the February 12 th Mini-Seminar with the topic, “Home network basics” and “Windows Peer-to-peer network connections.” We will follow up with more specifics about using hubs, routers, and network servers as the need presents itself.

Happy Computing
Terry