|
|
|
|
| | | The Don Singleton |
Using a scoring system, we ended up with a tie. APCUG would like to announce that, Joyce Kloncz, President of Sun City Grand Computer Club in Arizona and Judi McDowell, President of the Quad-Cities Computer Society in Iowa are co-recipients of the Don Singleton Volunteer of the Year Award for 2012. They will both be presented with plaques at their next user group meeting. Volunteers are the backbone of APCUG and its member groups. Volunteers are what keep user groups viable. They come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities plus they all have a different reason for volunteering. There are idea people and do-it people. All user group Volunteers have this in common: their advocacy for technology and their user group.
To quote Dan Hanson, former APCUG president. User groups and APCUG were Dons passion. He made invaluable contributions to his Tulsa Group, Helping Tulsa, and other groups as well as APCUG as a whole. His brilliant mind and passion for user groups led to numerous significant contributions to APCUG and the user group movement.
Don lived and breathed APCUG and, over his many years of service, was responsible for: APCUGs website, Reports, Elections, By-laws / Articles of Incroporation, keeping track of the history of officers, etc. He became a director in 1994 and served at various times as President, Vice President and Secretary. He was a champion of the Jerry Awards Community Service program and for many years was responsible for running the awards program. Don felt it was very important to recognize groups for their community service projects. The Jerry Awards program is named for Jerry Schneider, one of APCUGs founders. Don formed Helping Tulsa to refurbish computers and from its founding in 2002, until it was discontinued in 2012, they refurbished nearly 2,000 computers, and helped launch 17 other computer refurbishing projects.
Joyce Kloncz, President of Sun City Grand Computer Club in Arizona
Several years ago while the snow-birds had left Phoenix for the summer the Sun City Grand Computer Club put the Macintosh SIG out of business. They sold our blueberry iMacs and discarded our software. Joyce showed up to a meeting and gave it her typical can do approach. In the past few years she has grown our resurgent SIG to over 250 members and Mac people holding 3 of 5 positions on the Computer board.
Joyce is the President of the Sun City Grand Computer club. The club currently has over 1,400 members and the Mac Sig comprises approximately 22% of the membership. She has upgraded our computers from replacements for the sold iMacs to 25 state-of-the-art iMac computers in our 25 person class room and our 15 person open-use room. We have a Lion server supporting our computers. We have gone from 3 classes of Appleworks to over 45 classes running from a 5 session freebie for newbies to the Mac to classes in UNIX. Under her leadership the Mac SIG has grown to over 200 members which is the envy of the Computer Club. We offer over 40 classes. We offer our classes in the classroom during normal hours. Joyce is not just a leader, she is a doer as well. She teaches classes in Pages, Numbers, iCal and 2 of the Intro classes for newbies.
Judi McDowell, President of the Quad-Cities Computer Society in Iowa
The club was on the decline in interest and membership when Judi assumed leadership. With her efforts our club has gained numbers and initiated new programs. She helped lead us in new directions with a series of beginner classes for novice computer users and presentations on the latest technologies. In addition to her presidential duties, Judi has led or helped lead SIGs in Excel, Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, Picasa, Quicken, networking and genealogy. She's written newsletter articles and made numerous presentations for our club and other facilities on topics including Skype, virus protection, and tax software. She makes an effort to stay current on new tech and how it can be an advantage to our user group.
With Judi's guidance, our club has become more responsive to needs in the community. She is a gifted person with technical and creative skills that keep us moving forward with the latest technology, PLUS she has a good working relationship with the board and other volunteers. If we can't convince her to stay on as QCS President, we will have a hard time finding someone to replace her.
Please watch for a call for nominations for the 2013 award in late 2013. In the meantime, value and treasure your volunteers.
Guidelines -->