Technology Club is back!

One day in early November I opened my emails and let out a little squeak.  The happy sort of squeak that’s also a bit disbelieving – as the lady who takes bookings for the church hall at Rhos Methodist, had asked if I would like to restart my Tech Club soon!

I hadn’t even been there since February as you can probably imagine.  It was a new venue for 2020 and my Tech Club had just had a rebrand too, only for lockdown to hit and everything to stop in its tracks.

Just recently I’ve had several enquiries about whether the group sessions would start again, which is nice as it shows that people are interested.  A big part of the sessions is actually having the group interaction and being able to see what other people are using and doing with their tech.  So I replied to the email with a gushing “yes please” and a “thank you for thinking of me first”.

A few weeks and one risk assessment later, I was finally able to start telling my Rhos-based customers, especially the ones who had expressed an interest in the club.  Now, I do have a list of customers in my email marketing system, which is linked to my website, so I was able to send out an email to those people quickly.  But there are quite a few of my customers who I do not send email to; I have a phone list that’s longer than the email list.  And with only six days’ notice, I did get a few responses saying they couldn’t come on the first day back.  But it was still a really positive thing to be able to tell people, some of whom I hadn’t seen for a while, that we were able to meet again at the church hall.

The day itself saw me arriving armed with disinfectant wipes, hand sanitiser, business cards (A5 size so they’re readable), my register which doubles as Track & Trace, a QR check-in code for the Covid app, and a list of phrases for people to try out on Google.  This is a very different set of materials from last time I was there – I used to bring biscuits and tea bags!

It turned out I didn’t need the list of phrases to Google.  Only two people could come after all, and they had things they specifically wanted to look at.  The smaller numbers, though, are no bad thing as they work very well for training.  I can spread my time out between my learners more evenly, and things don’t need to be so structured.  That’s why I hardly ever run courses with firm agendas – everyone is arriving at your sessions with different experiences and knowledge.  The playing field is much more level when sessions are friendly, relaxed and include a bit of fun.  Why else would I include “Tom & Jerry episodes” on my things-to-Google list?!

Now I’m looking forward to the Spring, when the queries start coming in about new tech that people have received for Christmas, as the recipients want to know what they can do, and it’s my pleasure to be able to tell them, “anything you want them to”.

by Catherine Jackson

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