News

A job well done!

The Treasurer of the CRCC receiving a Community Award from the Mayor of Kingston as recognition for all the time and effort that he puts in to the project on the Cambridge Road Estate and Cambridge Gardens.

End of year report. 

Cambridge Road Computer Club (CRCC) is pleased to report a successful first year and we have some exciting plans for the future. Currently CRCC has over 100 members and during 2009 we gave out 39 computers. There are over 200 residents who have signed up to our free internet and nearly 100 people use it on a daily basis. We have run several training sessions, including the ‘Silver Surfers Day' for the over 50s. These sessions are for people who want to improve their existing skills or learn new ones. They will continue in the coming year and we plan to add more advanced IT courses. We want to hear from you as to what type of courses you would like us to run.

Wireless Wednesdays now run every week. We are pleased with the success of these and would encourage anybody who has a computer issue to come and see us between 2pm and 6.30pm any Wednesday for help and advice. Our volunteers have attended several training courses this year including ‘How to create a community website'.

And we have created our own website - www.cambridgeroadcomputerclub.org.uk, this is updated regularly and is the best way to keep up to date with club events. We are in the position to offer training to all the people who volunteer and give up their time for us. This in turn will help us to provide a better service to residents of both the Cambridge Road Estate and Cambridge Gardens.

The following organisations have donated equipment to us this year - Roehampton University and Merton College. We thank them for their help.

For further details, or to become a volunteer, either call in and see us on Wednesdays between 2pm and 6.30pm, at the Community Advice Shop at the base of Madingley Tower, email us at cambridgeroadcomputerclub@googlemail.com or go to our website. We look forward to seeing you soon.

Wireless Wednesdays are now running weekly from 2.00pm to 6.30pm in The Community Advice Shop at the base of Madingley Tower.  Call in and see us if you want to register for a refurbished PC, to buy speakers, to buy an aerial to boost your signal or if you are having problems with your computer.

 We are happy to try to sort out any IT problems you may have and if you feel able to make a small donation in return for us working on your PC then this money will be used to help keep the free internet running.

NEWS:  After the fire in Madingley Tower Wireless Wednesdays will take place in the Federation Office, Tadlow, for the foreseeable future. TIME: 3pm to 6.30pm

 Since the middle of December, our temproary home has been at.  Piper hall, the small hall.   

TIME: 14:00 until 18:00.

The Community Shop is now free of  SCAFFOLDING and we have access, full service will follow shortly, as soon as furniture and broadband are in attendance

A typical Wireless Wednesday

Within five minutes of opening the door of The Community Advice Shop our first customer called in to say that she was having huge problems with her computer.  We asked her to bring the computer in to us, which she promptly did, and our volunteers set about diagnosing the fault and curing it.  This sounds quick and simple but, in actual fact, it took another 5 hours for the computer to be back to how it should be.  It had a number of viruses on it including a dreaded Trojan Horse but our IT wizards cleaned it up and at the end of the afternoon we had one very happy customer. 

Shortly after this customer had deposited her PC with us our first person on the list for a refurbished computer arrived.  A volunteer sorted out an email address for her and as her brother was visiting her later on in the afternoon to set up the computer so that was one demonstration we didn't have to do. 

The next person to call in wanted to know if we gave basic IT classes.  He had a computer at home but didn't know how to use it and wondered if we could help.  We asked if he could spare a few minutes and when he said yes, Colin showed him the basics of using a computer - how to switch it on, how to use a mouse and how to look at the sport pages of the Trinidad and Tobago newspapers.  We also suggested he take an aerial with him to boost his signal when he used the free internet on the estate. 

 Throughout the afternoon we gave out three more refurbished computers to people on the waiting list, showed them how to access the free internet service and set them up with an email address if they needed one. 

Our last customer was a guy with his own laptop that was causing him problems.  One of our volunteers showed him what was wrong and also showed him how to connect to the internet on the estate.  He also set him up with an email address. This gentleman had seen our flyers in the past asking if he wanted a refurbished computer or free internet access but had dismissed it as some sort of trick, it couldn't possibly be free!  It was only after bumping in to a volunteer on the estate that made him call in to the Community Shop on a Wireless Wednesday.  He was a happy man when he left and he knows he can come back to us if he has any more problems.