EPICUG will hold a special meeting in collaboration with the Estes Park Nonprofit Resource Center May 16 at 7:00 PM in the Hondius Room at the Estes Valley Library. Please join us for a social at 6:30 before the program. Free refreshments will be served.

Meet with other nonprofits and the panelist and bring your questions about technology. Even if you are not certain of what questions to ask this social might help you start to address the opportunities technology can offer your nonprofit.

Please register so we know the count for planning refreshments.  Go to the Library’s Website, click on the Calendar tab, click on May 16, click on the “Nonprofits and Technology” event, scroll to the RSVP button, complete the form including the captcha, and submit.  Please enter the name of the nonprofit you represent in the second address field.  You will received an auto email confirmation from the Library.  If you have questions or problems with registration, please contact Christy at the Estes Park Nonprofit Resource Center, info@epnonprofit.org , 970-480-7805.

A panel will discuss opportunities and possibilities for nonprofits to use technology for effectiveness and efficiencies for those tasks you are already doing. The panel will include those who have used technology to improve performance of staff and volunteers and boards. Bring your questions and needs and together we can explore solutions.

The panel includes:

Lee Lasson, the moderator, is the president of FrontDesk, Inc. specializing in consulting, programming, hosting, web design and graphic design. Lee is one of the founders of the EPICUG. Lee also serves on the Board of the Estes Park Nonprofit Resource Center, a Board member of Visit Estes Park Local Marketing District, and a member of the Rotary Club of Estes Park.

Don Widrig has several lifetimes of technical consulting experience. In recent times, he has been the go-to guy for local database development in Estes Park, including Crossroads Ministry, Salud, Via Mobility Services (formerly Special Transit), and several applications for the Rotary Club of Estes Park including the Duck Race.

Gordon Ulrickson is Director of Information Technologies for the YMCA of the Rockies and has extensive hands-on experience growing technical systems to meet the needs of the largest nonprofit organization in the Estes Park area.

Michael Haughey is the Administrative Assistant at Crossroads Ministry of Estes Park, and has been the immersed in the nuts and bolts to automate Crossroads systems for delivering critical services to low-income clients.

Patrick Flanigan is a software developer and a project manager with a wide variety of business applications. His experience and includes web application, human resource and payroll systems development.

Christy Crosser is with the Estes Park Nonprofit Resource Center and has extensive nonprofit experience and is learning to push the envelope using technical tools to help nonprofits.

The Mac User Group will meet Monday, May 7 at 7:00PM in the Hondius Room at the Estes Valley Library. We will be discussing virus protection for the Mac. In the light of the recent Flashback Trojan that has recently hit over 600,000 Macs, we’ll talk about how that attack came about, how you can tell if your computer was affected, and what you can do if it was. We’ll also talk about some virus protection programs that are available for the Mac and whether they should be part of the software you use.

Reminder, on Thursday, April 26, 2012, at 7:00 PM in the Hondius Room at the Estes Valley Library, the Mobile User Group will look at accessories. Bring your device cover, your wireless printer, microphones, styluses, docks, lenses, batteries, keyboards, stands, mounts, etc. The second half of the meeting will allow time for discussion, and question and answer.

Join the new mobile group on fourth Thursdays! All EPICUG meetings are free and open to the public.

On Thursday, April 26, 2012, at 7:00 PM in the Hondius Room at the Estes Valley Library, the Mobile User Group will look at accessories.  Bring your device cover, your wireless printer, microphones, styluses, docks, lenses, batteries, keyboards, stands, mounts, etc.  Join the new mobile group on fourth Thursdays!  All EPICUG meetings are free and open to the public.

The World Wide Web is arguably the most important part of the Internet … to such an extent that many people have trouble distinguishing it from the Internet as a whole. On Wednesday, April 18, 2012, at 7:00 PM in the Hondius Room at the Estes Valley Library, EPICUG will meet to explore some of today’s tools for creating web sites. If you need to publicize a service, a product, or an idea, a website is a critical component. In this first part meeting, we will look at a variety of DIY tools available. We’ll systematically identify their capabilities and limitations, their costs and/or catches. If you have a tool you like, please come and share it with the group. If you’ve never created on-line content before, do not be intimidated. After the meeting, we’ll each create a site taking different approaches, and come back next month to compare notes and share experiences. If all goes well, a third meeting may veer away from tools and concentrate on content, visual design, a brush-up on search-engine-optimization, and acquiring visitor statistics. All EPICUG meetings are free and open to the public.

There will also be a brief report on the Library’s February 29 Board of Trustees Study Session on “eBooks: a New Library Landscape”.

All EPICUG meetings and events are free an open to the public. See you Monday evening.

The topic for the meeting was simply introductions and favorite app picks. As requested, this post is a summary of those app picks. The meeting was heavily dominated by iOS users, and all of these apps (except one alas) are available in the Apple App Store. We’ll have to work on platform diversity. The couple new faces at the meeting were a little shy, so most of these picks are from the usual suspects.

Christy Crosser

• “Adobe Connect” (Free) – participate in Adobe Flash webinars
• “Sky Walk” ($2.99) – star gazing augmented reality app

Jim Webb

• “KUNC Public Radio App” (Free) – NPR streaming and more
• “9News WX” (Free) – weather, radar and maps
• We had no idea, Jim is also a closet gaming fiend! We’ll have a meeting focused on gaming this summer.

Dave Tietjens

• “OnLive Desktop” (Free) – use Microsoft Windows 7 on iPad
• “MLB.com At Bat” (Free) – baseball!

Lee Lasson

• “GasBuddy” (Free) – finds cheap gasoline
• “Speed Test” (Free) – checks your internet connection speed
• “AndOrb” (not yet available) – a graphical matching game
• AT&T Tethering – $50/month 5 GB WiFi hotspot sharing service

Don Shelley

• “Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal.com” (Free)

Joe Calvin

• “Keynote” ($9.99) – pretty nice slide show presentation tool
• “Wolfram Alpha” ($2.99) – get detailed report to computational questions
• “Qwiki” (Free) – A “Wall•E” inspired encyclopedia

The topic for our next Mobile meeting on April 26, 2012 is “Accessories.” More on that in a couple weeks.

EPICUG will hold its first meeting for the Mobile Users Group, Thursday, March 22 at 7:00 PM in the Hondius Room at the Estes Valley Library.  Mobile will meet regularly on the fourth Thursday evening each month.  This group is for users of and those interested in Post-PC-Era computing devices including Smart Phones, iPad, Android Tablets, Kindle, and Digital Cameras.  Inform yourself about fascinating aspects of this new realm of computing, while getting some help setting up your device and completing basic tasks.

The first half of each meeting is a presentation on a specific mobile computing topic.  The topic for this first meeting will simply be “Introduce yourself, your device, and your favorite app.”  If you don’t have a device yet, no worries.  We will also review the schedule, guest speakers and topics for upcoming meetings including…

• “Accessories – covers, printers, mics, docks, lenses, batteries and keyboards”
• “Photography with Computation”
• “Astronomy Apps and Augmented Reality”
• “Creating Mobile Art”
• “Best Games”
• “Productivity Apps”
• “Mobile Computing in Education”
• “Apps about Money, Banking, Saving and Investing”
• “Behind the Scenes – Creating Mobile Apps and Content”

The second half of each meeting will be dedicated to open exploration.  Bring your story, questions and issues; your answers, solutions and sense of discovery.

As with all EPICUG meetings and events, Mobile is free and open to the public.  If you have any questions, please contact us.