The AlamoPC volunteer we want to highlight this month is Bill Hudson.  Bill has been a member since 1992, and is especially noted for being the one who conceived SeniorComp and who was the main force in bringing it into reality.

Bill and his family chose to move here in 1992 upon retiring at the rank of Colonel with 25 years of service in the Air Force. He served as an Intelligence Officer and a Soviet Specialist. Bill and family had never lived in San Antonio before, but chose it out of a book listing the best places to live in retirement.  Bill also grew up in a military family, and lived in 26 locations around the world during his early years.

After retirement Bill and his family spent some time settling in and meeting people, joining a bridge club and AlamoPC as part of their getting acquainted process.  It was a bridge club conversation that birthed the idea of the future SeniorComp.

Bill then discovered an organization called SeniorNet that worked along similar lines.  But SeniorNet wanted $16,000+ for materials and licenses, which Bill and his helpers didn’t have.

Bill then went to the Board of Directors of AlamoPC and told them of his idea of classes aimed especially at Senior Citizens.  He asked would they endorse it and help get the instructors, if he would write the teaching materials. The Board heartily endorsed the idea, and SeniorComp was formed, with the first class starting in November of 1995.  You can read a paper Bill wrote about the theory of SeniorComp on the organization’s web site at www.seniorcomp.org/essay.html.  He then sat down and wrote a manual for teaching Seniors how to use Windows 3.1.

Some of his research conclusions are the following:

• Seniors are enthusiastic, appreciative, and energetic;
• enjoy spending time with peers of similar interests;
• want it slowed down, but not “dumbed down”;
• want and need practical, hands-on training;
• sometimes have problems with hearing, vision, or mouse manipulation which need to be addressed; and
• have some very practical reasons for wanting to learn to use computers (especially e-mail and internet).

SeniorComp now typically has 8 or 10 classes running per week, each with 14 students (one per computer).  The writer of this article is one of the instructors. There are several sessions per year of 6-week classes, with the students now learning Windows 98 using a commercial textbook.  The organization has a growing number of enthusiastic graduates who are happily and knowledgeably using their home computers. And the prime mover for initiating all this activity is our volunteer subject for today, Bill Hudson.