Our chosen Volunteer of the Month this time around is a guy named Steve Tech, with a secret but effective way to learn new software programs (more later).  I had seen him around occasionally at the Resource Center when it was back at Central Park, but he appeared a lot more during the move to Crossroads Mall. In fact he spent many hours volunteering during that time, and was one of the people given special thanks by AlamoPC for his help in moving into the new location.

Steve helped with a lot of the wiring (he’s a career Electrician) and the cabling for the computers, and was ready to go to work whenever there was a need for human help.  He has also helped SIG leaders in varouis SIGs – Quicken, Access, CorelDraw – and for a while led one of the SIGs in CorelDraw, until work assignments called him away.

Steve spent 20 years in the Air Force, with 17.3 of those years spent overseas.  He lived in Panama, Okinawa, and Japan.  He worked in the career field of Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory where he was kept busy calibrating and repairing many types of equipment.
After retiring, the Tech family moved to San Antonio, Texas in August 1993 to become The Texas Tech family.  ;)

Steve is the type who quietly walks in and starts doing whatever needs to be done, without drawing any attention to himself.  He was, in fact, quite reluctant to be interviewed for this article, because “other people have done a lot more than I have”.  I’m not so sure that’s true.

Steve got interested in computers when one of his friends built a TRS 80 (“Trash 80”) from scratch,  so he decided to buy a 386 during one of his stints in Singapore.  He then bought WordStar 7.0, QuatroPro, and Paradox in order to learn some programs.

Steve’s method for learning new software is very pragmatic and effective: he creates and works on a project in order to learn the software.  For example, 1) all details of water bill were placed into a spreadsheet (QuatroPro) over the course of  a whole year; 2) all San Antonio streets were entered into a database (Paradox) and then accessed for pinpointing locations.

Steve first heard about AlamoPC when he got a card from Delphi inviting him to the monthly meeting.  He went 3 or 4 times (and won a  free copy of Quicken 2000!), and decided to join the organization.

Steve has encountered some really excellent  instructors here, especially mentioning Larry Matthews (Quicken), and Frances Pape  (Wordperfect).  He knows MS Word, prefers WordStar, but prefers Wordperfect most of all. He has taken several classes here, working his way though most of the applications we offer.  He is now especially interested in the Access SIG and the CD Burner SIG, plus Windows 2000 and MCSE.  He considers AlamoPC a great opportunity for learning about computers. And a great opportunity for service to others!