SIGS ( Special Interest Groups ) Monthly meetings

MONDAY

Apple Mac SIG meetings

Apple Mac SIG meetings
When: Third Monday of each month starting at 10:00am – 12:00pm
Where: Anvil House, Level 1,  Room 2
​Facilitator: Bruce Ralph.

Main Topic:  Understanding Cloud Drive, Google Drive and OneDrive
​Register:  Pre-registration is not required.  
Cost: This meeting is free for SeniorNet members

Thinking of purchasing an Apple Mac?  Come along to observe or ask questions. This user group is suitable for all experience levels including those who are new to Apple Mac computers.

Each month we will be looking at a special topic, followed by a Q&A session where you can share your knowledge and experiences with or learn from other Apple Mac Computer users.

Topics included in recent Apple Mac SIG Monday Meeting

  • Apple Mac SIG Meeting
  • Monday – 20th April 2026 10am
  • Tip – When writing an article in Pages app, sometimes I want to a…
  • Tip – Apple Mail, sending Photos via email, what size is best?
  • Supplement for Gmail Users
  • Tip – Old Photo Albums
  • Tip – Pages App version 14 – Reduce File Size
  • Important new feature – ‘Reduce File Size’
  • Tip – ‘The Internet is Down!!!!’
  • No Internet – iCloud Drive
  • Google Drive
  • OneDrive
  • iCloud Family Linkage
  • Tip – What would happen to your files if the iCloud Drive was turn…
  • The end

Windows-users

TUESDAY

Android Users Group meetings

Android Smartphones & Tablets SIG Group
When:  Fourth Tuesday of each month, starting at 10:00am – 12:00pm
Where: Anvil House, Level 1, Room 2
​Facilitator:  Pete Grant
​Register:  Pre-registration is not required.  
Cost:  This meeting is free for SeniorNet members

If you want to get the most out of your Android device, come to this user group. These sessions are specifically designed to help the beginner and new members are particularly welcome. Come along and ask your questions or maybe provide the answer to someone else’s question. One-on-one help may be available if time allows.

Link to recent presentations

  • SIG 1 – 25 Mar 25: Passkeys, phone cleaners (and how you can do it yourself)
  • SIG 2 – 23 Apr 25: Authenticator apps, Google wallet, basic phone navigation
  • SIG 3 – 24 Jun 25: Netsafe, Find my phone, location sharing, replacing phone
  • SIG 4 – 22 July 25: Home screens, Widgets, ICE
  • SIG 5 – 28 Oct 25: More useful settings!
  • SIG 7 – 24 Mar 26: Broadband options, Google security settings

WEDNESDAY

Questions and Answers meeting with Ray

Question & Answers SIG Group – with Ray
When:  Second Wednesday of each month, starting at 10:00am – 12:00pm
Where:  Anvil House, Level 1, Room 2
Facilitator:  Ray Heenan
​Register:  Pre-registration is not required.  
Cost:  This meeting is free for SeniorNet members

This group is for computer users at all levels of experience. Come along and contribute, enjoy yourself and learn something new.

The format is primarily a question and answer session, where we can all help each other to solve problems, simple or complex. New members will find this very helpful, as we also show you how to go about solving issues that we may not be able to fix at the session. Scroll down to the Computer Owners Group section on Newsletters to see Magazine Reviews prepared by COG attendees

Q&A notes and topics covered at a recent meeting

  • Topics covered included:
  • Passwords:  How to choose, how to keep safe, how to change 
  • GOOGLE Drive storage… in the cloud.
  • Keep away from it.  Free 15 GB, BUT, they count in all three of these below:
  • Gmail, WhatsApp, and Google Drive as one.
  • When you have more than 15 GB storage, you have the devil’s own job reducing storage use to below 15GB.  They want you to buy 100GB storage… NZ$0 for the first month, then (maybe) NZ$3.49 a month… but for how long???
  • Storage use has many times been taken below 15GB; e.g. 7.4GB, 12.3 GB, 9.7GB… but the next day it has been revised up to say, 15.14GB, and the threats return.
  • The use of my laptop to “Clean up” has been closed off.
  • Other nasty blocks are used to make life difficult.
  • When you try to “Clean up Space”,  Google makes it as difficult as possible for you to do so.
  • Advice:  Get an external hard drive to store your files with… You are then in charge of your files; Google cannot then frustrate you and waste your time organising your files, working with them, and putting up with threats about the use of our property i.e. photographs, videos, documents, music and so on.
  • Perhaps start a new email address (e.g. Bugs_Bunny @hotmail.com) in case our dear friends at Google decide to carry out their threats to stop Gmail working properly!
  • Next month (May) we will explore other coping tactics. Google has even stopped us from using Ctrl A, Ctrl C and Ctrl V to shift our files out of their clutches!
  • Only part of the story above… More at next month’s QnA session 
  • Samsung has changed the method to turn off your Cell phone, but didn’t tell us. Try, pressing both buttons on the side of phone together to shut it down

THURSDAY

Windows Users Group meetings

Windows SIG Group meetings
When:  3rd Thursday of each month, starting 12:30pm
Where: Anvil House, Level 1, Room 2
​Facilitator:  Pete Grant
​Register:  Pre-registration is not required.  
Cost:  This meeting is free for SeniorNet members

Do you use a Windows computer? Do you have questions or problems? If yes, then please come along to the next session of a Window Special Interest Group (SIG) at Anvil House.

Link to previous presentations
SIG 1 covered Microsoft accounts, OneDrive, and backup.
SIG 2 covered OneDrive recap, Office on the web, and Powertoys.
SIG 3 covered the Taskbar, Search, File Explorer, and Accessibility.
SIG 4 covered Passkeys, upgrading (or not) from W10 to W11, and CoPilot.
SIG 5 covered Browsers, extensions, ads and ad blockers
SIG 6 covered Netsafe, SeniorHangouts, PressReader, device wiping
SIG 7 covered W10 Extended Support, W10 to W11 upgrade
SIG 8 covered W10 ESU, Windows backups
SIG 9 covered broadband options, browser AI, account recovery settings
SIG 10 covered making a photo slideshow and video using Clipchamp and Powerpoint

THURSDAY

Photography Group meetings

Photography SIG Group
When:  Second Thursday of each month, starting at 10:00am – 12:00pm
Where:  Anvil House, Level, 1 Room 2
Facilitator:  Ray Heenan
​Register:  Pre-registration is not required.  
Cost:  This meeting is free for SeniorNet members

Bring along your pictures on an SD card or USB device to display and discuss.
Come and talk about any problems you are having with your camera, or with processing your digital pictures.

About This Group:
This group is all about learning and sharing information relevant to the digital camera world, including all smartphones with cameras.  Each month there is a special topic of interest to members. If you have a camera operational problem do bring it as we will have time for questions and answers. And, as always, if  you have captured something you are really proud of bring it along to share with the group.

Topics included in recent meeting included:

  • Topics/Viewing/Discussions
  • Video and pics of bird, Spoonbill, probing and grabbing food with bill in Hutt River, and in flight.
  • Selecting the best pic for display
  • The end of a bus route… Colour or Greyscale, crop for effect… etc
  • Slide show of a holiday in the steam-driven paddle steamer, Emmy Lou,  on the Murray river, OZ.
  • Pics on and off the water
  • Aspect ratio settings

FRIDAY

Apple IOS Users Group meetings

Apple IOS Users Group
When: First Friday of each month, starting at 10:00am – 12:00pm
Where:  Anvil House, Level 1,  Room 2
​Facilitator: Allan Chee and Peter Chik
​Register:  Pre-registration is not required.  
Cost: This meeting is free for SeniorNet members

IOS is the operating system on Apple mobile devices, iPhones and iPads.

Are you having problems with your iPhone, iPad or iPod device or just interested in learning more about it? If so, you are welcome to come along & ask questions. Don’t be shy.

These sessions are specifically designed to help the beginner. Come and ask your questions so that we can help you get the most out of your Apple phone or tablet. Even if you don’t have any questions yourself, still please come along as you may have the answer to someone else’s question.

At a previous session, Allan discussed sharing to all Devices. This session will focus on to a general conversation with attendees about their own issues (shouldn’t be any!) using their iPhones, iPads, or iPod Touch devices. Helpers will contribute a couple of new features as well.

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