SALT Newsletter, January 25

Good morning! One week to go before our spring 2021 semester begins at SALT, and we are so excited! A big thank you to the 57 who bought memberships during the first week of registration. Now we issue a challenge for all of you: invite 2-3 friends, neighbors, or family members to join SALT this week. We would love to double the number of registrations and thus guarantee that most of the classes we are offering go forward.

Speaking of registration, it seems a few of you have had some trouble. (If you haven’t had difficulty using our site, skip the rest of this section.) It’s really not a difficult process, so let us help you with a quick illustration. Go to wnsalt.com. Scroll down the page with the grey bar to the right:

Now, you will see that we have written directions here outlining the process, and right below these paragraphs is a handy-dandy button that takes you straight to the catalog. Below that, you will see the instructor pictures that we are adding, and soon to come, our blog and podcasts, and then contact information. Who knew there would be such a wealth of information on our first page?!

As the information on this page tells you, you must purchase a membership first, so click on the button that says “Get Started” in the upper right corner of the top of your screen. If you are on a smaller device, you may have to click on the three lines that appear in the upper right corner to get to the button.

You’ll see this screen, and so you will click “get membership” to get your membership. Please purchase only one membership per email. The next screen tells you that it has been added to your cart, so click “view cart” and then follow directions to pay for the membership. Once you have received your receipt, you are ready to purchase classes.

Click on “Courses” at the top of the screen.                                                                

That takes you to this page:

You do NOT have to scroll through every course. See the magnifying glass next to your cart at the top of the page? That’s the universal sign for a “search” tool. Click on it and then put a few words from the title of the class you want to take. Voila!

Once a class comes up, you can scroll down and see these sections below the picture:

The “description” gives you the full description and “additional information” gives you the instructor, day, time, dates, and code. If this is the course you want, add it to the cart, and once the cart is full with all the classes you want to take, click on it (icon in upper right corner), and check out.

A shout out to Nico Mercer for creating an excellent system for registration and delivery of online courses, and one that two old ladies can actually manipulate with a bit of training! Honestly, I can’t imagine a website being easier to manipulate for users than this one, so hopefully, this quick tutorial will help guide you through the steps. Did you notice, there’s also a place where you can write a review of a class? (Positive comments only, please. If you have a complaint about a class or an instructor, direct your concerns to Kelli or Carol so we can speak directly with the instructor involved.) I hope you click through the other pages on the site (navigation menu is at the top of each screen) so you can see just how awesome this already is (and we’re still adding information!)!

Back to the Newsletter…and instructions for next week’s classes

As we indicate on the front page of the website, if you have registered for a class, you should receive an invitation to the Zoom session for it 24 hours prior to its start, and then again 15 minutes before it is scheduled to begin. If you don’t have Zoom on your device, go to zoom.com, click on “sign up, it’s free” and follow directions before classes start.

Check your spam or junk folder if you don’t get the invitation prior to your class. At 5 minutes to the time of the class, you may log in. Simply click on the link in your invitation and follow directions.

  • Do not log in to any class earlier than 5 minutes before the class starts.
  • Be sure to exit your classes 10 minutes before the end time indicated in the catalog.
  • Mute yourself unless you are speaking so that sound quality is improved for all.
  • Put the camera on your face so we can all see one another’s reactions.
  • Avoid distracting others with excessive movements of your device.

We have purchased two Zoom licenses so that we can have classes that last longer than 40 minutes, but with our tight schedule of classes, we must stick firmly to our schedule so that every class begins on time. Please be courteous to others and follow the directions above.

Classes coming up..

We realize there is another week of registration ahead, so we are going to wait until Friday to decide which classes go forward the first week in February. (We usually make this decision on the Monday of the week before, so it’s always a good idea to register early so the class you really want doesn’t get cancelled.) At this point, there are 25 great classes that begin next week that are in danger of cancellation if more people don’t enroll. Please help us spread the word about SALT so these instructors get the chance to share their knowledge and expertise!

Gratitude

We are extremely grateful to Nic Mercer for his programming skills, to Kofie Montgomery for her wondrous generosity and efforts in outreach, to all the instructors who stuck with us, and to the five donors who have generously contributed to the SALT program.

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