A) General Matters:
        a) Have all papers that are distributed specifically refer to the particular class. Some were clear, many were not.
        b) Send out a batch of email addresses at the end of the first day. That would enable accuracy early on.
        c) Increase the amount of time spent on problems specific to age.
        d) Introduce, especially for those who have no recent work experience, ways to deal with younger workers, not just criticism of how they react to us.
        e) What is still wrong with the NCRC web site? Having it done for free means one is dependent on whenever the “webmaster” has free time. So, after the site was revamped (renamed and new Internic details) in April 2004, one still cannot access the site from a simple computer (one not having Flash or Java). These machines, for example, are found in the libraries in the city, and trying to open the NCRC site _still_ fails, unless one is technically aware, and downloads Macromedia Flash from their site. The webmaster should have incorporated a flash detector, which is easily available and, just for the lazy, is here for download.
        f) Given the explosion in access for people of all ages it is criminal that more of the E in M programme is not properly exposed on the web: Not at the NCRC, that is, and it is now over half way through the project’s life. (Assuming it ends in August/September of 2004.)
        One of the things we were told, again and again, is to gain exposure for ourselves: in that case, where were all the documents and advertisements for E in M, so that the interested would demand more classes, which would reassure the facilitators that their project would be re-funded?

B). Specific classes:
        Repackaging I and II:
        Work Search Skills:
        Networking: Opening the gates for people. This was a successful few hours, that produced a few guffaws as people found out what each knew about themselves and others.
        Goal Setting:
        Interview:
        Entrepreneurial:
        Mixed Emotions: This was a difficult class for several of the attendees in the batch that I was a member of. It was difficult to break down possible emotional blocks and rebuild them in more healthy form in the short time involved. It might be better to have this class held on the same day as Self-Esteem; or to change its emphasis or to cancel it. I would say that it was useful, but it certainly produced antagonistic feedback from the group.
        Self-Esteem: Following on from the Mixed Emotions class, after a night of self-doubt (as I had admittedly), it was something of a shock that we were now expected to be completely upbeat. It was pressed upon us that we were full of well-being. Ha!
        I did discover that some of the hand-outs we received were identical to those given to children at school. Was that why they seemed so difficult?!

        Alumni Network: A pity that the meetings are at an Old Folks Home. Intimations of mortality, which is not what one wants when pressurised by feeling past it.
        Fitness: Networking by any other name. Some of us don’t have cars, and Dovercourt is not so easily served, so it’s an exercise just getting there (catch a No 16 from town, or at the other end: Carlingwood).

Editor’s note: Arrogant* and negative* criticism for certain classes not complete at this date.
*just how some of my fellow students regarded me.
Edited: Wednesday October 14, 2009

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