• Never Say Never Again
• Friends of 50 Plus Home Page
• Evolution of a Cookbook
• Flash, Ladies of 50 Plus Chat Invade Area Eatery
• Friends of 50 Plus Aviation Group
• Friends of 50 Plus Singles Group
• Friends of 50 Plus Logo Continued
• Friends of 50 Plus Support Groups
• Regional and Zone Coordinators
• Members Suggestions Are Important
• Articles on Group Activities
• That's it for Now

FRIENDS OF 50 PLUS HOME PAGE
I am sure that you will all agree that the quality of our Home Pages continues to excel. What a great job by all concerned.
Your Friends of 50 Plus Cookbook is now up and running (please see next article) and what an accomplishment it is.
Rumor also has it that soon we will have a "bulletin/message" board where you can leave messages for other members. More on that in the next newsletter.
Another tip of my hat to our WebMaster Bill Dawes. Great work Bill.

EVOLUTION OF A COOKBOOK!
A couple of months ago, when the Friendship Club was formed and Buck was asking for ideas one of the first to be brought forward was a Cookbook. A group of us quickly, and naively, volunteered. I mean, all we had to do was receive recipes via email, keep them on our computer and send out when someone asked the them, right? Wrong!!
Shortly thereafter, Bill suggested we keep the Cookbook on-line linked to the Home Page. What a great idea! Hey, this was really going to be easy. We'd get a recipe, send it to Bill and he'd put it on-line. Terrific! [Looking back, I can't believe I was ever that dumb?] We started out by looking for a simple recipe program that everyone could use. Well, folks, I'm here to tell you.. the program doesn't exist that can be used by Win 3. 1, Win 95, Macs and the web. They just don't speak the same language. What were we going to do??? Talk about a comedy of errors. Yikes!
Poor Bill was getting bombarded with email from eleven women asking what to do and how to do it, Somehow {and I still don't know how, in the midst of all the turmoil, my name began appearing as Cookbook Editor. So, with lots more bravado than sense or knowledge, I emailed all the other Chapter Editors and offered to serve as Cookbook Editor, and was accepted. *Gulp! Now Bill would only have to deal with one irritating female. * grin
Now, friends, I want you all to remember...none of us had ever had anything to do with creating a cookbook, much less on-line. What do we do now???
Since it was obvious by now there just wasn't a common program we could use, Bill suggested we use HTML as a common language, as it was the language of the net. Oh my Gawd HTML??? What in the world is that? Not a one of us had a clue as to how to use HTML. {Do you?) Nervous Nellies were jumping out of the woodwork, myself included.
"Not to worry", says Bill. "I'll write a 'simple' HTML recipe form. Let me clue you ... there ain't no such thing, at least not for beginners. We all got a copy ... and the email messages began burning up the waves. "I don't have a clue what this means!", "I'm in over my head. Maybe I should quit now.". "Help! What do I do?", were just a few of the comments I heard. (Sorry, Bill) Hey, how was I to know ... I was Just a beginner, too. After assuring one and all I would help them every step of the way *big grin* I sat down determined to figure, out 'The Form'. Well, we're now on version 3 of the form and I find myself wondering why on earth I was so afraid of that first one. (Ah!, The bliss of hindsight.)
At times this has seemed like one huge joke on me and at other times I was ready to cry in frustration. Try to imagine the logistics of learning something and at the same time teaching it to someone using a completely different system. Among us we have PC's using Win 3.1 and Win 95 and a Mac. We have both Netscape and Explorer browsers and both Eudora and Netscape for email. Some are used to working in Word, others in Write and who knows what else. (I use SuperPad a neat little shareware program Bill recommended.) And yet, somehow, in the end, we did it. We all ended up submitting recipes on a common form that could be put directly into the Cookbook. Unreal.
Suddenly, it all started coming together ... and we were patting ourselves on the back. No big deal! Hey, we knew all along we could do it! (Sure we did.)
Sadly, along the way three of the original Editors dropped out, but we have been joined by two new ones.
Would I have volunteered in the very beginning if I had known what was coming? Probably not.
Am I sorry I did volunteer? Not for a minute!! I've made some marvelous friends, have learned an awful lot and admit to a real sense of accomplishment as I look at what we've created. Each and every one of those involved has put forth their all to bring this Cookbook into being.
Was it worth it? Definitely!! And I hope you'll agree when you visit the 50+ Friendship Club's Cookbook. It took a lot of people a lot of hours to pull this all together and we're not finished yet. Soon, we'll have a Guest Book and a FAQ Page. Editors will be personalizing their index pages. And who knows what else may be in store.
One last thing. Be sure to check out the How to Participate section and send us a recipe. We want to hear from you ... your ideas, suggestions and comments. After all ... it's your Cookbook!
Chat with ya' later,
CAROLE in the hills
Carole
Placerville, Calif,
Editor Bucks' note: A great deal of hard work was put into your cookbook by all involved and each of us owes them our heart felt thanks. BRAVO to each of them!!!!!!!!!!!

LADIES OF THE 50 PLUS CHAT INVADE AREA EATERY
On March 20, 1996, the Texas gals of the 50+ Chat Group carne from various areas of the Dallas & Ft. Worth Metroplex and converged at El Fenix Restaurant in Mesquite. Not one of us were from Dallas, proper. We jumped on our hosses and rode from Cedar Hill - PATCHES (formerly Peaches), Euless - MOTHER HEN, Plano - LADY NET, Richardson - LONE STAR, Terrell - BELLE STAR, It was "conveyed" to all that BASHFUL was left in his easy chair with a box of Kleenex *sob* as MOTHER HEN sashayed out the door. *poof* Obviously, by his example, we must invite the fellas next time, :-)
And here's my intro to say, that we had such a chatted and fatted time, we plan to meet for lunch at the same time. and same place next month on April 24th, 11:30 A,M, We shared with one another until 2:00 P.M. To me, no one was a stranger. We all seemed to really "know" one another. It was really neat! I wish I had brought a recorder, for several were so beautifully literate and much "puter" talk was batted back and forth, You **guys would have been royally impressed. :-)
Our little group is open to anyone in the area who would like to meet with us. It IS growing, for I just discovered MMM (Marge) in the Arlington area, a Dallas suburb, who will join us next month. -. -)
I encourage anyone to contact me in this way for further information regarding lunch with us.
Here, I would like to thank all the gals who met and made it such a big success. We DID have fun, didn't we!!
If I have left anyone or anything out .... ladies, remember I asked for volunteers to write this. II-)
Best regards,
"Belle Star
Editor Bucks' note: All members please note that this is an example of one of the main reasons that Friends of 50 Plus was started. Give any other members an idea for a get together in their area? Sounds like this group really had a fun time and are looking forward to their next meeting.

FRIENDS OF 50 PLUS AVIATION GROUP
I have been having some minor computer difficulties which have kept me from advertising the aviation group as I should. However, after getting things in order I attempted an informal meeting by setting up a private chat room and then trying to spread word of mouth about meeting there.
Was I ever wrong! Just at the stroke of 9:55PM EST, five minutes prior to the appointed time, my power went out! Did not regain Edison's blessings until sometime early Fri. morning.
I am willing to try again. Airshow time approaches here in the East, and will start even sooner in other areas. It would be great to have some input from fellow aviation buffs so that the folks could be made aware of some great, wholesome, family entertainment.
I am going to try one more time. I will be waiting to start a hangar flying chat session in the aviation private room that will be set up from the members' private chat. Hangar flying will start at 9:OOPM EST on Thurs, March 28.
Please join me.
Newt

FRIENDS OF 50 PLUS SINGLES GROUP
There was considerable interest expressed in a Friends of 50 Plus Singles Group. That group has now been formed and they communicate with each other by Email. If you are interested in joining this group please contact me by Email and I will put you in touch with the group.

FRIENDS OF 50 PLUS LOGO CONTEST
April 15 has a special meaning in two ways this year. It is the last day for filing Federal Income Taxes without a penalty and (perhaps even more important) it is the last day for submission of your entry for consideration in our Friends of 50 Plus logo contest. Now is the time for action so please don't delay any longer. Here is your opportunity to have your art work displayed in our Home Pages.
Bill Dawes suggest that you attempt to send him submissions in either JPG's or GIF's, if you use Eudora, you may attach your artwork to a message by doing -Message, Attach-h file and then follow the prompts there. Bill prefers files of 1.5K or less. A smaller version of .5K or so would be nice for use on inside pages.
Thanks in advance to all of you who participate in this contest. Don't miss this one.

FRIENDS OF 50 PLUS SUPPORT GROUPS
As most of you should be aware, we have two different support groups within our group as shown below.
Grief Counseling Support Group. The leaders of this group are BOOBERT and BELLE STAR. Anyone who would like to join this group please contact either of them at their Email addresses shown below. If you are aware of anyone that members of this group could assist in any way please ask them to contact either BOOBERT or BELLE STAR.
Alzheimer's and Related Dernentias Support Group. The leader of this group is JEANNE IN JUNEAU. Any of our members who would like to join this group please contact Jeanne at the Email address shown below. If you are aware of anyone that members of this group might assist in any way please ask them to contact JEANNE, JEANNE IN JUNEAU

REGIONAL AND ZONE COORDINATORS
A complete update on Regional and Zone Coordinators will be given in the next newsletter. I appreciate your bearing with me on this.

MEMBERS SUGGESTIONS ARE IMPORTANT
Practically everything that happens in our group is the direct result of objective and constructive suggestions from members of the group. If you have any thoughts on new areas which we might expand into or ways to improve the group please send them in so they can be presented here in your newsletter. Once they have been presented to each of you in this newsletter you will then have an opportunity to submit any comments you might have on those suggestions by Email.

ARTICLES ON GROUP ACTIVITIES
Any and all of you are encouraged to submit articles for inclusion in these newsletters which pertain to group activities. My only request is that any articles submitted fall within the following guide lines,
1. That they inform and unite all members in friendship.
2. That they do not express a political point of view.
3. That they do not advertise items that are for sale.