Senior Tech Tip — Change Is Upon Us

Same website but new name. We've changed our domain name to foothillscenter.com and updated our branding, but most of the content of the website remains intact.

By Russ Alman, Director of Communications and Development

Over the next couple of weeks, you'll see us transition to our new name, Foothills Community Center. In addition to new signage, business cards and brochures, there is a seemingly endless number of other items — both print and digital/online — that need updating. We'll do this as quickly as we can, but there will likely be some stragglers that will take a while to track down.

You can help us with this process! If you see information anywhere that needs to be updated, please email me at [email protected] or drop a note in my inbox next to my door and let me know. Give me a couple of weeks head start.

For this month’s tech column, I thought it would be helpful to outline all of the changes you are going to encounter, especially since many of them will happen online. While we’ve already started preparing, most of these changes will begin on January 2:

We are keeping the names and logos of our publications -- The Livewire (newsletter), The Spark (e-newsletter) and The Buzz (podcast) — the same. However, you'll see the rebranding with our new name and logo included in them. This January Livewire is coming to you from Foothills Community Center. The Spark emails will also be delivered with Foothills Community Center branding.

Our username on social media will now be @foothillsctr... I was super excited when I discovered the same username was available on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn! This means you’ll be able to find us at facebook.com/foothillsctr, instagram.com/foothillsctr and linkedin.com/company/foothillsctr. You’ll also be able to just search for us by name on these platforms once the name is updated. After January 1, I will change the name of the organization and logo on these platforms.
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Our website will remain the same, but I've started going through it already to change copy to reflect the name change. Some older content, such as Livewire articles, will be kept as is, but the rest of the site will be updated with the new name and logo. It may take me a few weeks to fully update the website.

Our new website domain address is foothillscenter.com. Once I make the switch, all links to wenatcheeseniorcenter.com will go to foothillscenter.com. However, many of them will just redirect you on the home page of the site.

It's going to take Google a while to recognize the new domain, so many search results will end up redirecting you to the home page for a while. I'm hoping Google will figure this out pretty quickly and update their listings. (Our Google Business Page and Google Maps listings are things I can directly update, so those will be correct as soon as I change them.)

Our email addresses will also change to foothillscenter.com. For example, mine will change from [email protected] to [email protected]. That goes for Lisa, Lydia and Jennifer too. We will still be able to receive mail at the old addresses for the time being, so if you accidentally send to the old ones, we'll still get them. Please update your address book so you have the new addresses because eventually we will shut the old ones off.
We are doing our best to make these changes happen smoothly, but please be patient while the dust settles. In the end, this will benefit all of us by making us more inclusive with the community and make us more appealing for grants and other funding sources.

The Tech Table is becoming a popular way to help our members with their smartphones, tablets and laptops. This free service is available most Fridays from 12:30 - 2:00 p.m.

Tech Help Table
One other issue I want to address is my ability to provide tech support and tutoring services. As many of you know, once up on a time, I operating my own computer support company, making house calls to help people with their technology issues. When I began working for the Community Center full time 2 1/2 years ago, I decided to start offering limited tech support appointments here at the Center as a free member service.

As much as I’d like to be available to help everyone, between all of my duties as Director of Communications and Development, plus our upcoming changes to our membership management system, I just don’t have enough bandwidth to help everyone that is asking for individual appointments. (For those of you that have called for support and have not heard back from me, I apologize.)
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To help with this issue, I reached out to the NCW Tech Alliance. Together, we came up with the idea of holding a Tech Help Table once a week to answer tech questions. We’ve scheduled this for Friday’s from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. to overlap with lunchtime so that you can come in, grab lunch and then stop by the tech support table with your questions.

I’m finding that this approach has been very effective at providing a triage. The majority of tech questions our members have can be answered in a few minutes at the tech table. Then, if there’s something more complex than we can answer in that format, we can schedule an appointment for more one-on-one time. During one of these Friday sessions, for example, Jennifer Walker and I were able to answer questions for 14 people!

This is a win-win because we are able to help more people in less time, plus I am able to cut down on the number of one-on-one tutoring appointments I need to schedule.

As a result, beginning in 2026, I ask that you first try getting your tech support questions answered at the Tech Help Table. If we can’t solve your problem there, then we can schedule a more in-depth appointment.

While I can’t yet go into details, I’m hoping to expand the Tech Help Table concept further in 2026 by bringing in my qualified volunteers to help.

Smartphone Classes
Finally, I have some sad news to share. Bob Clark, who has been teaching group smartphone classes in the summer for many years, will be unable to do so in 2026 due to health issues. We’re still considering our options, but it’s possible that I may step in for next summer and find some volunteer tech helpers to make the hand-on experience run more smoothly. We will keep you updated on the situation.