SUN CITY – Polling women at a women’s luncheon social, Mary Lou Dorgan found that “Only two ladies and I have gone to the [Sun City] website. All three of us had trouble signing in. I never could, even though I had to change my password. One lady had trouble finding the resident directory. She also thought it was harder to maneuver through it. One had trouble locating the site for modifications.”
According to a recent Pew Research Center study, “11% of U.S. adults still don’t use the Internet. That’s a significant change from 48% in 2000, but the study revealed that age remains a major factor, with 34% of senior citizens remaining offline.”
Asking a group of women at their Monday morning coffee group about the Sun City website – the unanimous response was “I don’t use it!”
Deanna Loughran, Executive Director of Sun City, said, “Nobody liked the old website. But they got used to it and now change is hard for them. I do wish people would give it a try.”
There is a myth that anyone over 50 years old is technologically inept, but this is not true. Not all seniors are clueless when it comes to laptops and gadgets.
Loughran adds, “The new website is constantly changing. We relied on notes from subcommittees, feedback from our residents. For example, we minimized the banner based on feedback and added a documents’ library in the Resident Center.”
“We went over changes at various meetings with the Board and Group Administrators and gave many demonstrations. To reach the adults from our community that only use Facebook, we have added that icon into our website and you can now follow us on Facebook,” Loughran added.
Loughran and her staff are trying to get the news out any way they can.
One of the nice features that was present in the previous version of the Sun City website was the ability to look up addresses of Sun City Residents and send them a birthday card, or just get to their house for that poker game. The new website does not have this feature available.
Loughran said, “We are correcting this and hopefully we will have this information on the website.”
Loughran also expressed the desire for residents to interact with the new web page.
“We want pictures of our community and hope that they will submit photos so we have added a photo gallery,” she said.
Although there have been complaints about the redesign, Loughran added, “We were on a very aggressive timeline and this software is all-encompassing. It not only has the community section, but it takes care of our accounting, room scheduling, and communication. It is our only software that meets the needs of our entire Sun City operation. We never had an application that does it all like this. I am very proud of our team for the job they have done in getting this implemented and continue to do on a daily basis to get it working.”
Loughran gave credit to her staff.
The Sun City website is a library of information for residents. Not only can residents check out what is going on in the community, but residents can also register for most of the events and classes offered in Lifestyles and get a confirmation. Administrative news, board openings, changes impacting garbage pick-up, and free seminars are a few updates the website has to offer.
Although most residents rely on Lifestyles for club news and class information, the information is submitted a month in advance and wordage is limited to 150 characters.
Help on learning how to utilize the website is available on a one on one basis, Loughran offered.
“Residents can call Kari Sieb at 847-515-7373 and she will schedule an appointment to help you out,” she said.
Sieb said, “I have gotten very few calls. Most calls are that the resident has forgotten their password. But I have had a few that have sat right next to me here at the lodge.”
Sieb added, “I want to encourage people to go on it and use it. And remember, if all else fails, reset.”
