Ann and I began to get into e-mail and the Internet about 5 years ago. Let me be a little more honest, Ann got into it and I just kind of went along for the ride for the first 4 years. This year I really began to use these tools and the more I became familiar with them the more I began to see the value in what I was using and doing.
I think e-mail is faster, cheaper and easier to use than FAXing or mailing things out. It has opened a whole new world to me. I use the program Eudora to handle my e-mail, it is very simple and easy to use. At UCI every student can get a free account so they can access e-mail and the WWW. Now every player on my team has e-mail and I can send them everything from workouts to individual messages. This requires no paper or printing and they get the message in a matter of minutes. I have open e-mail office hours every day from 1 until 5 pm every day and I also check my mail when I come home from workout or some time in the evening. George has opened a e- mail account and Marlee and Fig are about to also, and I am hoping Dixie and Kevin are not far behind. This gives me almost instant communication with my children.I recommend two phone lines.
When I was up at San Luis visiting George, he thought it would be worth while for us to send out our Newsletter on e-mail, not all of it, but single articles as they are written, so I have been doing that. Right now we have around 60 alumni, parents, and friends of the Foundation who are using e-mail. Almost every week I am hearing from past players who now have e-mail. This week we added alumni Tony Bell and Dean Crow. I have heard from players from all over the US, some that I have not heard from in 30 years or so, via e-mail.
I am using e-mail to help me deal more effectively with workouts and to save me precious time on the pool deck. I write up our daily workouts on E mail and send it to all the team members. I have all my players listed under the nickname "team" so when I send to "team", the workout is sent to all team members. Then they have 3 or 4 hours to get back to me if they have questions about the workout. Now I can hold them accountable to knowing what they are going to be doing and what is the purpose of the overall workout and individual drills. This is a big step forward and a much better use of time.
The World Wide Web, as the fastest growing part of the Internet, is gaining in importance every day and I have several pages there: a personal Home page, a Team page, a UCI Water Polo page, a Recruiting Info page, and a Newsletter page. All of these pages are linked together so it is easy to go from one to the other. We are using Netscape as our Web browser and I think it is a pretty easy program to use and get around in the Web.
Ann really got involved with the Web when she was trying to find out about Autism because her nephew is autistic. We were both amazed at how much information could be found on the Web. Recently Ann's sister had a melanoma so Ann searched the Web on this topic and again found a lot of worth while information which greatly helped her and her sister deal more effectively with the doctors who were dealing with her. One of them was so interested in the Web cancer resources that she asked for the location of sites Ann had found . We have an acquaintance whose son is a doctor and has practically given up his practice and spends most of his time as a consultant on the Web, and its resources for other doctors.
All of these things have made a very big impression on me; and the Web is just in the beginning stages. I feel it is going to make the biggest change in our way of life that any of us has experienced so I know I am trying to spend time dealing with a little each day. I can't deal with it in big doses but I am trying to spend about 1/2 hour each day seeing what I can learn and to better understand what can be done. If you can get on my home page, go to the map of the old U and see how it has changed. You can go inside building and look at your old classrooms, or go into the new science library, the largest science library in California, and look around. Laugh, I took the tour and it was the only time I have been in the science library. I have never been big on going up the hill, but it was fun to cruise around and look at the campus from my home page. Plus it saved my bad knee.
ICS classes at UCI are even changing and they are now offering a ICS-C that deals with the Web and Java, which I think has a lot more value than the old ICS classes many of you had to take. If you get e-mail, please let me know. My e-mail number will appear at the bottom of this article.