Share Your Screen with Peggy and Alma

Peggy Maryanski and Alma Elder talk about their experience with Third Act Google and Zoom coaching.

Peggy and Alma first met in early 2024 when Alma signed up for Third Act’s Google and Zoom coaching service. As co-chair of Third Act Connecticut’s Democratizing Energy group, Alma found a large part of her role involved collaboration using Google Drive and online meetings. So she signed up for what she thought would be a one-time meeting with Peggy, a Third Act coach based in Southern California. What followed was a year-long (and counting) online coaching partnership that has blossomed into a friendship, along with a whole lot of technological learnings along the way.

We invite you to “share your screen” with Peggy and Alma while they chat about everything from problem-solving technology to delights (and surprises) of having Zoom friends.

Sharing Letters on Zoom

Their coaching began with Zoom. Alma talks about how she put the platform’s share screen feature into use right before delivering a letter to the governor’s office.

Taking the Lead at 81

“At the age of 81, I learn by trial,” says Alma. She practices, instead of simply listening or following. And when she’s had enough tech for the day, they pause and continue next time.

Microsoft Tyrant

Like all of us, Peggy and Alma have experienced their fair share of tech issues. Once, Microsoft Edge insisted on being the default file storage and they couldn’t find any Google files. After some investigation, they figured it out. “The word is tyrant,” Alma says. “Microsoft Tyrant was there and I couldn’t get past it.”

Coaching Model

On why Third Actors can and should increase their digital literacy, Peggy gets to the heart of it: “We can help [Alma] achieve what she wants to be doing, which is not fooling around with technology but working to democratize energy in Connecticut.” It’s a means to the end: protecting our climate and democracy.

Zoom Friends

They each live on opposite coasts, and similar to many geographically-distant Third Actors, have developed a friendship through Zoom. Along the way, they’ve both found several benefits to this arrangement—such as the comfort of wearing whatever you’d like at home.

Alma now says she would like to get her entire team involved in coaching (and in fact, she’s already had several requests). At the end of their conversation for this blog, they thought over whether they had anything more to say. After a moment, Peggy told Alma, “I’m free this Friday. Should we schedule a session?”

Here’s How You Can Sign Up for Coaching with Third Act

All members of Third Act working groups are invited to request a coaching session for any and all skills.

• For Zoom coaching, please use this form.
• For Google coaching, please use this form.

For any questions, contact Lani (lani@thirdact.org).

Peggy Maryanski

Peggy is a California native who has spent a lifetime camping and hiking around the world, and who will stop mid-step to snap a beautiful sky or dew-dropped spiderweb. Although a longtime get-out-the-vote postcard writer, retirement opened the door to climate activism, and Third Act provides opportunities for meaningful volunteerism in both critical areas.

Alma Elder

Alma is a student of piano, an advocate for politics, a partner to her husband, a lover of grandchildren, a practitioner of health, a Ph.D. in Psychology, and a proponent of pizza.