I am a US Navy Vet, and am interested in renting a computer lab at a local university. I am looking to do a basic PC workshop, for other Vets, as well as any others that may be interested.

I had spent about a year working in the Libraries of the VA Hospital, and often, I would be assiting Vets, staff, and med students from the local university with things ranging from copying between the hard disk and external devices (ie, flash drive), to formatting resumes in Word.

I have a lot of questions, and hope I can get some leads to get this project to work, especially if anyone has done workshops before. I think the best way to describe what I'm wanting to do is a workshop, with elements of a group tutoring session.

I am going to assume that I would have to pay for the room in advance, so I would have to have the students preregister. I obviously would need them to pay in advance. What are my options? I'm thinking paypal, and maybe other online payment sites. I don't think they would let me have my students pay at the door, but I could be wrong. Again, I'm wanting others' feedback, based on their experience. I'm not expecting an answer from the school until after Thanksgiving.

Do I need to go through any sort of channel, as far as the book I suggest (do I need a company's approval to use their book?), or can I just tell the students "here's the ISBN, check your local or online book store?" Or should I not actually require a book, and just have them go along with what I do (there will be an overhead display, so they can see what I'm doing). Since we won't be doing anything much more than text files, I plan on leaving the options of either floppies or flash drive.

Tips for setting it up. How long should I make the entire workshop? Would 2 hours a day, for 1 week (M-F) be enough? Should I break it down over a set number of days (eg, twice a week, and have the thing be over the period of a month)? This is where I need the most help.

Thanks to any supporters!