dacs.doc electric

When I first heard of theInterGalactic Conference, thoughts of Luke Skywalker and Star Wars came to mind. Now having been to my first IG, I find it has more to do with cyberspace than outer space.

Simply stated, InterGalatic is an annual gathering of computer club officers and directors. The main purpose is to provide a forum for discussing and sharing ideas. To spice it up, vendors are invited to showcase products--and yes--to give away free software!

On Saturday, April 28, Allan Ostergren and I attended the 14th annual IG conference sponsored by the New York PC User Group. Some 31 clubs and more than 100 people from the tri-state metropolitan region attended. It was an all day affair, starting with breakfast at 8:30, a nice lunch and ending at 4:30 with an ice cream social. I need to mention all the food preparation and serving was done by NYPC members, a very nice touch.

Much of this sounds like all we did was eat, collect literature and software. It was also some mind fattening benefits, sore butts and legs from climbing four floors and sitting in school room desks designed for 8-year-olds! The agenda provided ten separate morning and afternoon discussion groups, an open meeting to review what the group has been doing (putting up a Web site for vendors to see our meeting dates and contacts, documenting an internal speakers resource) and a vendor panel on issues and concerns central to user groups.

Maybe the InterGalatic theme is not all that far out. By establishing contact, we are not alone in the computer club universe--unless we want to be. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that most of us have common concerns and interests. Continued efforts should be made to maintain contact, so DACS is not alone in the user group universe, and can benefit from the strength of numbers and exchange of ideas.

Most of us agreed that to survive as user groups, our mission needs to evolve with the times and with the needs of our members. Voluntary groups such as DACS can be as dynamic as they want, provided they can collectively provide the effort and resources needed to support them. That support seems to be getting a bit thin these days. It’s up to us collectively to change it if we want.

I can provide a more detailed review of the meeting and thoughts for those interested in the details.

Notes from the sessions

With only two representatives from DACS, we could only cover 4 of the 10 discussion groups. Here are some notes on those meetings:

Member Recruitment

Participants focused on new ideas to attract members. The emphasis was on making groups more relevant to novice users and pointing out how the group can benefit them. Simply changing SIGs to "work groups" can provide a clearer description of their function. SIGs can also serve to attract more professional members by their ability to concentrate on specific applications or issues. Some groups reported that SIG attendance was often far larger than the turnout at monthly general meetings, but warned that many of those who came to the SIGS refused to become members.
A strong inducement to joining was personal contact and follow-up. One group membership chair said he mails meeting announcements out to every contact, along with an application. As for renewals, anything to make the process easier was recommended, with kudos going to DACS for its automatic credit card renewal option.

Keeping members informed by electronic means

List servers were the main form of communication between members, with many using Yahoo group service. Other programs used were Mail King and Eudora - ver. 4 for large groups over 1000. Most said spam wasn’t a problem. The biggest problem was getting around the 40 to 50-message limit at a time which eliminates CC’s.

Bulletin boards are definitely out. The Utica club got invaded by porno and had to shut down for a while. Hotlines are also not very useful.

Most groups are moving toward ideas to lower the webmaster’s workload by allowing access for individuals to maintain their own data, with check boxes to get more information. Some sites allow SIG leaders to maintain their own calendar, with a “click on” to get more agenda details.

Vendor Fair

Eight Vendors were present:

Adobe	Elements
Casady & Green	Software guides publishing
Borland	C++
Corel	PerfectOffice, Print Office
Wizcom Technologies	Scanning pens
Techsmith	Screen and video capture tools
Intuit	Quicken 2001and online data base
Microsoft	Mindshare, Microsoft Press

Regional Issues

One of last year’s initiatives was the Northeast User Group Association (NEUGA), with a web page to link regional groups and provide meeting information for vendors. It is hoped that member groups will be able to update their calendars directly on the NEUGA site (www.neuga.org).

InterGalactic and NEUGA are attempting to provide contact and services at the regional level, where APCUG has had minimal impact. A speaker pool of reps willing to visit other clubs and SIG Clubs was also suggested. Jeremy Dunn, the Region 1 APCUG representative said they would support these efforts as much as they can. Several of the smaller UGs asked for more advice and assistance from established groups, including access to member events.

SIG Leaders Group

Most user groups have a SIG coordinator whose duties are to be a link to the board for approval and support. Their duty is to assist with the scheduling and equipment. Some are using removable hard drives to keep from messing up the computers used for more than one SIG.

Not many have resource centers, and meet at schools, libraries, senior centers and training facilities, including Microsoft training centers. This is a valuable resource where hands-on experience is beneficial. Some have tied into adult education programs as well. This approach has strengthened the SIGs and created new members to fill in.

Far more groups had a Senior SIG than a Kid SIG--not surprising, considering average age of Computer user groups is 62!

To start a new SIG, one only needs to show an interest in becoming the leader. Expertise can come from elsewhere within the group. The minimum to start seems to be around ten.
There was talk of large multi-club SIG groups using streaming media or other online type of communication services for this purpose.

Vendor Panel

Most questions from the audience dealt with the age-old issue: "How do we get quality presenters to visit our Club or SIGs, especially if we are small." Clubs tend to use a bottom-up approach that is hard for vendors to work with. They prefer a top-down approach where they can obtain information about meeting location, dates, and size. This will allow them to contact local groups when they plan to be in the area and schedule visits especially for new product introductions and promotions.

They would like to see the larger clubs take the smaller clubs under their wing regarding this subject by inviting them to participate, or to find a central location for jointly sponsored meetings.

Final impressions

I left InterGalactic with a new appreciation of the need for user groups to act jointly for the common good. In a time of declining membership, we all need to find new solutions and share resources. NYPC has worked hard to bring regional groups together, and should be supported.