dacs.doc electric

This year Jim Scheef and I had the privilege of attending and meeting with the annual gathering of computer user group officers from points as far as Pennsylvania, D.C., Maine and others in the northeast APCUG region. Jim is DACS' new President, and APCUG is the Association of Personal Computer User Groups.

The meeting was hosted by the New York PC Users Group. As usual, they did a magnificent job of organizing the event, the venue, the food, the vendors for the trade show portion, and, most important, the breakout sessions covering topics related to organizing and running active clubs. Topics included obtaining speakers for the meetings, publicity and advertising, retaining and growing membership, organizing and running SIGs (Special Interest Groups) and creating newsletters and websites.

This was the sixth or seventh meeting I've attended. Over the years, meetings have gotten smaller. The last one I attended was in '98.

In the past, with dozens of vendors contributing, meetings were held in a midtown hotel with meals in the hotel dining room with table service and selection from a broad menu. With thirty or more vendors supporting the event and the awards dinner, the raffle and prizes reached down to almost everyone in attendence.

Now, with the reduced vendor support, the current meeting was held in a private school, the breakfast and lunch buffet was provided and catered by members of the New York club.
The most discussed problems of the groups in attendance were: coping with reduced membership; gaining and keeping members; attracting effective speakers; and publicity.

With groups getting smaller and the economy getting tighter for both software and hardware suppliers, providing speakers for group meetings affords a diminishing return to vendors. It has become imperative that groups in a local region try to coordinate vendor visits, so that visiting speakers can divide travel expenses among several groups.

You could also say that user groups are a commodity of declining value. I've always contended that user groups provided the handholding that hardware vendors, with low profit margins, couldn't afford. After you bought a machine, they didn't want to see you again. Every return visit cut into profits, which were slim enough.

Today new computer buyers have more early adopters to lean upon. Most of the earlier computer users are now on their third or more computer. They are wiser and no longer need the handholding of previous years. Even software people have outsourced or cut back on follow-up service.

But for turkeys like me, I still need this group to bail me out of my mistakes. Remember, I call myself the perpetual computer novice... I need all the help I can get...