Our club is a Region 11 member of the Association of Personal Comuter User Groups (APCUG). If you want to learn about the benefits of membership and what is offered, visit the APCUG web site. Some club officers receive APCUG bulletins intended to help us pass information to our members. Recent editions of the APCUG NOOZ are included below: Quarter 3 2007 APCUG Reports (36 page PDF file, 376 KB) provides a wealth of information, ideas and programs in which the group is involved.
This edition of NOOZ is sent to
the President, Vice President,
Director, Secretary, Treasurer,
APCUG Representative, Newsletter
Editor, Webmaster, and Membership
and Program Chairs of each
APCUG-member User Group. Treasurers – 2008
Membership dues are payable We
urge you to share the information
in NOOZ by including it
in your newsletter, posting
it on your Web site, or
e-mailing it to members
of your group. In this edition of NOOZ: 1. Election Results 2 2008 Convention Deadlines 3. Convention Companion Program 4. Welcome Bag Goodies 5. 6. Roxio/Sonic User Group Program 7. Program Idea – Reverse Q&A 1. Election Results. Congratulations to the newly elected Directors and Advisors. The Directors will serve a three-year term and the Advisors a two-year term. Board of Directors Jay Ferron Birl Smith Ira Wilsker
Board of Advisors Doris Collins Gabe Goldberg Bob Kwater David Steward Clint Tinsley Sam Wexler 2. Convention Deadlines. Registration – to
obtain the group rate, reservations
must be made at the Riviera
Hotel and Casino no later
than December 13. Call
800-634-6753 and ask for the
APCUG08 Conference Rate; online
reservations may be made at https://www.asentus.net/apcug/2008Convention Late registration [$175] 12/1 through 12/25 On Site registration [$175] begins 1/3 Non-APCUG member group surcharge = $25 3. Companion
Program. The APCUG
2008 Convention Companion
Program was developed
in response to requests by
APCUG members for scheduled
activities for their companions
to attend while in The
program includes: All
APCUG Convention meals (when
not on tour) and the Thursday
night Kickoff Social Two Friday
night: Saturday:
Deluxe Special
Door Prizes The The
Deluxe Hoover Dam tour will
last 5 hours and start approximately
at Both
tours include pick-up and
drop-off at the Riviera Hotel
via luxury bus. The cost
is $100 and in order for a
companion to register for
this program, the APCUG member
must already be registered
as an attendee. This can be
done by going to the Companion
Program registration site
at http://www.asentus.net/apcug/APCUGCompanion. A link is also available from
the APCUG site. If
your companion is already
pre-registered for the APCUG
convention he/she can transfer
their registration from the
convention to the companion
program. Please send
an email to lberenson@apcug.net with
the name of the individual
who will be part of the companion
program. All
companions must be pre-registered
for this program no later
than December 25, 2007. 4. Welcome Bag Goodies. Linda Moore, Director, announced that APCUG convention sponsors have donated a total of $12,800 for either full version software or books, which will be included in the Welcome Bag. That is the equivalent of $64 in goodies for every convention attendee. 5. If
your UG is sending a representative
to the annual convention, they
have until Thanks
to those groups who have already
paid their 2008 dues. 6. Roxio User Group Program. Contact Kara Whittington at usergroups@roxio.com to be included in the Roxio User Group Program From Kara Whittington, Viral Communications Manager “Just wanted to let you all know that our User Group landing page is up! I’m still the contact, but we have a generic mailbox for User Group (usergroups@roxio.com). http://www.roxio.com/enu/solutions/usergroups/default.html You can access it by going to our homepage, clicking on the toolbar “Solutions” and scrolling to User Groups. With many of you we’ve started the review process with Creator 10 or Toast 8. Take a look and consider reviewing our other products at the site above. All best, Kara Whittington Viral Communications Manager d 415.893.8050 | c 707.583.4954 SONIC SOLUTIONS | ROXIO” 7. Program
Idea – Reverse Q&A. Found
in the Inspired to ‘think outside the square’ by the changed format of the main PPCUG meetings, they tried a different format in November, “Reverse Q&As”. The object was to ask members questions about several perennial and new topics, demonstrate points, and support it all by projecting a “roadmap” for the day with summaries with each segment. Questions arising were handled in context of each as we went, with standard Q&As reserved for the end. RQ&A Items covered: BACKING
UP Why do it, various media and methods of creating copies and storage of files. PROTECT EMAIL ADDRESSES: Why do it, and a run through the 4-step graphic in Nov.07 AXESS, plus a simpler method in Eudora. PHISHING WARNINGS: A copy from a major bank of the most recent hoax email was shown. The bank gave advice and tips with it for customers to avoid being caught. Such emails “appear to be legitimately branded, …. are often poorly worded and may contain grammar or spelling errors”. Their website provides an Internet security checklist … to help” detect and prevent online fraud. INSTALL PROGRAMMES: Why do it, why virus check all of them first, and how to do it. We installed Windows Washer from Webroot, ran it, and explored its simple, fast, and powerful clean up functions. BURNING
CD / UNTIDY CABLES: Why live with them, and a tidy solution was a door prize.
We'll be trying this at my group at our January meeting. Happy computing, Judy Taylour, Advisor Region 11 Your group is a member of APCUG; you have received this e-mail to inform you of updates, changes, or special news and information. Our policy is to send e-mail messages only to announce such information, and we will continue to honor this policy. If you no longer want to receive these e-mails, please reply to the sender. Thank you for being a member of APCUG.
Do you have a Batteries Plus in your area? If so, you might want to contact them about a presentation for your group. www.batteriesplus.com How about a Cartridge World for a presentation www.cartridgeworld.com, discount for your members, etc. If you have a PC Club in your area does the manager attend your meeting occasionally to let your members know about what's new? Do you have a UG discount? The manager of the store in my area (Santa Clarita Valley) attends a couple of meetings a year and gives a presentation and our members receive a sliding-scale discount. I've seen in other UG newsletters that BestBuy will send someone out to talk at a meeting -- the last one I read was a Geek Squad member talking about gadgets. Plans are underway for the 2008 Southwest Computer Conference. We're in the process of putting together a new Website, people are volunteering to help with workshops, and vendors are asking about participating! The conference will again be held at the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center; the dates are May 30, 31, and June 1. We hope to see you there, Judy Region 11 Officers..... This edition of NOOZ is sent to the President, Vice President, Director, Secretary, Treasurer, APCUG Representative, Newsletter Editor, Webmaster, Membership and Program Chairs of each APCUG-member User Group. We urge you to share the information in NOOZ by including it in your newsletter, posting it on your Web site, or e-mailing it to members of your group. In this edition of NOOZ: 1. Annual Convention 1. 2008 Convention. The theme is Membership Retention and Growth. Highlights and benefits planned for the 2008 event include: roundtable / educational sessions; vendor presentations; opportunities to meet vendors; meal / social events; opportunities to meet user group members from around the world; and much more. Conference information may be found on www.apcug.net and the co-chairs may be reached at convention@apcug.net. Registration The convention will again be held at the Riviera Hotel and Casino. Call 800-634-6753 and ask for the APCUG08 Conference Rate; online reservations may be made at https://www.asentus.net/apcug/2008Convention Standard Registration [$150] 11/2 through 11/30 (checks must be received by APCUG by 12/12) Late registration [$175] 12/1 through 12/25 On Site registration [$175] begins 1/3 Non-APCUG member group surcharge = $25 Special Events The Photo Gallery in Capri 105 will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This is your opportunity to take a look at all of the digital photos entered in that contest and vote for the Best of Show. If you are a first-time attendee, there will be a First Time Attendee session in Grande A from 4:00-5:00pm on Thursday, 1/3. You will have the opportunity to mingle with other attendees at the Member Social at the Top of the Riv-South on Thursday evening from 7:30 – 10:00pm. You will have the opportunity to meet your Advisor at lunch on Friday, 1/4 – most of them will be attending the Convention. And you will want to stay after lunch for the Advisors and Vendors Q&A Forum from 3:00-4:00pm. Roundtables Some of the RTs planned for this year’s convention include: Program Chairs – what to do when things go wrong, Computer Security, Working with other UGs on common projects, How to create a presentation in 60 minutes, The many benefits of using a blog for your UG newsletter, How to create a successful review program, Marketing your Website, plus many more. Some of the topics need one or two volunteers to lead the discussion. Please contact Ash Nallawalla, anallawalla@apcug.net, if you can help. If you have a new topic in mind and can lead the topic, please get in touch with him. 2. Website, Newsletter & Digital Photo Contests and Jerry Award Competition. The contests are closed and the judges are in the process of judging the entries. The winners will be announced at the 2008 Annual Convention (winners do not need to be present). Winners will be contacted via email immediately after the convention and the awards and certificates will be mailed before the end of January. Winning newsletters and websites will also receive APCUG newsletter and web award logos for use on their newsletters and websites. The results will also be posted on www.apcug.net and sent out via NOOZ and Reports. 3. 2008 Officer Election / Ballot Information. An e-mail containing voting information has been sent to each eligible APCUG-member user group President and APCUG Representative. Your UG should cast one ballot according to the instructions on the site. You have until midnight November 30 to complete the balloting. If your group did not receive this email from Don, please contact him at dsingleton@apcug.net. If you are having a problem with the URL contained in the e-mail,here are the long and short versions. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=OYDaEEYgE82ix8t9c4lqng_3d_3d 4. 2008 Membership Drive. Annual membership in the Association of Personal Computer Users Groups is $50.00. A dues renewal e-mail will soon be sent to all groups but you can already renew your membership in APCUG online by completing the form at http://apcug.net/contacts/forms/renewal_application.htm After you Submit the form, you will have the option of paying by check or credit card. Groups renewing by 12/31/07 will be entered in the dues renewal contest. Three groups renewing by that date will be eligible to win a prize donated by one of APCUG’s vendors (thanks to David Steward, Advisor, Region 8). If you renew by check, please include a copy of the renewal form with your check and send it to APCUG, 3155 E. Patrick Lane, Suite 1, Las Vegas, NV 89120.. If your UG is sending a representative to the annual conference, they have until 3:00 pm on Friday, January 4 to turn in the form and payment to the Registry and be included in the drawing. The winning group names will be pulled at the Annual Conference (winner does not need to be present). Thanks to those groups who have already paid their 2008 dues. 5. Get Paid for Usability Tests, Focus Groups, and User Surveys, submitted by Gabe Goldberg, APCUG Region 2 Advisor. UserWorks, Inc., a local DC-area company http://www.userworks.com conducts usability studies of software and Web sites, paying people to participate in usability tests, focus groups, and user surveys. They've asked me to broadcast their recruiting information so here's basic info on their research: http://www.userworks.com/default.asp?page=participate&sub= And here's the link to sign up: http://www.userworks.com/default.asp?page=participate&sub=signup Requirements for projects vary; although they often need senior citizens, they also sometimes need to work with less skilled computer users and have restrictions on using people involved in technical fields, so though many may be called, fewer may be chosen. About 20% of the projects are remote but they generally involve a lot more people and are becoming more common, so the company also asked me to pass the invitation to groups with a larger audience or with members outside the DC area. 6. Codezone User Group Program. You might want to check out www.codezone.com to see if this user group program is for your group. Signing up is free and will help you get the best out of your Codezone experience. It's easy: name your areas of interest, recommend resources, and get top-notch content recommendations by like-minded developers. Please note that Codezone and Microsoft take your privacy seriously. Happy computing, Judy Taylour, Acting Advisor Region 4 Your group is a member of APCUG; you have received this e-mail to inform you of updates, changes, or special news and information. Our policy is to send e-mail messages only to announce such information, and we will continue to honor this policy. If you no longer want to receive these e-mails, please reply to the sender. Thank you for being a member of APCUG.
This edition of NOOZ is sent to the President, Vice President, Director, Secretary, Treasurer, APCUG Representative, Newsletter Editor, Webmaster, Membership and Program Chairs of each Region 11 APCUG-member User Group. We
urge you to share the information
in NOOZ by including it
in your newsletter, posting
it on your Web site, or
e-mailing it to members
of your group. In this edition of NOOZ: 1. 2008 Annual Convention 2 Website, Newsletter & Digital Photo Contests 3. Jerry Award Competition 4. Don’t forget to say thank you to our sponsoring vendors 5. Welcome to New Groups 6. What did you do on your summer vacation (from the August Microsoft Mindshare newsletter) 7. Print Artist SIG 1. 2008 Convention. The theme is Membership Retention and Growth. Highlights and benefits planned for the 2008 event include: Jerry Awards; newsletter, website and digital photo contest awards; roundtable / educational sessions; vendor presentations; opportunities to meet vendors; meal / social events; opportunities to meet user group members from around the world; and much more. Conference information may be found on www.apcug.net and the co-chairs may be reached at convention@apcug.net. Registration The
convention will again be held
at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.
Call 800-634-6753 and ask for
the APCUG08 Conference Rate;
online reservations may be made
at https://www.asentus.net/apcug/2008Convention Early Bird registration [$100] through 11/1 (checks must be received by APCUG by 11/10) Standard Registration [$150] 11/2 through 11/30 (checks must be received by APCUG by 12/12) Late registration [$175] 12/1 through 12/25 On Site registration [$175] begins 1/3 Non-APCUG member group surcharge = $25 Keynote
Speaker Veteran journalist Dwight Silverman will be the keynote speaker. He has written about personal computers since the mid-1980s and is currently the computing columnist and technology blogger at the Houston Chronicle, as well as the co-host of "Technology Bytes", a weekly PC-help call-in radio show on KPFT-FM. You can read his blog and columns at http://www.chron.com/. Dwight writes extensively about all aspects of computing including PC and Mac computers, Linux and all the latest computing gadgets. Dwight and Larry Magid co-wrote the book Microsoft Windows Vista, which was published in May 2007. Currently, Dwight is working on a new book, Running Windows on your Mac, which is scheduled to be published in January 2008. Roundtables Some
of the RTs planned for this
year’s convention include:
User Group Development, Finding & Retaining
Volunteers, Program Chairs – When
Things Go Wrong, Setting up
a Server for your Home Network,
Working with Cameras and Digital
Cameras, Setting up a Secure
Home Wireless Network plus many
more. Some of the topics need
one or two volunteers to lead
the discussion. Please contact
Ash Nallawalla, anallawalla@apcug.net,
if you can help. If you have
a new topic in mind and can
lead the topic, please get in
touch with him. 2. Website,
Newsletter & Digital Photo
Contests. APCUG’s
Newsletter, Web and Digital
Photo contests are underway.
The contests started The contest rules and criteria are on the APCUG Website: http://www.apcug.net/2007contest/website.htm http://www.apcug.net/2007contest/newsletter.htm http://www.apcug.net/2007contest/photo.htm The
results of the competitions
will be announced at APCUG’s
Annual Convention, APCUG Contest Committee Bill James, Chair Melvin Weekly, Newsletter Roger Tesch, Photo Contest Barbara Manning, Website Lori Berenson, Website 3. Jerry Award Competition. The purpose of the Jerry Awards is to encourage User Groups to get involved in community service projects. If your group is doing something within the community, take this opportunity to write-up a How-To document as to how your group is accomplishing or accomplished the task and have a chance of winning a monetary award for your efforts. The
judges will be provided with
a ranking system where they
will assign a certain number
of points based on what a group
is doing. A larger number of
points will be given if their
submission describes how they
do what they do, in enough detail
where another group can start
a similar project in their area.
Groups who have never won before
will be given extra points to
help level the playing field
with established groups who "seem
to win all the time." Groups
that have won multiple times
will need to do an especially
good job explaining exactly
how they do what they do, in
order to win this time, since
groups that have never won before
will have a leg up. http://apcug.net/2007contest/jerry.htm
5. Welcome
to our New Groups. Northern
Virginia Computer Club,
Alexandria, Virginia; Haines
City Computer Club, Haines
City, Florida; Cascade Lakes
Computer Users Group, Boynton
Beach, Florida www.cascades.net; Lake
County Area Computer Enthusiasts,
Waukegan, IL www.lcace.org;
SunRiver St. George Computer
Club, St. George, Utah. 6. What
Did You Do on Your Summer
Vacation? from the August
Microsoft Mindshare newsletter. If
you haven't yet joined the
ranks of people who are
creating personal web sites
for sharing photos, experiences,
videos, and more, you may
want to click over to Windows
Live Spaces and take a look.
Windows Live Spaces is a
free online tool you can
use to share pictures, stories,
contacts, and more. Setup
takes only a few minutes,
and you can control who
gets to see your space (you
can make your space private
or public, depending on
your preferences). This
is a great way to stay in
touch with family members
and friends who may be scattered
across the globe. http://home.services.spaces.live.com/ 7. Does
your UG have a Print Artist
SIG (or possibly you
had one in the past)? If
so, Dorothy Alexander, President
of the Sarnia Computer Users
Group in Canada would like
someone from the SIG to
get in touch with her. alexander.dorothy(at)gmail.com Your group is a member of APCUG; you have received this e-mail to inform you of updates, changes, or special news and information. Our policy is to send e-mail messages only to announce such information, and we will continue to honor this policy. If you no longer want to receive these e-mails, please reply to the sender. Thank you for being a member of APCUG.
This edition of NOOZ is sent to
the President, Vice President,
Director, Secretary, Treasurer,
APCUG Representative, Newsletter
Editor, Webmaster, Membership
and Program Chairs of each
APCUG-member User Group. We
urge you to share the information
in NOOZ by including it
in your newsletter, posting
it on your Web site, or
e-mailing it to members
of your group. In this edition of NOOZ: 1. Jay Ferron new President of APCUG 2. 2008 Annual Convention 3. Fundraising Ideas 4. Regional Events 5. Peachpit User Group Program 6. Mindshare User Group Program 1. Jay Ferron, President. At an Executive Session of the Board of Directors in July, Jay Ferron, Vice President, was appointed as President. Don Singleton was thanked for his many contributions to APCUG and remains a board member. 2. 2008 Convention. The theme is Membership Retention and Growth. Highlights and benefits planned for the 2008 event include: Jerry Awards; newsletter, website and digital photo contest awards; roundtable / educational sessions; vendor presentations; opportunities to meet vendors; meal / social events; opportunities to meet user group members from around the world; and the spouse program. Later this summer, registration information will be posted on www.apcug.net. The co-chairs may be reached at convention@apcug.net. Don’t miss the opportunity to get some recognition for your group by entering the newsletter and/or website contests. September 1 is the beginning date for you to submit your website URL and newsletters and October 15 is the last date for these contest entries. Those are also the dates for your members to submit their digital photos for that contest. The results of the contests will be announced at the annual event. The 2008 contest committee members are: Bill James (bjames@apcug.net), Melvin Weekley (mweekley@apcug.net), Roger Tesch (rtesch@apcug.net), Barbara Manning (bmanning@apcug.net) and Lori Berenson (lberenson@apcug.net) 3. Fundraising
Ideas. From
Stu Silverman, Advisor, Region
5. Last year, Macy’s raised
over $9,000,000 in a single
day of shopping to benefit
charities across Selling
season starts this month for 2008
Entertainment discount coupon
books (from Gabe Goldberg,
Advisor, Region 2). Selling
books is great / easy for user
groups and the books are a super
money saver for members, friends,
family and colleagues. Discounts
in 2008 books will be valid
from early August 2007 through 4. Regional
Events. New this year
is the APCUG
Region 1 Membership & Speaker
Development Symposium being
put together by Sam Wexler,
Region 1 Advisor. The event
will be held on Wednesday,
August 22 at the Home Town
Buffet in Although the majority of the ‘regional’ events are not sponsored by APCUG, most of the groups attending the various events are members groups. APCUG assists the events by listing the event information on www.apcug.net and by including articles in Reports and NOOZ. Mini-Expo
VI sponsored by the Chicago
Computer Society. This
event, Technology for Fun,
will be held on The Northwest
Florida Association of Computer
User Groups is holding
its 2nd annual
NWFACUG Expo07 on Friday,
October 5. The event is held
in The Florida
Association of Computer User
Groups (FACUG) will hold
its Fall Conference on Saturday,
October 6, in The 14th
Annual Southwest Computer
User Group Conference was
held July 13-15 at the Town
and Country Resort & Convention
Center. Over 270 attendees
registered for the event.
The conference was sponsored
by 70 vendors, with 27 attending
the Saturday evening Vendor
Faire. Smart Computing, Pinnacle
Systems, Attendees
had the opportunity to attend
seminars by Trend Micro, Heritage
Makers, Migo Software, Nibbin, 5. Peachpit
User Group Program. Did
you receive your PIAB from
Peachpit? If your group is
not a member you are really
missing some terrific benefits.
Each month your group is eligible
for a free book (your choice)
that you can use as a door
prize, a volunteer thank you,
put in the group’s library,
etc. In a recent Peachpit
UG newsletter they offered
their Photoshop PIAB. What
fun to open the heavy box
and find a Double Feature
Video – The Peachpit
Experience: Photoshop World
Las Vegas and Macworld Conference & Expo,
San Francisco 2007 – something
for both APCUG’s Mac
and PC member groups. Also
included was popcorn and M&Ms
to share at the meeting, a
t-shirt, three books (Adobe
Indesign CS3 How-Tos, 100
Essential Techniques; Designer’s
Guide to Max OS X Tiger; and
Understanding Adobe Photoshop – Digital
Imaging Concepts and Techniques)
and a mouse pad that can be
used as door prizes. There
was also information about
iStockphoto and New Riders’ Voices
that Matter books with a 35%
discount until 6. Mindshare
UG Program. Sherri Sullivan
announced at the Southwest
Computer UG Conference in Your group is a member of APCUG; you have received this e-mail to inform you of updates, changes, or special news and information. Our policy is to send e-mail messages only to announce such information, and we will continue to honor this policy. If you no longer want to receive these e-mails, please reply to the sender. Thank you for being a member of APCUG.
In this edition of NOOZ: 1. 2008 Annual Convention (formerly known as Annual Conference) 2. August Q3 Reports Newsletter 3. 4. Program Ideas 5. New Benefit of Membership 1. APCUG’s Annual Conference has a new name --- Annual Convention. Co-chairs Ash Nallawalla and Jim Evans recently announced that plans are underway for the 2008 event, January 3-6 at the Riviera Hotel & Casino. The theme is Membership Retention and Growth. Highlights and benefits planned for the 2008 event include: Jerry Awards; newsletter, website and digital photo contest awards; roundtable / educational sessions; vendor presentations; opportunities to meet vendors; meal / social events; opportunities to meet user group members from around the world; and the spouse program. Later this summer, registration information will be posted on www.apcug.net. The co-chairs may be reached at convention@apcug.net. Don’t miss the opportunity to get some recognition for your group by entering the newsletter and/or website contests. September 1 is the beginning date for you to submit your website URL and newsletters and October 15 is the last date for these contest entries. Those are also the dates for your members to submit their digital photos for that contest. The results of the contests will be announced at the annual event. The 2008 contest committee members are: Bill James (bjames@apcug.net), Melvin Weekley (mweekley@apcug.net), Roger Tesch (rtesch@apcug.net), Barbara Manning (bmanning@apcug.net) and Lori Berenson (lberenson@apcug.net) 2. August Q3 Reports Newsletter. A copy of the latest issue of Reports is attached. Please feel free to forward it to your members; selected officers will soon be receiving their printed issue. You will find the criteria for the above contests in this issue. 3.
Here is an excerpt from the article: “ Note: The following discussion is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal or tax advice. For specific information about Form 990-N and provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 mandating the revocation of exempt status, consult your attorney or tax advisor. The Smaller nonprofits will be required to file Form 990-N starting in 2008. Organizations that fail to file Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF, or 990-N for three consecutive years will lose their tax exemptions. Smaller Organizations and Form 990-N Starting
next year, an organization that
does not file 4. Meeting Ideas. InfoShare
Session We've
all gotten hooked on the Internet
as a source of information,
but sometimes it's tough to
beat the old standby - the
printed page! Bring your favorite
book on a computer, technology,
or "Do It Yourself" topic
and share with the group.
What's your favorite source
of reference information?
Do you get a catalog from
a favorite supplier of computer
accessories, tools, or gadgets? National Capital Technology and Computer User's Group, Inc., Virginia On the other hand…..The New Orleans Personal Computer Club will have their favorite website contest as part of their July meeting. Like their previous “favorite” programs, members will spend about five minutes each showing their favorite website. It can be a news site, a tech site or just a fun site. After the presentations, attendees will vote for the member with the best website. The winner will receive a $50 gift certificate and the runners up will get free subscriptions to Smart Computing. Creative Memories. Do you have a Creative Memories consultant in your area? Ask him/her to give a presentation on making a book from your stories and photos. Glendora Seniors Computer Club, Why
Software Sucks (and What You
Can Do About It) – an
online presentation by David
Platt. Several groups in The
Southwest conference in July
is having a workshop on how
to use Skype for online presentations.
Several vendors will be attending
the workshop and, hopefully,
we will all find many vendors
whose travel budgets have been
cut but would still like to
reach the user group community
via online presentations. After
the conference, guidelines will
be available for both groups
and vendors on how to utilize
Skype for online presentations – most
importantly, it’s 5. New
Member Benefit. As noted
in Ira Wilsker’s Reports
article on PPT presentations,
we are asking groups that
have members who give presentations
via PowerPoint, Flash, etc.
to share them with other groups.
APCUG will host the presentations
on www.apcug.net and member user groups will be
able to download them for
their own use. Ira has started
the ball rolling by providing
two presentations: Cyber
Crime and one on Identity
Theft. The Identity Theft
PowerPoint he contributed
has some Your group is a member of APCUG; you have received this e-mail to inform you of updates, changes, or special news and information. Our policy is to send e-mail messages only to announce such information, and we will continue to honor this policy. If you no longer want to receive these e-mails, please reply to the sender. Thank you for being a member of APCUG.
In this edition of NOOZ: 1. Thank you for renewing your
APCUG membership 1. APCUG Membership Benefits Information Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make the most of your membership in APCUG. Our members tell us that groups who take advantage of APCUG’s numerous benefits maintain their membership in APCUG longer and share with non-members how APCUG helps their user group to be more successful. One of the keys to receiving information from APCUG is to have your list of officers in the database up-to-date. Forgot your log-in & password? Please send an e-mail to cdb@apcug.net. Does your group only have one contact person in the database? The more officers you have listed makes it easier to disseminate the information, and one person doesn’t need to forward the information to someone else. I hope you are taking advantage of all of the benefits of membership in APCUG. Please visit www.apcug.net to check out the many benefits / services that you receive for your $50 yearly membership fee. To make the most of your membership in APCUG: Read the NOOZ sent to selected officers by your group’s Regional Advisor, forward it to all Board members and/or members or include it in your newsletter or post it on your website. Read the four issues of APCUG’s news magazine, Reports, which selected officers receive quarterly, then share it with your members and even non-member user groups. Review the many articles sent to your Editor by the Editorial PUSH committee that may be used in your newsletter. Consider APCUG hosting your web site for FREE. Use the APCUG WebBoard to conduct on-line meetings or as a source for your group’s technical guru to answer your member’s questions during an on-line chat session. Attend the APCUG Annual Conference. You will have the opportunity to meet user group leaders from around the world, meet the participating vendors, and attend roundtables on how to improve your user group and much more. Attend Regional Conferences to reap the same benefits as above. Utilize the sample Articles of Incorporation to formalize your user group and/or Bylaws for content when you are in the process of revising your group’s bylaws. Review the Help For Your User Group articles. They are mostly from roundtables / workshops that have been given at annual or regional conferences and feature information for program chairs, fundraising ideas, job descriptions, and much more. Review the Presentations-in-a-Box list for alternatives to having a vendor presentation. Review the product discounts available to APCUG member groups and forward them to your members, include them in your newsletter or on a Members-Only page on your website. Discount information is sent via e-mail to selected officers. Utilize the User Group Directory to find other user groups in your area to begin a dialog about sharing newsletters, starting a regularly scheduled meeting for officers to exchange information, setting up tours for vendors to present to several groups in a row, etc. Tours are vital in this day of company mergers – this gives the vendor more bang for their buck when trying to keep their company’s user group program alive. Be included in the list of User Groups that receive special discount offers, review software or raffle items only for members of APCUG. Recognize that APCUG is here to help your group, as needed. All of the Board members and Advisors are current or former UG officers and help is only an e-mail away. We are honored to have your user group as a member of APCUG. If you or your members have ideas for additional services that APCUG can offer member groups, please send an e-mail to Judy Taylour, Chair, Member Services Committee (jtaylour@apcug.net). 2. What Works…. Meeting Idea from the New Orleans Personal Computer Club Night of the Gray Gamers Get ready for a fun night at the NOPC Club. If you are like me, a little gray on top (at least for the hair that’s left) the only computer games you know are solitaire and free cell. Well, get ready to learn a lot more. We are going to discuss the current trends in video games across consoles and PC's. We will cover the most popular types of games including First Person Shooters (FPS), Real-time Strategies (RTS) and Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). This presentation will include images, video and a hands-on look at some of today's most popular games as well as a question and answer session. Mark your calendars, create an entry in your Palm Treo 700wx, practice your quick draw, update Outlook and join us on Wednesday, May 2, 2007. The monthly meeting of the NOPC club starts at 6:30pm on the first Wednesday of every month. For more information please visit our club’s web site at http://www.nopc.org. Colorado River Computer Club, Arizona One of their members introduced their unique custom Sudoku puzzle in a newsletter article and presented a program on Sudoku at their March meeting. Sudoku is a logic-based number placement puzzle where the objective is to fill a 9x9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3x3 boxes contains the digits from 1 to 9 – what a great gray-matter activity. He made the puzzle available online on their website immediately after the meeting and later received a number of entries by e-mail from members. The first to respond with the correct solution received a $20.00 reward as an acknowledgement of his consumate skill. http://www.crccaz.com/index.htm Broward Personal Computer Association, Florida Have you asked the user groups close to you if they have members who are willing to make presentations to other groups? (Of course, they will want someone from your group to make a presentation at their group J) The BPCA’s May meeting will be a presentation by the Deerfield Beach Computer Club’s Director of SIGs. Her topic is American Greetings Create-A-Card Gold 7. Note: There are several UG members in the Los Angeles area who make presentations to other groups. They are delighted to make a presentation at the Big Bear Computer Club – they get to spend the night at a member’s B&B. 3. Peachpit Press UG Program Does your group belong to the Peachpit UG Program? If not, you are missing out on a deep discount on their books, as well as the ability to receive 1 free book per month. One of their next promotions is noted below. I know that several groups in California took advantage of the previous Photoshop Meeting-in-a-Box – popcorn and all. COMING SOON: THE PEACHPIT EXPERIENCE! Over the last few months many of you have been emailing me inquiring about the availability of the next Meeting-in-a-Box, well it's coming soon with a groovy new name and twice the punch! The Peachpit Experience brings you over two hours, on two DVDs, of your favorite Mac and Photoshop authors. Can you dig it? So get your members and the popcorn and the red vines ready for this double feature — live action from the Peachpit booth at both Photoshop World Las Vegas and Macworld Conference & Expo San Francisco! Join Graham Nash (yes of Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young fame) and R. Mac Holbert as they discuss the Art and the Process of fine-art digital printmaking; Scott Kelby will take you through the digital workflow with Photoshop; Sandee Cohen will give you the tips and tricks for using the programs in the Creative Suite together; youÕll understand Photoshop Channels better with Bert Monroy; and much, much, more from other top authors! In the next edition of this e-newsletter we'll tell you how to request a copy of The Peachpit Experience for your next user group meeting. So stay tuned! http://www.peachpit.com/user_groups/index.asp?rl=1 4. Save $25 by registering for the Southwest User Group Conference by June 22! The early bird registration fee of $50 ends on June 22. And what a bargain for that fifty dollars: All vendor-sponsored meals, conference t-shirt and Welcome Bag full of goodies, informative vendor presentations, up-close-and-personal time with vendors at the Saturday night Vendor Faire, user group themed workshops, personal productivity workshops, networking with officers and members from over 60 user groups who have the same problems we all do with our groups (you will probably go home with several solutions), wireless connectivity for those who bring their laptops or the Internet Cafe where you can check your e-mail, a beautiful location in San Diego at the Town and Country Resort & Conference Center ( |