APCUG Reports
July-September 2006

A little about myself - I am CIO for Interactive Security Training, LLC. I spend my time working with major companies developing solutions around the following technology-related areas of security -- mobility and computing clusters. I travel around the world delivering solutions and training IT professionals on new technology. I have been involved with user groups for over 30 years now and have been a speaker at the yearly APCUG conference for the last 3 years.

I have been an Advisor, and Board Member, and Vice President, and was recently elected as your president. This occurred when the Board of Directors for APCUG looked at where our focus has been and decided to make some major changes to the direction APCUG is heading and to the way we conduct our business. We have done this to better serve you, our user group members. This decision was not an easy one, but we believe that for us to serve you in a professional manner, change was needed.

We have decided, as a Board, that we need to run APCUG like a business. We need to be more responsible financially, and to be better custodians of the funds we have, and use them in the best way to serve our members.

We wish to thank those of you who have worked hard for APCUG in the past and continue to support us. In our efforts to reorganize, we believe in the long term this new plan of action is the best course.

1. Listed below are issues upon which the Board has agreed to focus its attention:
   1. Building the best User Group Association in the world by offering services that our members want or request, including expanding our focus to include other technologies.

   2. Building membership of user groups by:
      1. Offering training for your officers

      2. Developing marketing ideas for membership recruitment

      3. Offering great meeting topics

      4. Presentation in a box

      5. Vendor resources

   3. Finding deals from Vendors that we will share with you and your user groups

   4. Having the best conference in the world for user groups to share ideas by allowing users to:
      1. Meet vendors

      2. Network with other user groups

      3. Learn new ideas to bring back to your groups

      4. Receive international awards and recognition

   5. Send monthly emails of what other groups are doing.

   6. Offering website hosting to all APCUG member groups (Windows, and in the early 2008 time frame, Linux).

   7. Assigning Regional Advisors who can and will work with groups in their region to better share resources and ideas.

   8. Generating a spirit of working together cohesively, improving out of the box thinking and by being open minded to change.

   9. Looking at how we can support regional events.

   10. Implementing a program to recognize volunteers at both International and Regional levels.

   11. Offer Award Programs to APCUG Members
       1. Jerry Awards

       2. Photo awards

       3. Newsletter awards

       4. Web awards

       5. Vendor recognition

   12. Helping user groups grow in both size and volunteer leadership
       1. Develop training programs for user group leadership

       2. Job descriptions / roles of officers
          • President / VP

          • Treasurer / Secretary

          • Membership

          • Meeting coordinator

          • Web Master/ Online committee

          • Newsletter editor

          • Special Interest Groups leadership (SIGS)

2. To this end, the board has made the following changes regarding board members responsibilities
   1. Linda Moore will chair On Line Services (OLS)

   2. Ash Nallawalla, Jim Evans, and Bill James will co-chair the 2008 convention

   3. Ira Wilsker will manage vendor relationships

   4. Bill James will continue as treasurer

   5. Jay Ferron was voted President

   6. Jim Evans will continue as secretary

   7. Tom Jones continues as board member at large

   8. Steve Peyrot continues as board member at large

   9. Don Singleton continues as board member at large and will also be responsible for APCUG Reports

   The board also thanks Don for the work he has done.

   We believe that these changes are required for APCUG to grow and to serve our membership, and your user group membership.

3. We ask you to work with us as we implement these changes for a better more responsive APCUG. If you would like to be part of the change and help, please contact me.

Together we can make a difference.