APCUG Reports
January-March 2008

The 10th Annual APCUG Jerry Awards, sponsored by Microsoft Mindshare, Corel Corporation and AMD, were presented in Las Vegas on January 6, 2008, not only to recognize the achievements of APCUG member groups but also to provide ideas and models that might be replicated in other communities.

The judges were

• Jay Ferron (The PC Users Group of Connecticut)
• Don Singleton (Tulsa Computer Society)
• Sam Wexler (Valencia Falls Computer Club)
• Gabe Goldberg (Capital PC User Group)
• Melvin Weekley (Seniors Computer Group)
• Jim Amore (Licking County Computer Society)
• Bayle Emlein (PCC, A Computer User Group)
• Bert Parent (Palmetto PC Club)

Some of the Judges were from User Groups that had entries in the Jerry Awards for 2007, but all judges used a scale to assign numerical scores for various aspects, and when a judge scored his/her own project we replaced their score by an average of the scores given by the other judges for their project, so no judge scored his/her own project. Bert Parent’s group did win first place, but I will assure you he did not score his own group’s project, and the other two judge’s groups were not even in the top three.

We were very disappointed in the number of entries this year (only eight groups entered), and the quality of the entries was not as great as we have seen in other years. Three prizes were awarded:

• First Place and $1,000 went to Palmetto PC Club
• Second Place and $750 went to Sandwich Computer User Groups
• Third Place and $250 went to Tellico Village

The winners can be seen at http://comservice.apcug.org/07jerries.htm and all entries for 2007 can be seen at http://comservice.apcug.org/2007/. To see all of the winners, and all of the entries since 2004 go to http://comservice.apcug.org/jerry.htm.

The criteria we used this time was:

• What is the value of what the group does for the community? How proud would you be if your group was able to do what they do?
• Does the entry describe HOW the group found the resources, space, money, etc. it needs?
• Does the entry describe HOW the group selects the beneficiaries of what it does, i.e, how does it make sure the most needy benefit?
• Does the entry describe the documentation the group created or found, and do they provide that documentation for others to use?
• Does the entry describe the software, if any, used in the program, and where did the group find/acquire it?
• Does the entry describe step by step how another group can replicate what they do?
• Does the entry describe HOW the group publicizes its project?
• Does the entry describe How the group plans to make the information available to other Groups that may be interested, if it is not already included in the entry?

We will be announcing the Jerry Award competiton for 2008 in next quarter’s issue of Reports. If you have any recommendations on the criteria we should use to judge in 2008, please contact dsingleton@apcug.net.