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Re: User Groups and Apple Stores
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Re: User Groups and Apple Stores


  • Subject: Re: User Groups and Apple Stores
  • From: Doan Stafford <email@hidden>
  • Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 23:50:31 -0700

On Sat May 17, ~8:05pm, Rick Ortiz of mauimac.org asked:
> Which User Groups have benefited from [Apple stores]?
> What type of interaction has your group had with management?

On Mon, May 19, ~1:40pm, Louise Dawson of lwmug.org responded:
> South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island Apple Stores have sent speakers to
> our monthly meetings. And we encourage our group to attend their demos
> and classes... A different MUG was so pushy with them when they first
> opened, that they are wary of MUGs. So, don't overdo it.

On Wed, May 21, ~11:40pm, Alex Podressoff of amug.org, countered w/:
> The Chandler store arranged for a special opening night invite for AMUG
> members and sent some of their employees to put on demos at two of our
> monthly meetings, though one presentation became an adlib sales pitch.
>
> Two months ago I was told that Apple's new policy is to not have store
> employees go to user group meetings. The Phoenix store, has not even
> responded to several calls I made to them over the past year.

On Fri, May 23, ~11:50m, Christopher Keller of sgvmug.org, added:
> TWO of the WORST presentations we had in the past year were an Apple
> employee and an ASE/ACE.

Hey everybody,

Thought I'd throw in my two cents...

The Los Angeles area is incredibly fortunate to have at least six Apple Stores in a 35 mile radius (w/ a seventh coming soon to Santa Monica), the highest concentration of Apple Stores anywhere.

The L.A. area also has 40 officially Apple-registered and recognized MUGs (in about a 70 mile radius), which, as of MW/SF 03, was the highest concentration anywhere, though followed closely by the entire state of NY.

<http://www.qmug.org/Team-LA/03-01-05--Thumbnails.html>

I am very happy for Louise and her relationship, and am happy our group is not the one she mentions as a good example of a bad strategy. Our own group's experience more closely mirrors Alex's.

Even though the Glendale store has been open for two years, our group has yet to formally or officially approach it. However, when the Grove store opened last year, we did try to establish a formal relationship.

In Aug '02, Garr Reynolds, then Apple User Group Program Manager, came down to meet w/ ~40 L.A. area MUG leaders from ~20 groups, yet the Grove chose not to respond to formal written correspondence, e-mail or voicemsgs.

<http://www.qmug.org/forum/Jot_to_Maria.html>

Given that the store had just opened, I waited a few months, and in Dec '02, I tried to arrange an iPhoto presentation for Feb '03. Meetings face-to-face w/ the store manager were very pleasant, but led nowhere.

<http://www.qmug.org/LA/qi-qore/-spondence/02-12_invite-2apple.html>
<http://www.qmug.org/LA/qi-qore/-spondence/03-01_update-2apple.html>
<http://www.qmug.org/LA/qi-qore/-spondence/03-02_zzzreq-2apple.html>

I personally ended-up making a *very* short (5-10 min) iPhoto presentation (after an excellent Digital Camera presentation by someone else), privately irked that the people most qualified to do it wouldn't, but publicly of course all smiles and sunshine.

What I loved about Garr is that he came from us, and I had hope that he would speak for us. One of my favorite quotes from him is:

> I'd like to help Apple increase its awareness of and respect for user
> groups, improving the valuable partnership that exists between the
> company and its user group customers.

<http://www.qmug.org/forum/Say_hello_to_Garr.html>

With Garr's departure, I have lost that hope, and I haven't heard anything from anyone that I should have any.

If the Apple Stores have a written policy, uniform or at their discretion, about their relationships to User Groups, I would very much like to know about it.

We continue to list a few of their presentations on our own calendar, as space permits, and encourage our members to attend. But the street goes both ways, and their lack of courtesy to even respond to e-mail amazes me.

From my perspective, our group has been around for nine years now, much longer than anyone at the Apple Stores, and their lack of respect to us so far doesn't warrant much from us to them (so far).

If the Apple Stores would like User Groups to promote and further store activities, they need to be willing to promote and further user group activities, but the message *I* get is, we don't really need you.


Sincerely,
Doan Thiel Stafford * http://www.qmug.org * (323) 222-QMUG/7684
Co-Chair -- QMUG/LA * email@hidden * (323) 860-7346 fax
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