AUGD: October Meetings, MUG Focus & Library Building
AUGD: October Meetings, MUG Focus & Library Building
- Subject: AUGD: October Meetings, MUG Focus & Library Building
- From: Nicholas Pyers <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:49:02 +1000
Hi AUGDers,
Each month I contact all the known Australian Mac User Groups to grab
information about their forthcoming meetings, which is then compiled
into a list and published in Australian Macworld.
Rather than just making it a dull boring "please send me you info"
request, which can be overlooked, I try and include some interesting
commentary and suggestions with it.
This month's "issue" was sent earlier this week and called for the
October meeting info and discussed how MUGs can build their own book
library.... and a few interesting stories have already arisen from
this, which I'll be discussing at a later date ;)
It has now been suggested that Non-AU MUGs may also benefit from
receiving these informal commentaries, so I'll start to post them
here on AUGD as well, starting with the most recent one now ;)
Last months, I discussed the various resources that the MUG Center
offers, the one before that I covered Vendor Specials; what they
were, how MUG Leaders could find them and how they could promote them
to their members. There has been talk about developing websites,
cheaply... one new MUG has taken advantage of the free hosting offer
from Itsamac... and tons more...
so feel free to check them out and you can find all the "back issues"
of the mailouts on my site at;
<http://www.nicholaspyers.com/usergroups/mugevents/>
-- FORWARDED MESSAGE --
Hi All,
Another month has flown by and thus now we all need to start thinking
about the promotion of your OCTOBER meetings, for inclusion in the
Australian Macworld MUG Event Listing, and elsewhere.
Can you please supply the following information about your _OCTOBER_
meeting, BEFORE 5pm Sunday August 27, 2006 (NEXT WEEK) for inclusion
in the Macworld MUG Event Listing;
- The Date (including the DAY)
- Your Group Name
- Title of your Presentation/Event (if you know what is)
- The URL promoting your meeting/event
- Entry Cost (if any)
== MUG Focus ==
Matthew Powell, the editor of Australian Macworld and I have been
discussing options for expanding the MUG Listing and one thought we
are now investigating for implementation in the new year, is having
an accompanying article with the Calendar that would focus on the
special events, milestones and happenings within 2-3 different MUGs
each month and we'd like to highlight each Australian MUG at least
once each year in the format.
My proposal is to have the "Event Name", then 2-3 paragraphs
detailing the event, followed by the MUG Name, Website and perhaps
telephone and/or email contact details.
Rather than just highlighting an ordinary meeting, the sorts of
things we'd like to see focused on include, but aren't limited to;
Extra special presentations - say you've got a high profile Apple-
related personality like Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak attending one of
your meetings (if you did, we'd also expect you to shouting this one
to the roof ;);
Even having a representative from big name corporations like Apple
themselves, Adobe, Microsoft etc would be worth focussing on
Swap Meets/Computer Markets/Auctions - If your group runs, or
participates in, a local computer Swap Meet, Computer Market or Auction
Milestones & Major Anniversaries - will your group turn One, Ten, or
Twenty-One, or have another significant birthday? Have you just
signed up your 100th member? About to have your 1,000th meeting, or
publish the 500th issue of your newsletter?
Do you normally charge entry for meetings or training sessions? If
so, would you consider having an "Open Day" when potential members
could attend free of charge to see what your group have to offer?
Does your group collect old Macs, refurbish them and distribute to
needy families? If so, this would be a great service to feature.
These are just some of the ideas that would be great for a short
focus on in Australian Macworld to gain extra coverage and exposure
for your group.
To help us decide if this is a venture worth pursuing further, could
you also take a few moments to answer these questions as well;
- Would your MUG be interested in supplying information for the
expanded MUG Focus?
Yes/No
- Which month would you prefer to have your focus published?
Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr/May/Jun/Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct/Nov/Dec
[Remember Australian Macworld comes out "early in the month" so if
your event is before the 10th or thereabouts, you may wish to promote
in the issue BEFORE to ensure maximum coverage.
- Would you prefer to promote a Special Event; a Memorable Milestone;
an Unique Service; or something else?
Event/Milestone/Service/Other
If other, please specify what you have in mind.
== Library Building ==
Does your MUG have a Book Library? If not, why not?
Did you know many book publishers and distributors, both in Australia
and overseas, will provide at least one free book each month to
registered MUGs... so very quickly, you build quite an extensive
collection of books for no cost and then you can lend these out your
members.
You can even earn money from the publishers by signing up to their
Affiliate programs, and directing your members to follow the
affiliate links from your website and if they purchase you earn a
small commission.
Also, most publishers offer some sort of discount to MUG Members who
purchase books direct from them.
To take advantage of these generous, and often monthly, donations,
all the publishers normally ask for is a short review of the book to
be published in your magazine or on your website and sometimes
include a provide banner or button link from your website back to the
publishers site (and you can often link directly to their MUG
discount page, which encourages your members to purchase and if you
are a member of the publishers affiliate program, earn some cash for
your group)
Also, if you write additional reviews, most publishers will send you
even more books ;)
Some publishers that I have dealt with myself, or heard great reports
about, and offer MUG programs include;
O'Reilly
http://ug.oreilly.com/
PeachPit
http://www.peachpit.com/user_groups/index.asp?rl=1
Woodslane (An Australian Distributor of major publishers)
http://www.woodslane.com.au/woodslane/usergroups.asp
Apress
http://www.apress.com/userGroups/
McGraw Hall Osborne
http://www.osborne.com/usergroups/index.shtml
Total Training (provide DVD tutorials)
http://www.totaltraining.com/corp/usergroups.asp?mscsid=
-- Keeping Track of your Books --
Now, that you've thought about establishing or expanding your MUG
Library, you're going to need a way to keep track of all the books
your MUG has, and more importantly, which books are out on loan and
to whom.
Well, Delicious Monster have just announced that they offering each
registered MUG one free copy of their award winning Delicious Library
package, which uses a webcam like an iSight to scan the bar codes of
books, CDs and DVDs and then heads off to various online resources
like Amazon.com to get all the details about the item, including
Cover Art and stores it in a database which can then track which
items have been watched or read, which items you have lent out and
when they are due back.
To get your MUGs free copy, just fill out the special MUG form found at;
http://delicious-monster.com/mug.php
Now all we need is for someone to donate to each MUG a computer with
a suitable webcam included... can you say MacBook from Apple ;)
Well, that's it from me for another month... have a look at, and take
advantage of the various offers from the book and training media
publishers and distributors... and don't forgot to send me your
OCTOBER meeting info and your answers and thoughts regarding the MUG
Focus articles.
--
Nicholas Pyers, Macintosh User Group Resources
email: email@hidden
web: http://www.nicholaspyers.com/usergroups
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