AUGD: Introduce Your Group
AUGD: Introduce Your Group
- Subject: AUGD: Introduce Your Group
- From: Pete Zimowski <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 06 May 2010 12:27:56 -0400
We are MMOOS - the Maine Macintosh Owners & Operators Society, a registered Apple User Group in the mid-coast area of Maine. For those of you "from away", that's mid-ways up the Maine Coast between Portland and Bah Hahbah. The group, in various forms, has been around for twenty years. I'm Pete Zimowski, chief cook and bottle washer, presenter, webmaster, Ambassador, etc. I moved to Maine from Burbank, CA back in 2001, about the time that Angus King, our former governor (a huge MacHead himself), put a MacBook in the hands of every 7th and 8th grader in a public school in Maine. I started writing for the Times Record, a regional newspaper, under the monicker of "The Mac Maineiac", and did that for five years trying to increase Mac awareness in the state. It's working….
The first MMOOS meeting I attended in late 2001 was five old guys (no offense to old guys, I'm getting there rapidly myself) sitting around a classroom at Brunswick High School. The floor was opened to people having problems, and I noticed that no one in the room actually had a Mac with them. Now, I had come from attending the LA Mac User Group - hundreds of people in a high school auditorium, major product demos, etc. I had attended MacWorlds and watched (and learned from) guys like Greg Rewis who are masters of software demo. So, myself and a few other "younger" folks started to try to transform the meetings. It's working….
We currently meet monthly in a large meeting room at a local "retirement community". I know, I know, not exactly a venue for attracting younger users, but it's free, has a good atmosphere, and a passable free internet connection. We have between 35 and 40 regular attenders. We have a VP and a Secretary/Treasurer, and an unofficial "board" of people I bounce ideas off of before deciding meeting topics, discussions, and demos. We have no dues, although we took up a collection recently to cover our Christmas Party (we showed the movie "Welcome to Macintosh" and gave out some swag), and our yearly obligations to Maine's confiscatory tax policies. But, I digress.
Our meeting agenda: First, a short (30 minute) segment we call "Updates & Rumors", where we highlight software and hardware updates from Apple (and other vendors with widespread appeal). Then we have a "featured program", that is one of two things: general problem solving; or, an in-depth demo of a single application or a task involving multiple applications (like making a vacation DVD for the grandparents, that kind of thing). We try to leave 30 minutes for general questions, but I've found most people have more "personal" questions, so people start to leave then.
Recently we've begun asking some of the more experienced members to come 45 minutes early and offer other members One-on-One help sessions. This has been VERY popular - we always have more needy than helpers available.
My biggest hurdle has been refining our presentations to try to meet as many members' needs as possible. I think that a User Group meeting should inform, build community, and INSPIRE. Unfortunately, with the number of new Mac users around these days, it's hard to inspire someone to create an awesome iPhoto slideshow when they still don't know how to get the photos off their camera and into iPhoto in the first place! So it's always a balancing act.
Our website is mmoos.net (made with iWeb), and we have a mail list.
Pete Zimowski
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