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In this post, details of August’s MUG meetings are requested and discusses discount offers avialable to MUG members from various vendors; how to find out what is on offer and how to promote them to members.
Hi All,
The end of the month is upon us again and thus time to start thinking about promotion of the AUGUST meetings.
Can you please supply the following information about your _AUGUST_ meeting, BEFORE 5pm Sunday July 2, 2006;
- 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)
As mentioned last month, if you are “just having a Q&A session” at your meeting, could please you consider providing a “topic” to list, so interest in the MUG Event listing, and even more importantly, interest in your group is maintained.
Also, it is worth noting that Chuck Joiner of the MUG Center mentions each week in his MUG Center Briefing newsletter various MUG meetings from around the world, and now many Australian groups are been covered, but he’ll only list groups with an interesting topic… so to get even more FREE promotional coverage for your group, supply a topic and then Chuck can highlight your group as well 😉
Special Discounts to MUG Members
Did you know that as a recognized Macintosh User Group, your members can take advantage of many special discounts and offers provided from many vendors from around the world? If you didn’t, then your members probably don’t either 🙁
What offers are made available?
- Up to 40% of books from major publishers including Take Control, O’Reilly, Peachpit and Wiley.
- Discounts of software packages including StuffIt Deluxe, Omni range, MYOB
- Discounts on hardware like Wacom tablets, bluetooth headsets, iPod and laptop cases
- and much much more
So how do you find out about these offers?
Well, there are three main sources to keep an eye on;
The Apple User Group Advisory Board– they provide a wide range of discounts from various vendors.
For a list of all the current offers, visit the MUG Vendor Offers page;
mug vendor offers »
To find out the codes needed to take advantage of these specials, have your User Group Ambassador signup to the “Apple User Group Bulletin”, a free mailing list from Apple, that only has one or two emails sent to it a month. The latest offers are listed as is the URL and password to the webpage that contains all the codes.
Apple User Group Bulletin »
The MUG Center– provides a number of unique vendor offers to MUGs, as well as providing a summary of the AUGAB offers.
mug center vendor offers »
AUSMAC– offers some specials from Australian vendors
ausmac vendor offers »
How do you inform your members of these offers?
Simply publish the offers in your printed newsletter, post them to your mailing list and/or publish them on your website.
However, do NOT make the codes readily available to the general public – these offers are for MUG members only, and they can provide an additional service you can offer your members.
Some groups just publish the URLs “http://homepage.mac.com/ugab/offers.html” and “http://www.mugcenter.com/vendoroffers/” . Others publish the full listings. Most just publish the Vendor Specials section from the AUGB. Some groups create display ads for their website, while others use artwork supplied by the vendors to highlight some of the offers including;
take control »
o’reilly »
However you decide to promote these offers to members, is up to you… but make sure you remind your members on a regular basis about them… and don’t forgot to remind them that these discounts are a benefit of been a member of YOUR group 😉
And don’t forget to supply the information about your _AUGUST_ meeting, BEFORE 5pm Sunday July 2, 2006 😉