June’s meeting topics and information are asked for and then we discuss providing varied meeting topics each month for the MUG Events Listing, new MUGs and updating MUGs contacts after Annual General Meetings.

Hi All,

The past month has been really hectic for me and it seems like a year has passed, but no, it’s only been a few weeks since I wrote to you seeking the information for the June Australian Macworld MUG Event details.

Can you please supply the following information about your _JULY_ meeting, BEFORE 5pm Sunday May 28, 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)

Providing Varied Meeting Topics

A few groups have written to me saying that they don’t have set topics for their monthly meetings and could they just have a standard listing each month of say “Latest News” or “Question & Answer Session” and while I’ll do if required, I would like to strongly suggestion that all groups provide “new” and “exciting” topics each month.

Why is this important?

One reason is if the MUG Event Calendar has same “boring” entry each month, people will stop reading it and the free exposure your group is getting will be diminished. But more importantly for you, if there is nothing “exciting” listed against your group, what incentive does a new potential member have to attend your meeting that month?

I understand that many of you do only hold a general Q&A session or are guided by members desires during the meeting, and don’t have structured presentations, but I would suggest that you consider looking an initial topic for discussion and to promote that – even if you open the meeting with the question “And who has a question regarding this months topic of Blah” and end up only covering that topic for 5-10 minutes and then move on to other topics.

For some ideas of topics you could list, visit the MUG Event Archive article from March, and remember you can simply list an iLife or System application.

This way it makes your group like dynamic and having “fresh” material and this will help attract new members.

New MUGs

In recent months, we have seen the number of groups listed in the Australian Macworld MUG Event Calendar increase, either with the formation of new MUGs or older MUGs revitalizing themselves and with the exception of the various US and European Final Cut Pro User Groups, I believe Australia now has both the world’s largest Macintosh User Group and the most rapidly expanding Macintosh User Group base. This is great to see and hopefully we can see this growth continue and have our presence felt within the wider MUG community.

There are a few projects and ventures underway that may assist with this, including the idea of getting a group of Australian (and New Zealand) MUG leaders together to visit Macworld San Francisco in January 2007 – stay tuned for more information.

Annual General Meetings and Change of Contact Details

I know that a few a groups have recently had Annual General Meetings and/or changes in contact details.

To ensure the smooth transition during these sorts of change overs, it is strongly recommended that you establish a set of “standard” email addresses for your group that never change, even if the person holding the position/role does; eg;

president@mug.org

secretary@mymug.com

info@ourmug.com.au

When the person changes, all you need to do is inform the new person of the details like email address, incoming mail server, password etc and they can easily take over.

If you don’t have your own domain, then you can use a “free mail” service like Hotmail or Gmail, and many groups use a Yahoo Groups “admin” account but considering a .com or .net domain only costs AUD$25 per year and you can get free hosting through www.itsamac.com, there is little reason why your group shouldn’t have it’s own domain.

Also, when major Office Bearers or people change roles, you should drop a line to the following people;

Sandy Foderick, Apple User Group Advisory Board Chair – sfoderick-at-mac.com

Giovanna Ostacchini, Apple Computer Australia Webmaster – webmaster-at-apple.com.au

Graeme Moffat, Apple Regional Liaison for Oceania – gmoffatt-at-paradise.net.nz

Chuck Joiner, The MUG Center – chuck-at-mugcenter.com

Greg Sharp, Australian Mac Users Group – webmaster-at-australian.macusersgroup.org

Nicholas Pyers, Australian Macworld MUG Events Calendar – usergroups-at-nicholaspyers.com

You should also inform any of the MUG Vendors and Partners you have may relationships with like;

Peachpit, O’Reilly Books, Adobe Systems, Microsoft Mindshare.

Well that it from me for this month… please send your JULY meeting topics and other info to me BEFORE 5pm Sunday, May 28th.