Information about Australian Macintosh User Groups meetings in October 2006 requested; then we seek feedback on a proposed “MUG Focus” article; and finally, highlights options that allows MUGs to develop and maintain thier own book libraries.

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
• PeachPit
• Woodslane (An Australian Distributor of major publishers)
• Apress
• McGraw Hall Osborne
• Total Training (provide DVD tutorials)

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;

Delicious Monster MUG Special

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.