APCUG Notices

APCUG Reports Q1 (January-March) is available at http://reports.apcug.org/2009q1.htm. It has the PDF of the entire document, a zipped version of the PDF, and HTML files for each individual article. I urge you to either forward the PDF, or the link, to any officer or SIG leader in your User Group that will not receive it directly from us, and urge him/her to see if there are any ideas that you would like to try in your User Group.

First of all, this was meant to be sent out yesterday, but Time Warner picked Christmas Day to lose my broadband connection. Go figure. I just wanted to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas ( ie. new laptops, hardware, toys to play with...) Also, I want to extend my sincerest hopes that everyone has a safe holiday season. With gas prices dropping steadily, I expect that many of you are traveling to see relatives and friends and hope that your travels end happily and safely.

With the 2008 hurricane season over with (Thank God) I realize that some of you are still experiencing the damage and hardship brought on by the storms, and wanted to pass on my sentiments of hope. Property can be rebuilt, lives cannot.

You read in your recent Regional Advisor’s NOOZ that APCUG is sponsoring three User Group Contests for 2009. We are doing it somewhat differently this year in that the contests are completely electronic, utilizing APCUG’s new SharePoint site: http://sharepoint.apcug.net/default.aspx.

Folders for each contest have been set up within the SharePoint site. Complete instructions for entering the contest using SharePoint can be found on the site: http://reports.apcug.org/2009q1/sharepoint/contest.htm. SharePoint is an exciting new technology that allows everyone to share everything. Using the site to enter the APCUG contests will give you and your members a feel of how easy it is to use and it will also give you and your members an opportunity to browse the site and see what is happening with other APCUG User Groups.

Times are tough these days. For the most part, a lot of our clubs are operating on limited resources with tight budgets. SharePoint will provide you some of the needed resources to operate your clubs’ programs, and signing up for a User Account will open up a lot of opportunities for your User Group.

I do hope you take the time to promote the contests within your group. Contests are loads of fun and it is also an opportunity to showcase your best newsletter and website as well as your member’s photos. With SharePoint, everyone will be able to see your clubs best. So don’t miss out, give SharePoint a spin, kick the tires and look under the hood.

1. Early Bird Membership Renewal Contest. If your group renews its APCUG membership during the month of December, it will be eligible to win a nice software prize. The drawing will be held for three winning groups in January and the winners will be announced by January 31, 2009. The URL for the renewal form with full instructions is: http://www.apcug.net/membership/renewal_application.htm

2. Website, Newsletter & Digital Photo Contests. APCUG’s Newsletter, Web and Digital Photo contests start January 1, 2009 and you will have until January 31, 2009 to submit your website URL, newsletters and digital photos for these competitive events. The complete contest rules and criteria will be sent to the President, APCUG Representative, editor and webmaster of each group in early December.

3. Region 3 and Region 9 Advisors. Region 3 has a new Advisor, Bob Vance. Bob is the APCUG Representative for the Licking County Computer Society in Ohio and has been a member of the SouthWest International Personal Computer Club (SWIPCC) in Texas since 1995. While at SWIPCC he was a monthly contributor to a segment of the newsletter called Bob's Links. Bob also served as the Vice President for approximately 5 1/5 years and was acting President for a 6 month period. He was also the SWIPCC APCUG Rep for approximately 5 years. He has already become quite active in the Ohio user group community by attending several user group meetings and offering meeting and membership ideas to the Region 3 groups. We thank Bob for volunteering to be Region 3’s advisor.

Melvin Weekley, Region 9 Advisor, resigned as of October 2008. During his time volunteering for APCUG he served as Region 9 Advisor, secretary of the Board of Advisors, newsletter contest chair, editor of the annual conference daily reports and was a long-time attendee at the annual conference in Las Vegas. We thank Melvin for all of his contributions to APCUG.

4. Meeting Ideas. The topic for the November meeting of the Front Range PCUG in Colorado was "Mailing Label Magic." In support of that presentation, a tutorial on creating labels using Microsoft Word has been posted to the FRPCUG website http://frpcug.org/presentations/mailing_label_tutorial.pdf The PDF file includes bookmarks.

The intended audience of this tutorial is the casual to intermediate computer user (although even the power user may learn something). All user groups are welcome to use the tutorial for a meeting or SIG.

If your User Group has a presentation uploaded to your website and would like to share it with other user groups, please let me know and the information will be sent out via NOOZ.

In November the Under the Computer Hood User Group in San Diego had this meeting: Computer Troubleshooting and Repair / Solving Computer Problems with Smart Computing - Learn some basic computer troubleshooting techniques as we try to diagnose and repair a donated PC. Even if we don't get it running, we will demystify the insides of a computer and provide general debug, repair and maintenance tips. We will also use our meeting's "Random Access" help inquiries to demonstrate the problem-solving resources of Smart Computing Magazine's online tech support center.

Gadgets! Gadgets! Gadgets! Is the topic of the December Diablo PC Group, California, meeting. The holidays are coming up Real Soon Now. So this month's DVPC meeting subject is... Gadgets! Members of the DVPC Board of Directors, most of whom are gadget freaks, will show a plethora of their favorite computer and electronic gadgets. We're inviting DVPC members who have neat gadgets that they'd like to show at the December meeting to bring them along. This month's meeting will be fun, interesting, and may give you some ideas for gift giving (or requesting!).

The November Santa Clarita Valley Computer Club, California, meeting featured a PPT presentation of High-Tech Gadgets for Holiday Giving. The gadgets were found in the latest edition of the Windows Vista magazine, as well as Smart Computing magazine. (You never know where you will find ideas for a presentation.)

The Hilton Head Island Computer Club, South Carolina, is having a workshop on: Toolbars and Their Use. Do you know….

Have you checked with your local Staples, Best Buy, or other big box store about a presentation? How about the local photo store, genealogy club, Mac group or digital photo club?

5. Fundraising Idea. If your group is interested in doing this fundraising project, contact Gabe at ggoldberg@apcug.net for a referral.

..this is Gabe’s yearly solicitation for folks to support a deserving community-service organization in the DC area. Many of you have bought these discount coupon books in past years and you all deserve the opportunity to save money.No pressure, I won't repeat the note, no reply is needed. Thanks for reading further...

Entertainment discount coupon books offer hundreds of discount opportunities on dining (usually two-for-one deals, buy one and get one free), travel (airline, hotel, car rental), shopping, sporting events, theater, movies, dry cleaning, auto repair, and much more.

These aren't "discounts" requiring spending extra money, buying things you wouldn't have bought, in order to "save" money. These are real-life discounts available on routine everyday purchases. I just saved more than $200 on one hotel stay by booking through Entertainment.

The books are great, I've saved hundreds of dollars each year for many years. These are real discounts on everyday purchases, not requiring special, additional, or oddball expenditures.

Book sales benefit Capital PC User Group, CPCUG, www.cpcug.org. This is a 25-year old, approximately 600-member, community service organization which helps people use and cope with technology. It offers classes, meetings, a lively Web site, a HelpLine with dozens of volunteers available to assist members, science fair awards, computer recycling, and much more.

2009 Entertainment books are available; discounts are good from now through November 1, 2009.

CPCUG is not selling books in person this year. But local editions -- MD/DC and VA/DC are available online, as are editions for cities throughout North America. CPCUG earns the same percentage on online purchases as it has in past years on in-person sales, 26%.

As you see in #4 and #5 above, there some great ideas floating around the user group community. If you or your groups have any additional ideas to pass along, please let me know. I’ll get them into the next edition of Nooz, so that everyone can look at them and see if they can fit into their group’s plans. Also, if you have any powerpoint presentations or recorded meetings, please send those to me also, as I, for one, am always looking for new meeting ideas as I am sure you are. Shortly, you will all have access to the new SharePoint site where we can all share stuff, including these presentations.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Me, as usual, ate way too much and paid for it on Friday. <G> Now, I’ll have to take it easy for the rest of the month to get ready for the Christmas holiday meals where, yeah you guessed it, I’ll over eat again. Hard to pass up good food.

In any case, I hope each and everyone of you has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

As always, I love hearing from you, and if there is anything I can do to help you in your running of your groups, please let me know.