The CNET interview was a lot of fun. There were only two users groups that took part: ACUG, located in California, by default representing the West coast and small clubs, and a group from New York City, the New York Personal Computer User Group (NYPCG), representing the East coast and large clubs. The NYPCG spokesperson was Gene Wood, the club's Education Chair. Gene's club has around 900 members, (down from around 2000) compared to ACUG's 69 members (down from a high of over 100). Large or small, both clubs seemed to share similar problems and concerns. We were allowed to talk to each other, fielded questions from people calling in (only two) and responded to questions from the moderator Desmond Crisis. Most of the questions centered on what a member could expect from a user group and what the purpose of the user group was.
Gene and I explained that most user groups are made up of two types of members, those who join the club to learn about computers and increase their knowledge and skills, and those who have that knowledge and skill and are willing to share them with others. A member looking for answers to computer related questions, both hardware and software, will most certainly find another club member who can provide the answer they are looking for. If the volunteers don’t immediately have an answer, most will take the time to find the answer and contact the member at a later time, or at least point them in the right direction.
We also explained that most clubs have a newsletter that contains informative articles on computers, software and related subjects such as reviews, how-to's and tips, that members receive as a benefit of membership. There is usually contact information for people to get help when they need it, along with meeting information.
Another benefit of user group membership we discussed, is that many clubs hold raffle drawings at their general meetings where members can purchase raffle tickets for software packages, computer hardware and other computer related items and win them at a fraction of their original cost. In addition, vendor discounts are available for many products and services that you can only take advantage of if you are a member of a User Group.
On a different note, we mentioned that if you are community-minded, computer user groups also have programs where members can go out into their local community and provide their expertise to charitable and non-profit groups and thus help those less fortunate in their area. This gives you that "warm & fuzzy" feeling of doing something really worth-while.
Then we talked about the Special Interest Groups (SIG’s) each club has. These groups usually hold their own meetings during the month and members (as well as non-members) can attend and get answers to specific questions or gather information on a specific subject or topic. Members can usually determine just what type of information a SIG provides by the name of the SIG, such as a Graphics SIG, a QuickBooks SIG, a Windows SIG and so on. Gene and I explained that while the General Meeting is where vendors and club members provide demonstrations on different software and hardware packages as a general over-view of the topic, it is at the SIG meetings where members can discuss a special problem they might have and find information and help from other members on specific topics.
In addition to the benefits, there was a discussion of some of the problems faced by user groups today. It was interesting to see that a fairly large club in New York City is having the same type of problems we seem to have, namely:
Why is membership dropping? One reason may be that User Groups are doing their job too well. As people learn how to use their computers proficiently, they don't feel a need to stay in the group they joined when they needed that help. It would be great if they would stay in and help others, or the community at large, but each individual has to make their own decision on that.
Lack of vendor interest. Gene said that they were (as we are) experiencing a lack of support from vendors and thought, as I do, that the bad economy was the major reason and that vendors were directing their efforts to the more profitable big business clients. In some ways, it is a “catch-22” situation: lack of support from vendors can mean less interesting programs for members resulting in a declining membership, which then directly affects vendor interest.
Getting novices to actually try doing things with their computers. Gene mentioned that novice members seem to keep asking the same questions meeting after meeting and when asked it they actually tried the suggested solutions they would most likely say they were afraid they would damage the computer or hang it up (Doesn't that sound familiar?).
The problem of various levels of expertise in one club: Both of us agreed that we get complaints about the programs being too technical: going over the heads of some, and yet at the same time others complain that the presentations are too basic and not detailed enough. We explained to the audience that usually the general meetings were designed to present programs on software and hardware just to let people know what is out there, and that Special Interest Groups (SIG’s) were where people should look for information geared to their level of expertise.
Both clubs have similar SIGs although the NYPCG group also has a SIG on UNIX. Some of their SIGs are actually several versions of the same SIG broken down by level of knowledge of those attending, for example: novices, intermediate and advanced. This is something that a larger club can do much better (having more volunteers) than a small club.
The problem of getting members to say what they want. Gene and I both agreed that it was difficult to get a response from members as to what they would like to see presented and what type of programs and subjects they wanted covered. This is essential to make sure that members are getting what they are looking for in their club.
Scheduling of SIG meetings is also a problem due to the distances members have to travel to get to the meetings and conflicts with other commitments. However, the New York City group does have SIG meetings on both Saturday and Sunday which might be more convenient for working members, whereas ACUG holds meetings only during week nights. The NYPC group also holds formal classes such as a Certification Class where members assemble a computer from scratch and get to keep the computer once the class is completed. When the class is completed the student is eligible to take the Class A Certification test (required by a lot of employers) which attests to their abilities. The class also costs $900.00 per person to cover the expense of holding it, however this is much less than the $2500 charged by many professional training companies. The questions asked by two callers were: 1) Did we have a SIG on UNIX? Our answer was that the NYPCG does have a UNIX SIG and I explained that while ACUG does not have a specific UNIX SIG, we can and do cover UNIX in our Advanced SIG if any member requests that type of information or presentation.
2) Did we know anyone who had experience in building their own MPC music box? Neither club knew of anyone attempting to build a MPC box.
The discussion was lively, and the only let down was the lack of many call-in questions. Desmond said that was because we answered the questions he asked so thoroughly and well, that we probably were answering the questions callers would have asked, before they got a chance to call in. I did enjoy talking with both Desmond and Gene and it was very educational, a lot of fun and we hope, good publicity for user groups in general. As a result of the on-air broadcast, within a few days, our Games SIG leader received an email from a user group in the San Francisco Bay Area interested in playing games as a team over the Internet. The writer had heard the broadcast, and explored ACUG's Web site for contact information. Hopefully, people who listened in now have a better idea of what user groups are all about and the benefits of belonging to one.
CNET Radio can be found here: http://cnetradio.com CNET's blog (a sort of on-line diary) lists links to our group and the NYPCG under Monday Dec. 16th, 2002, here: http://cnetradio.blogspot.com
Note to APCUG editors: This article was first published in an issue of the Bytes and Bits Newsletter. I thought it might have broad interest for the UG community. Please drop me an email if you publish this article to: barbara@web-centric.net. I would be very pleased to receive either a link to your online publication, PDF, or a hard copy of your newsletter if possible. I enjoy seeing what everyone else is doing, thanks. If this article is too long, please feel free to break it up into 2 or 3 parts at appropriate points if that would work better for you.
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