Cambridge Mac User Group
caMMac
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
The Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayam.
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MUG Org
News from UK & Irish Mac User Groups
07 November 2007 18:49
Michael
Corgan sent us this message:
It's high time that we told you a little more about the shadowy figures that run the umbrella organisation devoted to pushing forward the cause of Mac User Groups in the UK & Ireland.
Most of the talking is done by me, Michael Corgan. Formerly of London Mac User Group and now at Wessex, I have been a long-time member of support groups for the Mac and its predecessor, the Apple ][. The real work is mainly done by Peter Tucker, of Oxford Mac User Group. Peter runs the web-site, provides the graphics for our logos and the badges that volunteers wear on the stand at Mac Expo and has most recently been involved in setting up the Special Offers Pages that will be appearing on our web site from January 3rd. More about this below . We both speak to suppliers, to try to get discounts for members of all MUGs, and to get them to send people to demonstrate product to our meetings. I go round with the begging bowl to get prizes donated for the annual Photo Competition, and am able to lean on Peter's contacts for some of these.
The organisation, to use the term loosely, is not funded in any way - all expenditure is met by us personally - with one major exception. And that is the cost of setting up the stand at Mac Expo in its various guises over the years. This has always been borne primarily by London Mac User Group, who purchased the very necessary spotlights that light up the even more necessary graphics - which one of their members, Stephen Bennington, designs, and which they also provide. They have also, thanks to Rodney Walshaw of the Group, provide the two desk units that we put at the front of the stand. The work of setting it up is carried out by volunteers from LMUG while the stand manning is by people from Groups all over the UK - and on one occasion, from Ireland too. That makes it a good place at which to exchange ideas and meet up with fellow users from other parts of the country. The stand itself is donated by the organisers of the exhibition, who have been consistently good to us over the years, though it can't be denied that bringing people to the exhibition is something that we both try to achieve.
The latest development, which has been some time in the setting up (due to the guy making it contracting Bell's Palsy, from which he is now fortunately recovering), is the Special Offers page - or pages. This features offers received by us direct and by individual Groups, and ensures that the special prices are only open to bona-fide User group members. This will be live at the beginning of January to allow us time to get some good offers in. And we will also need to have the contact details for a responsible member of your Group who can vouch that anyone applying for a Special Offer through the site is indeed a bona-fide member of a User Group - this is intended to be a benefit of being in a MUG.
We are open to ways of making all our Groups better and more useful to the members, and of course of publicising them. So don't hesitate to tell us your ideas. We have been fortunate in that the initial magazine publicity that was given by MacUser has been taken up by Mac Format, who, in case you have missed it, currently devote a double-page spread to UK & Irish Groups. We are still asking for a 200-250 word piece, with a couple of photos (preferably not of people watching a demo or sitting around a Mac!) from those Groups that haven't yet participated, and updates from those who have. I'll be asking for these soon!
At the time of writing, the 200 plus inquiries that were received on our stand at MacLiveExpo have been entered onto a database, and the email addresses checked out. There were perhaps 20 that had to be re-checked and now that is done the lists have been sent out to the individual Groups. Considerable effort has been expended in getting these contacts for your Groups and we want this year to follow them up more closely than previously. Please do contact the new people and let us know in a month or so how many of them came to a meeting and/or became members of your Group. We were also lucky enough to have several thousand fliers putting people onto the UKIM web site placed in the carrier bags handed out at the show entrance by Computer Warehouse - do let us know if this has resulted in inquiries for your Group.
We would like to thank the volunteers who manned this years' stand - it was specially good to see so many MUG leaders this time around.
With best wishes
Michael
--
Peter Tucker Michael Corgan
Helping Mac User Groups to help Mac users
UK & Irish Macintosh User Groups
http://www.macusersuk.org
It's high time that we told you a little more about the shadowy figures that run the umbrella organisation devoted to pushing forward the cause of Mac User Groups in the UK & Ireland.
Most of the talking is done by me, Michael Corgan. Formerly of London Mac User Group and now at Wessex, I have been a long-time member of support groups for the Mac and its predecessor, the Apple ][. The real work is mainly done by Peter Tucker, of Oxford Mac User Group. Peter runs the web-site, provides the graphics for our logos and the badges that volunteers wear on the stand at Mac Expo and has most recently been involved in setting up the Special Offers Pages that will be appearing on our web site from January 3rd. More about this below . We both speak to suppliers, to try to get discounts for members of all MUGs, and to get them to send people to demonstrate product to our meetings. I go round with the begging bowl to get prizes donated for the annual Photo Competition, and am able to lean on Peter's contacts for some of these.
The organisation, to use the term loosely, is not funded in any way - all expenditure is met by us personally - with one major exception. And that is the cost of setting up the stand at Mac Expo in its various guises over the years. This has always been borne primarily by London Mac User Group, who purchased the very necessary spotlights that light up the even more necessary graphics - which one of their members, Stephen Bennington, designs, and which they also provide. They have also, thanks to Rodney Walshaw of the Group, provide the two desk units that we put at the front of the stand. The work of setting it up is carried out by volunteers from LMUG while the stand manning is by people from Groups all over the UK - and on one occasion, from Ireland too. That makes it a good place at which to exchange ideas and meet up with fellow users from other parts of the country. The stand itself is donated by the organisers of the exhibition, who have been consistently good to us over the years, though it can't be denied that bringing people to the exhibition is something that we both try to achieve.
The latest development, which has been some time in the setting up (due to the guy making it contracting Bell's Palsy, from which he is now fortunately recovering), is the Special Offers page - or pages. This features offers received by us direct and by individual Groups, and ensures that the special prices are only open to bona-fide User group members. This will be live at the beginning of January to allow us time to get some good offers in. And we will also need to have the contact details for a responsible member of your Group who can vouch that anyone applying for a Special Offer through the site is indeed a bona-fide member of a User Group - this is intended to be a benefit of being in a MUG.
We are open to ways of making all our Groups better and more useful to the members, and of course of publicising them. So don't hesitate to tell us your ideas. We have been fortunate in that the initial magazine publicity that was given by MacUser has been taken up by Mac Format, who, in case you have missed it, currently devote a double-page spread to UK & Irish Groups. We are still asking for a 200-250 word piece, with a couple of photos (preferably not of people watching a demo or sitting around a Mac!) from those Groups that haven't yet participated, and updates from those who have. I'll be asking for these soon!
At the time of writing, the 200 plus inquiries that were received on our stand at MacLiveExpo have been entered onto a database, and the email addresses checked out. There were perhaps 20 that had to be re-checked and now that is done the lists have been sent out to the individual Groups. Considerable effort has been expended in getting these contacts for your Groups and we want this year to follow them up more closely than previously. Please do contact the new people and let us know in a month or so how many of them came to a meeting and/or became members of your Group. We were also lucky enough to have several thousand fliers putting people onto the UKIM web site placed in the carrier bags handed out at the show entrance by Computer Warehouse - do let us know if this has resulted in inquiries for your Group.
We would like to thank the volunteers who manned this years' stand - it was specially good to see so many MUG leaders this time around.
With best wishes
Michael
--
Peter Tucker Michael Corgan
Helping Mac User Groups to help Mac users
UK & Irish Macintosh User Groups
http://www.macusersuk.org
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First Post
06 October 2007 13:07
It's taken me a while (sorry), but
here we go with the first post in the Group's Blog. I'll call it
"caMMac Notes" for the moment, to be different, but I am of course
open to suggestions. I'll enable Comments so feel free to make
them. However, if there are Web Pests I will probably have to
disable them again as I don't have a screening system.
Do make suggestions for this part, or any part. And if you want an announcement, get in touch.
Chris
Do make suggestions for this part, or any part. And if you want an announcement, get in touch.
Chris