Hello Region 12

Happy New Year. I hope this finds all of you healthy and happy. This year is going to be an excellent year for technology so make sure you are staying up to date on all that is happening. Give a friend a gift of membership to your group and watch it grow. Make sure you are watching our site (http://www.apcug.net) for the latest and greatest.

This edition of NOOZ is sent to the President, APCUG Representative, Newsletter Editor, Webmaster and Program Chair of each APCUG-member User Group.

We urge you to share the information in NOOZ by including it in your newsletter, posting in on your website, or e-mailing it to members of your group.

In this edition of NOOZ:

1. 2006 Membership Drive
2. APCUG Annual Conference
3. Newsletter & Web Site Contest Winners
4. Jerry Award Winners
5. APCUG Reports News Magazine
6. 2006 Board Officers
7. Spotlight your group

1. 2006 Membership Drive. Annual membership in the Association of Personal Computer User Groups is $50.00. Invoices have been sent to member groups but you can renew your membership online by completing the form at http://apcug.net/contacts/forms/renewal_application.htm. After you submit the form, you will have the option of paying by check or credit card. A BIG THANK YOU to the groups that have already renewed their membership. Groups that have renewed will receive an acknowledgement e-mail. Remember APCUG will host your web site for you and that in itself is worth the $50.00. I just looked up how many groups have renewed and a lot of you have not. Make a point of going to the site and renew today. You dont want to miss out on all that APCUG has to offer.
2. APCUG Annual Conference. The 2006 Annual Conference had almost 230 attendees who enjoyed various presentations and meals sponsored by vendors, the Vendor Faire where they could talk with vendors and book meeting presentations, as well as Round Tables where they could enhance their personal computer knowledge and UG management skills. Thanks to all of the participating vendors – all attendees are encouraged to send them a thank you for sponsoring the various activities. For a recap of the activities and various Round Table presentations/handouts, go to http://apcug.net/events/conference06/conf06files.htm. You will also find a copy of the Proceedings Manual with a detailed listing of the Round Tables & presenter bios, website & newsletter contest winners, Jerry Award winners, and the Daily Reports that will give you an overview of some of the conference happenings.
3. It was wonderful meeting so many people from Region 12. We had representatives from Nevada, Idaho, and Hawaii. Lou Torraca came from Hawaii to attend our conference and Doug and Ruth Parsons and Martin Torres represented their group from Idaho. Nevada has too many to mention but they had the biggest turnout for our region. I hope that next year more states from Region 12 will be represented.
4. 3. Newsletter & Web Site Contest Winners. You will find the criteria for both contests at the above Web site.

NEWSLETTER

Small Groups

• 1st Place – Broward Personal Computer Association, Inc.
• 2nd Place – Arizona Society for Computer Information, Inc.
• 3rd Place – Southwest International Personal Computer Club
• Honorable Mention – Computer Users of Erie

Medium Groups

• 1st Place – Twin Cities PC User Group
• 2nd Place – Big Bear Computer Club
• 3rd Place – Los Angeles Computer Society
• Honorable Mention – Big Blue & Cousins

Large Groups

• 1st Place – Alamo PC Organization
• 2nd Place – North Orange County Computer Club
• 2nd Place – Melbourne PC User Group
• 3rd Place – Tri County Computer Users Group
• Honorable Mention – Danbury Area Computer Society

WEB SITE

Small Groups

• 1st Place – Fredericksburg PC Users Group
• 1st Place – Amador Computer Users Group
• 2nd Place – Santa Barbara PC Users Group
• 3rd Place – Princeton PC User Group
• Honorable Mention – Santa Clarita Valley PC Group

Medium Groups

• 1st Place – PC Community
• 2nd Place – Kentucky-Indiana PC Users Group
• 3rd Place – Tacoma Area PC Users Group
• Honorable Mention – Diablo Valley PC Users Group

Large Groups

• 1st Place – Tampa Bay Computer Society
• 2nd Place – Sunflower Computer Club
• 3rd Place – Tucson Computer Society
• Honorable Mention – Computer Club of Oklahoma City

4. JERRY AWARDS (You will find descriptions and the criteria at the above Web site)

Ongoing - A program run by, or in association with the User Group. The program should have been in existence for more than one year.

• 1st place ($1,500) - Central Maryland UG (Columbia, MD)
• 2nd place ($1,000) - Sarasota PCUG (Sarasota, FL)
• 3rd place ($500) - Central Iowa Computer User Group (Ankeny, IA)

How - This category requires the User Group to provide documentation on how they run their program.

• 1st place ($1,500) - Cajun Clickers Computer Society (Baton Rogue, LA)
• 2nd Place ($1,000) - Tampa Bay Computer Society (Tampa Bay, Florida)
• 3rd place ($500) - Tulsa Computer Society (Tulsa, OK)

New - A program run by or in association with the User Group that has been in existence since December 2004.

• 1st place ($1,500) - Rockport Computer Users' Group (Rockport, Texas)
• 2nd place ($1,000) - Computers Assisting People (Cleveland, Ohio)
• 3rd place ($500) - Central Maryland User Group (Columbus, MD)

If you did not attend this conference, you want to put it on your calendar for next year! Plans are already being made for the next conference to make it bigger and better. The conference is going to be at the Riviera on the strip in Las Vegas.

5. APCUG News Magazine REPORTS. We apologize for not sending the last 2005 issue of Reports out in a timely manner -- you will be receiving it soon. We hope that you have taken the time to check out the online PDF issue at to http://www.apcug.net / click on APCUG Reports / click on 4th Quarter 2005 Zip File.

6. Congratulations to the New Board of Directors.

• Ken Bundy – President
• Don Singleton – Vice President
• Jim Evans – Secretary
• Steve Peyrot – Treasurer

7 Spotlight. I would like to spotlight a group each month from our Region. Please send me information on the latest and greatest that your group does. Do you have a terrific volunteer program, do you shine at having the best SIGs around, are your programs fantastic, and what is your method of increasing attendance at your meetings? Let me know—please. Also, if you have not already done so, please add me to your list so I can receive your newsletters and other information.

• Computingly yours
• Cheryl Wester
• Region 12 Advisor
• cwester@apcug.net

As an APCUG member, you have received this e-mail to inform you of updates, changes, or special news and information from APCUG. Our policy has always been to send e-mail messages only to announce such information, and we will continue to honor this policy. If you no longer want to receive these e-mails, please reply to the sender. Thank you for being an APCUG member.