Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 UW 5/3/83; site uw-beaver Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!houxf!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!info-mac From: info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) Newsgroups: fa.info-mac Subject: Re: The MacTech User's Group Message-ID: <1886@uw-beaver> Date: Thu, 11-Oct-84 15:31:48 EDT Article-I.D.: uw-beave.1886 Posted: Thu Oct 11 15:31:48 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 13-Oct-84 06:12:35 EDT Sender: daemon@uw-beave Organization: U of Washington Computer Science Lines: 44 From: John Mark AgostaRoy- It might help you to know some of the activities we are contemplating as we set up the "Stanford Macintosh User's Group." We're starting from scratch, not ever having organized one before, and not very familiar with the bureaucracy of registering a student group at the university. After a few organizational meetings, both large public meetings but at first just among the "founders", we came up with a list of activities that look like viable sub-groups to serve the needs of as many mac users as possible. They are: -A developers subgroup. Now its looks like an "Inside Mac" study group, composed mainly of graduate students. -A freeware distribution and Commercial software review group. They have clearinghouse type functions. Much of this we plan to implement by a bulletin board on the mainframe(s), separate from Info-Mac. We hope this serves the general community of students, educators and staff who are not necessarily interested in writing their own applications. -A dissertation writer's group. Their unifying problem is to write large documents according to the Graduate Office's prescibed format. Also I hope research users will trade ideas here. -A organizational group. Does typical club functions like invite speakers, raise money, keep up with corresponding groups, etc. On the last point, there are several places on campus with consortium functions, ie selling macs, selling supplies, teaching courses, and developing applications for various labs. We're trying hard to dovetail our activities with them. So far most of the response we've gotten has been from graduate students, because that's where the idea for the user's group came from. And the response has been very encouraging! However we want to keep the direction open so all mac user's can benefit from membership. I hope you can learn from our experience as limited as it is. Here's a question: There's a semi- official industry organization called "Apple-Core" made up of apple users and clubs. Does any info-mac reader have opinions on the value of joining them? My opinion on your query (and it is just my own) is that Info-mac can serve as an inter-university user's group: why splinter off? Good luck -jma johnmark@su-whitney.arpa