1. Annual Membership Dues
2. Website, Newsletter & Digital Photo Contests
3. SharePoint Site
4. Program Ideas
5. Region 2 Specific

This edition of NOOZ is sent to the President, Vice President, Director,
Secretary, Treasurer, APCUG Representative, Newsletter Editor,
Webmaster, and Membership & Program Chairs of each APCUG-member User
Group.

Please share the information in NOOZ by including it in your newsletter,
posting it on your Web site, or e-mailing it to members of your group.

In this edition of NOOZ:

1. Membership Renewal. It's that time again. Each January, all user
groups must renew their membership in the APCUG, to continue enjoying
the support and benefits of the organization. There will be some major
changes in the make-up of the organization this year, so be sure to have
your group positioned to take advantage of the new and expanded
benefits. The URL for the renewal form with full instructions is:
http://www.apcug.net/membership/renewal_application.htm

Dues are $50.00. To qualify as a full member of APCUG, your group must
have 25 or more members and do two of the following:

- Hold regularly scheduled meetings.
- Maintain a public website on the Internet providing meeting time and
location and other information about the group.
- Publish a newsletter (electronic or hard copy) that is sent to all
members.

To qualify as an Associate Member of APCUG, your group must:

- Be affiliated with or organized by a corporation

or

- Have fewer than 25 members

Associates enjoy all the privileges and rights of membership, but they
may not vote. Dues may be paid by credit card, PayPal or check.

Mail checks to:
APCUG
P.O. Box 671294
Dallas, Texas 75367-1294

2. Results of the Elections - The 2009 elections have been finalized.
Three incumbent Board of Directors were re-elected to serve a three-year
term from January 1, 2009 thru December 31, 2011. They were Don
Singleton, Kathy Jacobs and Claudette Rizk Marshall. Also, seven Board
of Advisor positions were filled with three incumbent Advisors and four
new members. Their two-year elected terms will run from January 1, 2009
thru December 31, 2010 (See below). In addition, at the January Board of
Advisor Meeting, elections were held to fill the three Officer positions
within the board. The results are also listed below.

Current Board of Advisors

Region 1 Sam Wexler
Region 2 Gabe Goldberg
Region 3 Robert Vance
Region 4 Doris Collins
Region 5 Stu Silverman
Region 6 Patty Lowery
Region 7 Roger Tesch - Elected Vice-Chair of the Board of Advisors
Region 8 David Steward - Elected Chair of the Board of Advisors
Region 9 Sandra Hart - New Advisor
Region 10 Dave Gerber - New Advisor
Region 11 Cory Moerbe - New Advisor
Region 12 Clint Tinsley
Region 13 Mitch Garvis - New Advisor

We welcome new Advisors, and thank continuing and returning Advisors,
for volunteering their time and efforts to the user group community.

In addition, we thank outgoing members for their dedication to the user
group community. They were Judy Taylour, Cheryl Wester, Melvin Weekly
and Barbara Manning.

Remember, your Advisor is YOUR link to the APCUG. Be sure to contact
them for assistance. Alternatively, you can contact David Steward, Chair
of the Advisors, for additional assistance, at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

As always, we are constantly looking for new volunteers and ideas to
make the organization stronger. If you can help, contact David at the
address above.

3. SharePoint Site - We have recently implemented a new tool for members
of the APCUG, in the form of a SharePoint site. This site will house
many helpful document and areas of interest. In addition, various
sponsors will use the calendar to help schedule meetings or tours. This
site will evolve, so make sure you have registered on the site to use
it. Visit sharepoint.apcug.net to take a look.

4. Program Ideas - As discussed above, the SharePoint site will be home
to lots of benefits for user group officers. One such feature that is
being implemented is the area dedicated to Program Chairs. In this area
(folder in Shared Documents area), various types of presentation
materials will be housed, for use by Program Chairs for monthly
meetings. To make this area as beneficial as possible, we need your
help. If you have "canned" presentations, consider uploading them to the
site so that others may use them. In this way, we are all helping each
other make our individual user group stronger.

Again, ideas. If you have 'em, let's hear 'em. We all need to be
involved.

5. Region 2 Specific

On January 17 I attended the inaugural meeting of OPCUG, OLLI Personal
Computer User Group, formed within a seniors continuing education
organization. I had planned to solicit them to join APCUG until they --
without my prompting -- passed the hat to raise money for APCUG dues.
They had a great meeting -- maybe 80 attendees -- featuring a Q&A
session, a short talk on AOL email tips, and a great presentation on the
Amazon Kindle book reader. They're planning a meeting with a remote
presentation by Gene Barlow and they plan to broadcast their meetings to
two remote sites where they offer classes. They're off to such a good
start because the group's organizer is an experienced user group leader
and the new group is a partnership -- but not a merger -- between APCUG
member group WACUG and OLLI. The organizer, Paul Howard, was reelected
WAC President for Life by being the only candidate.

OPCUG is just one of several senior-oriented PC groups and clubs in the
Washington, DC metropolitan area. Many senior communities -- county
centers and residence communities -- have such clubs; they're great
prospects for joining APCUG and/or affiliating with existing user
groups. Such memberships and affiliations are great win/win deals -- the
senior groups/clubs get all the benefits of joining the larger user
group community, and APCUG and the user groups gain more members and
broader community outreach.

Speaking of senior computer clubs, on February 10, I'm giving a talk at
the Greenspring Village Computer Club in Springfield, VA, on "Gabe's
Favorite Web Sites". I've done this talk before and it's great at
kicking off a discussion of which Web sites attendees use and like.
Other groups might organize such talks themselves, perhaps with a panel
presenting diverse perspectives.

Another possible area of user group community outreach is the
soon-to-happen (unless Congress delays it!) transition from analog to
digital television. Even with the publicity given to the transition and
availability of converter boxes, there's still confusion about what will
happen and who it affects. Tech-savvy user groups can offer assistance
and advice, thereby creating visibility and good will for themselves.
Many groups have offered community presentations on the transition;
there's still time to do this and be useful.

Like clockwork, I receive press releases about upcoming meetings from
The SeniorNet Computer Literacy Center in Ewing, New Jersey. Their
January 13 presentation was “Computing Without Software … Almost”. The
monthly press release provides all the details needed to attend -- or
for a newspaper, magazine, or radio/TV station to distribute the
information to readers/viewers/listeners. And it points to the group's
Web site, <http://www.ewingsnet.com/>. And they get extra credit for
sending the press releases to me, so I know what they're up to and can
attend if I'm in the area. It's a bit frustrating for me to know there
are several dozen user groups in the APCUG region for which I'm
responsible (Region 2, DC/MD/VA/DE/NJ) but only to hear about
events/activities/news from a few.

While I've visited and spoken at a number of Region 2 groups, APCUG's
limited travel budget prevents me from attending every group every year.
But I'd still like to hear from all groups by receiving newsletters
and other mailings, either via email or postal mail. That's part of an
APCUG Advisor's job, staying informed about user group status,
activities, meetings, presentations, problems, resources, etc.

If you're interested in my visiting and speaking, perhaps about APCUG or
on other topics -- please let me know. The sooner trips can be planned
and budgeted, the more likely they are to happen!

It's been mentioned several times that while there was no annual APCUG
event this year in January in Las Vegas, APCUG is running several
regional user groups around the country. At present, none is planned by
Region 2 groups; the likely closest event will be near New York City.
I'd love to have an event in the Baltimore/Washington area -- we
certainly have enough local and nearby user groups to provide a good
audience. But running such an event requires a team and a leader. If
you're interested -- or if your group might serve as a team -- please
let me know.

As noted above, this is APCUG membership renewal time. I hope that all
groups are renewing for 2009 membership benefits. And, of course,
encourage any non-member groups you know about to join APCUG, or to
contact me for more information.

Your Regional Advisor,

Gabe Goldberg

Your group is a member of APCUG; you have received this e-mail to inform
you of updates, changes, or special news and information. Our policy is
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 a member of
APCUG.

--
Gabe Goldberg APCUG Reg. 2 (DC/DE/MD/NJ/VA) Advisor  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
3401 Silver Maple Place, Falls Church, VA 22042           (703) 204-0433