UK Informix User Group

Well my plan to have a usergroup meeting failed....no-one apart from Neil Truby mentioned it on the day and when I turned around after the day no-one grabbed me...in fact every one had buggered off! So bloddy hot in there I was tired at the end... Can anyone else who wants to attend a usergroup meeting e-mail me a phone number? I spoke to Nick Beevers from IBM - one of the two IBM contacts for the UK User Group. He's happy to organise a room and speakers..he wants 8-10 people on the User Group Steering Committee or at least who can represent the User Group so that we always have someone at the meetings... So far I have People whose phone numbers I know - David Lintel - Neil Truby - Paul Watson - Scott O-Rourke - me People whose phone numbers I don't know - Keith Simmons ... - Malc P (potential?) - Malcolm Wellans (maybe?) - Doug Lawry (?) can you guys e-mail me a phone number? The second list can be backups so not much do...come on! Also IBM have no plans to hold another meeting this year unless we want one...can I get votes for a September meeting? Say end of May and end of September for IBM meetings? Easy for me to remember since my birthday is in August...I start organising promotion for a meeting around my birthday and give people a months notice...I'm happy to e-mail / phone invites/reminders... I'll be the sheepdog that rounds people up for meetings.. ...woof woof...pant pant pant...rrrrr..woof! Come on!

David, Whilst I applaud your efforts in trying to stimulate interest in a UK User Group I have to query what you expect a national user group to acheve that isn't currently being done by the combined forces of IBM and IIUG. If you list the reasons for having a user group they normally boil down to providing better communication from the supplier to the users. Providing feedback from the users to the supplier. Learning about NEW development languages. Learning about 3rd party products. As you well know I have been involved in Informix User Groups for about 18 years. At various times I have helped to run a UK User Group, and helped IIUG grow from a fledgling idea into an example for other products. During that time I have seen the need for national user groups diminish to the point where they are no longer cost-effective (IMHO). On the other hand IIUG has flourished as it provides what people want from a user group without undue costs of time or money, and can better focus on the issues that would fail on a local level due to lack of critical mass, which with the diverse requirements of users has become very important. So, what does IIUG do that a local group can't. 1. Lobby the supplier. 2. Ensure product information is made available to all in a searchable form. 3. Provide feedback on an international basis via surveys etc. 4. work with the supplier to make sure that events such as the recent Infobahn are made available to all. 5. Provide special interest groups where people of a like disposition can inter-relate. 6. cater equally for all users, not just those who happen to live within easy travelling distance of an "event". The only thing that they can't really do is to focus on local issues such as national pricing and support issues. But there are mechansims within IIUG for having local and national email distribution for issues like that. I think that instead of trying to concentrate our efforts on national user groups we should be focussing on helping the IIUG improve the way it works. And the best way to do that is to participate in the surveys, attend the webcasts where they are appropriate, read the information being published by the IIUG, and help the IIUG to maintain the highest standards that is has provided to date. I would agree that IIUG spend too much of their time concentrating on running conferences which by their nature would entail great costs of time and money to attend and are therefore prohibitive for many of their members, but I don't think a UK User Group could ever consider organising a conference, or that many of the UK users would find it any easier to attend a European conference. I'm not that convinced that the conferences are a valid use of time/money anymore. The product has become so vast that a large portion of any conference would not be relevant to many of the attendees. I therefore propose that we should re-activate the UK mailing list as part of the iiug, should use that for discussing UK specific issues, and that we should help other users to understand the benefits of the IIUG. You never know IBM might one day learn that there is an effective feedback mechanism there if they want to use it, and they need not depend on hand-written feedback forms. And before any of you start slagging off IIUG - remember the IIUG is only as good as the people who contribute to it. regards Malcolm