IIUG Board Meeting Notes

Folks, Here is a summary of the notes from the IIUG board meeting at the end of October. Sorry this has taken a while to get out. Keep in mind that we are an all volunteer organization and we do the best we can. There is some additional information available at our web site at www.iiug.org. Thanks! Cathy ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cathy Kipp E-mail: ckipp@verinet.com International Informix User Group - President ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Official Summary of October 1997 IIUG Board Meeting =================================================== The autumn IIUG Board Meeting took place October 26-28 at Informix's Menlo Park Headquarters, and was attended by all IIUG Board members, except for Gavin Nour. Gavin had excused himself previously. Summary of Meeting Content - Meeting agenda review: * Because of inclement weather, Cathy Kipp and Mike Reetz arrived late Sunday, so several items that required their involvement were relocated at the tail end of the meeting. Otherwise, the agenda was confirmed. - IIUG Presidency - term and re-election. * Worked on new definitions that were discussed, refined and agreed to. These to be posted to IIUG's web site under Organization and Presidency, and essentially establish that the IIUG President's term is one year, barring overriding circumstances; that the President will be pre-elected prior to IWUC and during the spring IIUG Board meeting; and that prior IIUG Presidents should continue on the IIUG Board in the office of Prior President during the following term. - IIUG sponsorship by 3rd parties - to pursue or not to pursue, and conditions. * We revalidated Informix's commitment to support IIUG; agreed that other sponsors would be beneficial, however not under what conditions; and decided against accepting recruiters for sponsorship due to potential legal exposure and ill will from IIUG membership employers; * Also decided that sponsorships and other forms of publicity will be evaluated on a case by case basis; and that where a vendor provides a product or service to IIUG, we'll reciprocate appropriately. - Special Interest Groups (SIGs) - how to start them, articulating SIGs within IIUG. * Established that parties interested in establishing a SIG would be encouraged to start first as a IIUG-sponsored mailing list, to evolve later into a User Group or a committee under the Advocacy Program, and later gain recognition as a SIG by complying with the corresponding Charter and Bylaws directives. * As a result of the discussion, an organizational diagram was drawn, which is included as an appendix to this summary. * Malcolm Weallans was proposed, and elected to be IIUG SIG Director. - IIUG - Informix Partnership, with Erin Kinikin's participation * Discussion focused on what our key messages would be to Informix executives that would visit shortly. Decision converged on the following: * IIUG is the focal point for user communications to and from Informix Software * IIUG is focused on advocacy, technology knowledge transfer, and supporting and providing services to local user groups. * IIUG desires a true partnership with Informix which is invested in assuring mutual success. * A set of actions that would insure on-going and productive communication was outlined. - Preparation for meetings with Informix executives - IIUG key messages and interaction. * In preparation for the meeting with Informix Sales Executives, the IIUG Board agreed to position IIUG as a partner who can assist in growing their user base. Also agreed to propose actionable items, including access to local sales office e-mail aliases, and localized marketing to help local user groups get established and grow - Visit of Informix's sales executives - Attended by Ali Hamid Yahya Karim (Latin America), Jean-Paul Minarro (Europe, Middle-East, Africa), William (Bill) James (Asia/Pacific), and Wes Raffle (VP N. American Field Operations and Global Partners), and Jeff Hudson (VP Business Development). * Jeff Hudson introduced himself as the person who was misquoted on a NewEra statement. Clarified his statement: NewEra will continue being supported based on customer requests and feedback. IIUG Board committed to clarifying this to IUGLC and membership at large. * In response to supportive statements by all sales executives, IIUG Board decided to assign Board liaisons for each sales territory. To date those liaisons are: Gavin for Asia/Pacific, Ron for US and Canada, Bernd for Europe, and Fred for Latin America. - Meeting with Kay Hart to discuss Informix's up-coming corporate communications plans * Kay shared under non-disclosure and in significant detail upcoming activities that would be kicked off by the financial restatement announcement, including product re-branding, new pricing policies, worldwide tours of Bob F. and Jean Yves D. to meet with financial, analyst, media and user communities. * The key messages would be that Informix has a strong management team, a strong product base, growing target markets, tremendous value for its customers and partners, a new distribution strategy for direct and indirect sales, new product announcements and true blue customer testimonials. - Meeting with Bob Finocchio * Following Cathy's short presentation of IIUG, Bob expressed appreciation for our efforts and commitment, recognized how beneficial the IIUG is to Informix, and re-committed to supporting IIUG. He admitted to Informix's key challenge to reconstruct credibility. Shared company's key strengths in database products and their architecture, customer loyalty, market strength for databases, and a non-compete position with application partners. Recognized problems in fundamental operations and spending practices. Placed emphasis on the upcoming financial restatement in restoring credibility, presenting the real numbers, launching a more conservative revenue recognition and expense policy. Anticipated spending less, liquidating non performing assets and running the business more responsibly. Recognized Informix's historical weaknesses in marketing and said that a new Marketing VP would be hired. Positioned Informix as a database company in the leading edge, different from Microsoft, who go for the mass market; Oracle, who's becoming an enterprise software company while sustaining a DBMS product family overdue for re-architecting; and Sybase who is getting out of the DBMS market. Informix will be bought by customers who require its unparalleled functionality to beat the competition. - Meeting with Jean Yves Dexmier, CFO, Informix * JY recognized the value of Informix's connection with its users through us and responded to our questions regarding Informix's financial viability by stating clearly that Informix had already turned the corner, having aligned expenses with income, and that as soon as the restatement was published, and Informix transmitted its action plan, he expected a positive customer reaction that would translate in product sales. Clarif