Feature
Article
Larry Clark
|
|
Start a San Diego Chapter!
|
Greetings from San Diego.
For our friends in Sacramento, I want to let you know that Mary and I are quickly settling into our new home town.
Mary quickly found a new job as facility manager for a large medical equipment company. I've continued my relationship with the Department of Health Services, and we're about to start a new Web site development effort. Mary and I are pretty well settled into our home in Escondido (although we have lots of projects planned), and we're enjoying learning the ins and outs of our new surroundings.
The user group scene down here is very different from Sacramento's. Whereas Sacramento has one large group serving multiple constituencies, here there are a huge number of more specialized groups. The current issue of ComputorEdge, San Diego's answer to California Computer News, lists 138 groups. That includes 14 groups for the Apple/Mac and three for the Amiga! It's almost like a whole bunch of SIGs with no parent group. In fact, many of the groups use "SIG" in their names, although they actually are independent.
I began attending the Visual Basic group as soon as we arrived here. It generally draws about 30-40 people to each meeting. They meet in a beautiful auditorium, courtesy of Ericsson, the cell phone folks. They have no newsletter but they do have a pretty good Web site ( http://www.svdbug.org). Interestingly, they have no dues and no officers. A steering committee of about a dozen gurus runs the operation and presents the programs.
Other groups that have captured my interest include a Delphi group, an Access group, a consultant's group, a user-interface design group, and an ASP developers group. I haven't gotten around to all of them yet, but there certainly are enough to keep me busy.
SIGs have always been an important part of SPCUG's program, and it's distressing that there are fewer now than in recent years. I am sure I learned more about VB, Access, and Delphi by preparing programs to present to those groups than I ever did by attending classes.
The diversity of successful groups in San Diego County (which isn't much larger than the Sacramento area) suggests that there may be constituencies for many more SIGs within SPCUG. Perhaps a glance at the list of groups in this area ( www.computoredge.com/sandiego/SanDiegoUserGroups.htm) will give you an idea for a SIG you could start. A few hours a month in organizing and preparation can pay great dividends, not only for SPCUG and the community, but for yourself, too.
|
|
