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This month, I'm following on the heels of my introduction as our group's new Public Relations Coordinator by introducing myself as our group's new Chapter and SIG Coordinator. Chapter and SIG management integrates well with my work as PR coordinator, so I'm quite comfortable working with our chapter and SIG leaders. I'd like to start by thanking my predecessors, Larry Lewis and Chuck Sinclair, for doing an effective job managing our chapters and SIGs, respectively.
Last month's public relations report discussed plans to contact various media outlets (Phase I) and put together a public relations committee to discuss a strategic plan for the future (Phase II). Work on both phases is proceeding apace. Phase I is just about complete, and I'm tying up some loose ends, but I'm always on the lookout for more media outlets to promote the group. If you know of any, please contact me. My phone number and e-mail address are on the inside back cover.
Currently, I'm chairing an eight- member public relations committee that's putting together a strategic plan for our group. The committee includes Vice President Diana DeMuth as vice chair, President Frank Leonard, past president Larry Clark, Edwin Holloway, Chris Graillat, Stan Morris, and Shirley Peterson. These volunteers come from a wide variety of backgrounds and they're providing a lot of good ideas. The committee will present its recommendations to the Steering Committee in December. It will present the recommendations to the membership in January here in Sacra Blue.
One of the committee's topics under discussion is the future of chapters and SIGs. Chapters and SIGs have made our group one of the biggest and best in the country. Currently we have five chapters that meet regularly; the Yuba-Sutter chapter closed recently.
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One of my priorities as Chapter Coordinator is to elicit ideas from chapter leaders about how to best publicize their chapters inside and outside of the group. Another priority is to try to expand the number of chapters. The best place to start is places that had chapters in the past-especially Yuba City/Marysville, Woodland and Stockton.
We currently have 12 SIGs, but like our chapters, one SIG recently left the fold-the Paradox SIG has stopped operating for lack of interest. Otherwise, things are looking up for the SIGs. For example, the Visual Basic/Access SIG at the local Microsoft offices regularly attracts 30 people to each meeting, and the Beginners and MCSE/I SIGs are growing quickly. As with chapters, I want to get SIG leaders together to talk about promoting their SIGs and expand the number of SIGs. I am surprised that we don't have more SIGs that discuss prevalent products and topics in computing today. Just from looking at the Mentor List, I have a few suggestions for new SIG topics, including accounting software, DOS (I'm sure there are still some DOS users in our group), genealogy, graphic design/desktop publishing, Java, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office, multimedia, spreadsheets (this leaderless SIG has been dormant for a while), utilities, Web page design and Windows NT.
You may have an idea for starting a chapter or SIG-or you may know someone who would be perfect for the job-but where do you start? Start with me. I'm the person who can get you started, and all you have to do is call or e-mail me. I look forward to hearing from you. Next month I'll talk about the requirements for starting a chapter or SIG. See you then.
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