Hello everyone,
As you should all know by now, Darren Smith's position of User Group coordinator has been eliminated by NeXT, as part of their continuing efforts to focus on vertical markets. Darren's absence will be felt keenly by the user community, but we have gotten pretty good at surviving in the midst of adversity. It is, however, more important than ever that we stick together.
That is why I am pleased to announce to you the formation of NEXTSTEP User Groups International (nügi), an organization currently spanning three continents and several countries. Darren Smith helped catalyze our founding, and donated his mailing lists to us. Based on the pioneering work of Joe Barello, nügi is a "group of groups." Ultimate authority is delegated to the "nügi Assembly", which consists of one representative from each member group. Day to day business, however, is handled by the nügi Executive committee ("nEC") appointed by the Assembly. The nEC currently consists of:
Coordinator and Chair of nEC: Gerben Wierda <gerben@rna.nl>
Gerben assumes the coordinator role as defined in the charter. His task will be to keep things going as smoothly as possible.
President: Ernest Prabhakar <ernest@pundit.cithep.caltech.edu>
Ernie will be the main organizer. He will keep track of all projects and be responsible for NeXT relations (as defined in the charter).
Vendor Relations: Jackie Mackay <mackay@cognito.demon.co.uk>
Jackie will work with NeXT and others to demonstrate how vendors and users can work together (such as through special events and discounts) to help each other.
User Group Relations: Timothy Mills <t6882tm@network.cfc.com>
The newest member of the nEC, Timothy's focus is directly on helping user groups be more effective.
nügi is a young group, and we are still "finding ourselves." However, we would like to - with your help - become the definitive voice for the NEXTSTEP user community. We hope to provide a variety of services to user groups, including Special Interest Groups (SIGS), negotiating user group discounts, providing information via a web site, providing mutual technical support, and much more.
To that end, we would like to ask your groups to join nügi. To do so, simply read the charter (below), and answer the following questions.
1) Have you read, and do you agree to, the nugi Charter?
(Note that the Charter can only be modified by vote of the Assembly. To join, you must agree to the current charter. After that, you are welcome to propose changes, if you so desire.)
2) What is the name & email address of your representative to the nugi Assembly?
Is it NeXTMail?
3) What is the email address for your group, or a leader of the group?
Is it NeXTMail?
Replies should be sent to the coordinator at:
nugi-coordinator@negen.twi.tudelft.nl
Thank you very much for your time. It is hard to function without support from NeXT, but I believe there is enough vitality and vision in the user community to help us make it through, and even thrive. I welcome your comments and suggestions. We will send out details of projects and some current opportunities in the near future.
Sincerely,
-- Ernie Prabhakar
nugi President
nugi@negen.twi.tudelft.nl