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"User Groups - What They Can Do For You"
MacBeginnings Conference
Friday, July 20th, 12 PM - 12:45 PM
Macworld Expo MacBeginnings Track
(Open to all Macworld Expo Attendees)
MacBeginnings Theater, Booth #1360
If you are new to the Mac, new to user groups, or have a friend who needs to be introduced to the most valuable resource they can get for their Mac, then this session is for you!
Macintosh User Groups (MUGs) represent an amazing resource to Mac users of all levels and interests. Over one thousand user groups worldwide offer problem solving, software demonstrations, technical expertise, training, enthusiasm, friendship and fun to the Mac community. In this session, you will meet a diverse team of User Group leaders, find out what MUGs are all about, what kind of benefits and services are provided, how to find one near you, or how to start your own.
The panel for this session includes several successful Macintosh User Group leaders with very diverse backgrounds:
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Amaya Gergoff
Caracas Macintosh Users Group
Amaya has been president of Caracas Macintosh User Group for over four years. She is a System Engineer and Webmaster at ifxnw.com.ve, a major Internet Service Provider in Venezuela. She also belongs to the Apple Regional Liaison Team for Central and South America. Amaya is working on the project, LatinMUG.org, which serves as a Macintosh User Group (MUG) center for Latin American and other Spanish-speaking countries. She also hosts a monthly user group chat, the LatinMUG chat, conducted in Spanish, on World Without Borders.
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Elsa Travisano
MUG ONE
Elsa has been a guiding force for MUG ONE (Macintosh User Group of Oneonta, New York) for 15 years. She currently serves as Vice President, Webmaster, and Editor of MUG ONE’s award-winning newsletter, Newsbreak. Previously she served two terms as President, and was Librarian for many years.
Elsa comes from a Mac family. Her father, Philip Thompson, was founding President of Princeton’s PMUG and both of her brothers are Mac professionals. Her husband Tom is an English professor, former MUG ONE President and writer with three published books written on a Mac. Her son Michael is studying visual arts media on the Mac, and her daughter Emily is a budding software reviewer who had to stand on a piano bench to see the audience when she first began giving MUG ONE presentations.
A "Mac of all trades," Elsa is a Macintosh consultant and instructor who has taught teacher workshops, classes for children and adults, and a college course in the Mac. She specializes in assistive technology for children with special needs.
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William T. Medlow
Long Island Macintosh Users Group
Bill is the President of LIMac (Long Island Macintosh Users Group) and also serves as Chairman of the MultiMedia SIG. He is very proud of what the group has accomplished in view of the fact that LIMac, a 300+ member group, is a not-for-profit, all volunteer organization that has educated Macintosh users on Long Island for the past seventeen years.
Bill lives on Long Island with his wife and two children, one in college and one in law school, He takes advantage of Long Island's great opportunities for golf, fly fishing, sailing and is a member of the Kiwanis, where he serves as Golf Chairman. His totally electronic architectural office specializes in Visualization and Photo renderings, and includes his personal Mac running OS X and ArchCad, a carbonized CAD program.
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Lynn Poos
Silicon Mountain Macintosh User Group
Lynn E. Poos is Secretary/Treasurer of the Silicon Mountain Macintosh User Group, Inc. (SMMUG) in Colorado Springs, CO, the largest active MUG in the State of Colorado. He became involved with the Mac in the late 1980's, and has been a strong supporter since. In the spring of 2001, Lynn was appointed to the Regional Liaison Team as the Liaison for the South Central United States.
Lynn retired in 1993 after thirty-four years with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and moved to Colorado to relax. He immediately became active in SMMUG, and was selected to be their corporate Secretary/Treasurer. Relaxation was an alien concept and he too soon found many others things to do. He was appointed by the City Council to serve on the Colorado Springs Liquor and Beer Licensing Board, where he served until term limited in June 2001. Concurrently, he was appointed by the County Commissioners to the Juvenile Community Review Board for the Fourth Judicial District, which he chaired until he was appointed, in 1998, by Governor Owens to chair the Juvenile Parole Board for the State of Colorado, a position he currently holds.
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The session host is MUG Center Editor Chuck Joiner from the Hershey Apple Core:
Chuck is involved in a wide variety of MUG activities. He has been President of his group, The Hershey Apple Core, since 1992, serves as Chairman of Apple's User Group Advisory Board, User Group Correspondent to "The Mac Show," co-host of 'The User Group Report" and Editor-In-Chief of The MUG Center. With a background in accounting and two professional insurance designations, Chuck is Vice President of Claims and Operations for The Insurance Alliance of Central PA.
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The MacBeginnings Theater is Booth #1360, marked in red on the show floor map below:
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