User Groups 2.0: Lessons From The Past, Courtesy of Andy Ihnatko

User group structure and management styles have been an important part of the second and third User Groups 2.0 conferences, as well as a couple interesting message threads over on the Apple User Group Discussion email list.

Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times, Macworld, MacNotables, and long-time user group advocate, provides some valuable input into the subject in a new posting to his personal blog, Andy Ihnatko’s Celestial Waste of Bandwidth.

In BCS BAT, Andy talks about his time as an enthusiastic volunteer with the now-defunt Boston Computer Society, then one of the world’s largest Mac User Groups. Andy discusses what made the group special and how changes in the group’s management not only spoiled the party, but also eventually led to the group’s downfall.

There are lessons aplenty in this article from Andy’s archives, and is essential reading for anyone who is reviewing their group’s leadership structure.