Hello, everyone!
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support for AUGI, and me as president, during 2004.
We just finished Autodesk University 2004 in Las Vegas and it was the best ever! There was a total attendance of around 4,500 and, of those, over 1500 were AUGI members when they registered for AU. If my calculations are correct, AUGI members represented approximately 33 percent of the AU attendees this year, and there were many more NEW members who signed up while at AU. Welcome!
The AUGI Annual meeting was well attended. During the meeting, I recapped the highlights of what AUGI has accomplished during the past year. I’d like to share them again for those of you who couldn’t attend the event, but before I do that, I’d like to introduce my team of directors, all of whom made this such a banner year:
Robert Bell
Richard Binning
Mike DeGraw
Yoshi Honda
Jill King
David Kingsley
John Moran
Donnia Tabor-Hanson
AUGI 2004 Highlights
- AUGI has realized a phenomenal growth over the past couple of years. Our membership has crossed over 40,000 and will likely surpass 50,000 by year end. Noteworthy in this is that the AUGI membership database is now “scrubbed” every month to delete members who are unreachable. Please go to “My AUGI” at AUGI.com to keep your personal record up-to-date. No user group can claim near 100 percent validated members except AUGI!
- AUGI Revit Community was established at www.AUGI.com. There are many more product communities planned in the months ahead—all FREE! Stay tuned for developments.
- The Autodesk University Channel is new to AUGI.com this year. It's a great way to stay on top of event developments, announcements, and so on.
- I’m sure you have noticed the improved technology and interface in the AUGI Forums this year. We worked hard to improve the usability of our forums.
- We rebuilt the AUGI Training Program (ATP). We have had good success with our online training and want to thank all who have participated in it, either as instructors or as students.
- Our new member registration and sign-up process was simplified and streamlined this year. Joining AUGI has never been easier.
- AUGIWorld magazine has been enhanced this year to include more technical and "tips & tricks" content. Our technical editor, David Harrington, has done a stellar job with this all year long. Thank you, Dave!
- We launched AUGI’s first regional learning and networking event, AUGI CAD Camp, in Jacksonville, Florida. This was a total AUGI-sponsored event and a huge success. There are more CAD Camps coming in 2005!
- We forged new working relationships with the ATC (Autodesk Training Center) Board of Directors. AUGI members stand to benefit greatly from this relationship.
- We have officially opened doors to working with North American Autodesk resellers to assist with local member initiatives to benefit users.
- We formally established a relationship with the AUG-JP (Japan) organization to participate in the AUGI organization. AUG-JP currently boasts 6,000 members.
- We formally established a partnership agreement with Solidvapor, Inc. to provide “behind-the-scenes” organization management services. Note: While we still need and rely heavily on volunteers, our programs have become more logistically demanding, making daily operational management necessary to keep things running smoothly.
What a year we’ve had!!
What does the future hold for AUGI and all of you involved in AUGI? Let’s find out, together with AUGI’s incoming 2005 president, Yoshi Honda! The March/April issue of AUGIWorld will feature the traditional Q&A interview with your incoming president.
Thanks again for all your support this year...
Marv
Submitted by Marv Muston, 2004 President, AUGI.
