Get your LUG Nuggets here. November was truly a whirlwind for local user groups (LUGs) across the nation. LUGs in Florida had the opportunity to participate in the AUGI CAD Camp held in Jacksonville, Florida. This first-in-a-series training and networking event provided an opportunity for LUGs to showcase their talent and advertise their existence and benefits of membership. All interested LUGs were provided a free table in the expo area as well as signage to announce their attendance and showcase their logos. LUGs that participated in the November 2004 CAD Camp took home an extra NFR software title, T-shirts, sunglasses, and other handouts or raffle items to be distributed to their members. If you missed your opportunity, be sure to attend one of the upcoming AUGI CAD Camps sweeping the country in the spring of 2005.

The year is rapidly drawing to a close, but we still have some business to attend to and some information to report. Autodesk University, held the week of November 29–December 4, provided the unique opportunity for LUG presidents to meet each other and participate in a roundtable session prior to attending classes. On Wednesday, December 1st, AUGI held its first LUG President Roundtable breakfast. Following a round-robin introduction session and a brief report card covering AUGI/LUG accomplishments, your LUG Manager, Richard Binning, facilitated a discussion focused on the topic of “Communication and Support.” I am proud to report that we had in attendance 20 current and prospective LUG presidents and a lively discussion. Many of the LUG presidents visited the AUGI booth later to collect additional goodies to take back to their communities.

Based on feedback provided before and during the meeting, AUGI is working on some new functionality to better support LUGs. In addition, our bi-monthly presidents’ conference call will continue with the next date to be scheduled in February. Please send your agenda items, problems, and ideas to lugmanager@augi.com. If you want to begin a live discussion to solicit new ideas or solutions, please post them in the Local User Group forums at AUGI.com.

In addition to our LUG presidents’ breakfast, the International Team at AUGI hosted a reception for the International AUGI members in attendance at Autodesk University. AUGI would like to thank Autodesk for supplying the refreshments. In attendance were more than 50 AUGI members from a diverse assortment of countries across the globe. AUGI president-elect, Yoshi Honda, welcomed everyone to the reception. Jill King, AUGI International Team Manager, was also in attendance as were most of AUGI’s Board of Directors. It was a pleasure to meet so many people and to finally have a face to match the name of some members who are seen frequently on the forums. AUGI is focusing on forging partnerships with multiple local user groups on the international scene. If you would like to work with AUGI, please contact our International team members. You can also contact me and I’ll put you in touch with the appropriate person.

We are still looking for new CAD users. We have a member group on AUGI.com, which you can join and identify yourself as a new user. For those of you who do are not listed in this group, but consider yourself a “newbie” please send me an email if you are interested in the following opportunity. I have been contacted and asked to find a group of “green” CAD users who would like to review some help files and provide some much-needed feedback from a fresh set of eyes. Would you like to participate? I have been assured that a nice gift will be provided based on your participation.

This study will involve working with a new help file interface and providing feedback directly to Autodesk. If you are interested, please add yourself to the “Newbie” group in the forums, or send me an email with the subject line “Newbie” and address it to lugmanager@augi.com. The study will begin in January, so please get me your name as soon as possible.

Have you requested your NFR software for your North American LUG? The year is ending soon; be sure to send me your NFR request so that it will be submitted in time to be filled before the new year begins. Thanks for supporting our members at the local level!

Take care until next issue.

Richard Binning
LUG Manager