Our History

2004: Building Community Together

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 4400! Of that total number, approximately 1445 were AUGI members when they registered for AU!! If my calculations are correct, AUGI members represented approximately 33% of attendees to AU this year! We had many more NEW members sign up right there at AU also.

The AUGI Annual meeting was very well attended and accepted also. During the meeting I recapped the highlights of what AUGI has accomplished during the past year. I’d like to share them with those of you who couldn’t attend. Before I recap some of this years highlights, I’d like to introduce to you my team of directors that made this such a red-banner year:

David Kingsley - Sr Vice President
John Moran - Jr Vice President
Richard Binning - Secretary
Robert Bell
Mike DeGraw
Jill King
Yoshi Honda
And serving by appointment:
Treasurer: Donnia Tabor Hanson / MossCreek Designs

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: The AUGI membership database is now “scrubbed” every month to delete members who are unreachable. No user group can claim near 100% validated members except AUGI!

AUGI Revit Community established at www.AUGI.com There are many more product communities planned for birth in the months ahead – and all FREE!

The Autodesk University Channel is new this year.

I’m sure you have noticed the improved technology and interface in our forums this year also. We have greatly improved the usability of our forums.

We have also rebuilt our AUGI Training Program (ATP). We have had very good success with our online training and want to thank all who have participated in it, either as instructors or students.

Our new member registration and sign up process has been simplified and streamlined this year. As you know, earlier this year, our Internet Service Provider got hit by a devastating worm virus that knocked us back a few steps. Not to be deterred, we have now implemented our own servers with heightened security and backup redundancy so this kind of problem shouldn’t happen again. We appreciate your support and patience during our down time.

As all of you no doubt have noticed, AUGIWORLD Magazine has been greatly enhanced this year. Especially noteworthy is our Tips & Tricks section. Our technical editor has done a stellar job with this all year long! Our technical editor is David Harrington. Thank you Dave! Also, a special thanks to Marilyn Law, Editor! Launched AUGI’s first regional learning and networking event, AUGI CAD Camp in Jacksonville, Florida. This was a TOTAL AUGI event and a huge success!! More coming in 2005!!

Forged new working relationships with the ATC Board of Directors (Autodesk Training Centers) which, a few years ago, we thought would be out of the question. The users will benefit from this relationship. We have officially opened doors to working with North American Autodesk resellers to assist with local member initiatives, again to benefit local users. Formally established a relationship with the AUG-JP (Japan) organization to participate in the AUGI organization. They currently boast 6,000 members. Formally established a partnership agreement with Solidvapor, Inc. to provide “behind-the-scenes” organization management services

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! Keep up the good work all you volunteers for AUGI!!

Thanks for all your support this year…

~Marv