Announcements Blog

First IWUG Survey Gift Card Winners

RoudyBob — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:29:00 GMT

Dear IWUG’ers

We like to thank each and everyone who participated in the first IWUG survey that concluded recently. We really appreciate your time and the suggestions/comments that you gave us. As announced in the previous email, we are taking the first step of listening to your comments by moving the meetings back to the THIRD THURSDAY of every OTHER MONTH.

Some of you have given us great suggestions and we will be acting on them soon. Also, those who volunteered to participate in the steering committee and or interested in presenting, we will be contacting you soon.

Here are the winners of the two $50 gift cards drawn at random at the last event. Please expect an email from info@iwug.net shortly and provide your mailing address so we can mail the cards to you.

Again, thank you very much for your participation and support

Name: - Brent McClain Company: - SallieMae

Name: - Kristin Sheibley Company: - Perpetual Technologies

IWUG UPDATE: Survey, Nov Meeting, Annual Bash

RoudyBob — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:21:00 GMT

Dear IWUG’ers. It’s been so long that we are sure you forgot we existed. Well we do exist, at least for right now. This email contains a lot of information, so please read on.

Firstly, We want to thank everyone of you who took the time to take first IWUG member survey. We have gotten a lot of results and we are sorting out everything you told us. If you did complain, please be assured that we are listening. We start off by announcing that we will be back on our Thursday meeting schedule. Enough of you told us that Thursday worked better so we are back on the third Thursday of every other month starting this month. Oh, by the way, if you have not yet taken the survey, please take a couple of minutes and do so. The survey will be open until Nov 20th, Thursday morning 10AM. We will then pick out the 2 winners of the $50 gift cards and announce it at the meeting that evening.

Secondly, we are having our November meeting on the 20th @ 6PM. We have a great topic, Microsoft Essential Business Server, a new breed of technologies from Microsoft with the medium business in mind. This meeting however is a new format for us, you can choose to either join us at the Microsoft Office or Virtually from anywhere(so there goes your reason for being out of town). We are partnering with our peer group, CWUG(Chicago Windows User’s Group) to jointly bring you this presentation. Our speaker Nicholas King will be joining us virtually from Redmond, but he promises that this will be a very hands on session so make sure you have your dual monitors and RDP consoles with you. Since we have not had an event for a while, we will make it worth your time to attend this one, the first 30 of you to sign up and attend(either in-person or virtual) will walk away with a NFR copy of Windows Server 2008. More info on how to attend in another post.

Thirdly, where is our Annual event? Really! What fun is IWUG without an annual event right? Well, this is for you. Our annual event will be on December 18th at the JA Building(more info to follow) and we will be hosting the Windows Vista Springboard Series group from Redmond. The group has promised to pay for the extra baggage and bring for everyone who attends, a full copy of Windows Vista Ultimate w SP1. Now, isn’t that nice? We will also be hosting the Indiana Blood Center who are looking for donors. We have done community events in a past with great success and we are calling on you to support and participate. If you generously donate your blood, you will be in the running for really cool prizes like Xbox’s, Zunes, GPS’s, Cool games and much more, so plan your vacation around this. We just want to add that we are planning this to be a really social event, we might have some surprises for you.

Well, that’s about all we have for you. Get your mice and keyboards out and start taking the survey(if you haven’t done so already) or go ahead and sign up for Thursdays’ virtual event. Hope you have a great weekend. If you have questions, please send an email our way at info@iwug.net

Postponed: IWUG Annual Bash 2008

RoudyBob — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:14:00 GMT

Dear IWUG'ers

We held off till the last minute to send you out this update in hopes of being able to still have our annual bash this month, but at this time we will have to postpone our 2008 Annual Bash for probably sometime next month.

We are working to nail the details down for the forthcoming event and should be able to update you very soon on it. We are working with some folks and hopefully this will be a great 6th Annual Bash. We are hoping to have a absolutely awesome speaker and a great charity event to mark IWUG's birthday. We really appreciate your support through all the years of IWUG and thank you for being patient with us as we work real hard to get this scheduled.

We have one more favor to ask of you. For a couple of months now, we have been threatening to send a survey your way to fill out so we could align the group better to your interests. Sometime today the survey should hit your inboxes and we request that you please take a few minutes to fill it out. As an appreciation for your time, we will put your name in a drawing for one of two $50 gift cards.

Again, thank you for your patience and we will let you know more about the event as soon as we work out the details.

Thanks,

Sumeeth Evans - IWUG President

IWUG Member Survey 2008

RoudyBob — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:05:00 GMT

Dear IWUG'ers

Please take this survey for us to better understand how to align the group to your interests.

Over the past few years, we have focused on recruitment incentives, training rebates and chapter challenges to increase our membership. To accomplish this, we need to hear from you! We request that our members complete the following survey in order to gain feedback on your perception of our organization. Plus, we love to hear your ideas and suggestions to make improvements!

With your feedback, not only will we retain our current members, but we'll have the feedback to gain new membership too. Data from this survey will be used to make recommendations for changes within our association. Your input is very valuable and important to us. Thank you very much for your time in participating in our survey.

As an appreciation of your time, you will be entered in a drawing of two $50 gift cards. Hope you enjoy it.

Click Here to Take the Survey

Thanks,

Sumeeth Evans - IWUG President

VMware Indiana Demo Day

RoudyBob — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:12:00 GMT

I received the following message from Phil Lavoie at VMware about their upcoming Demo Day Event:

This is the largest virtualization event held in Indiana

http://campaign.vmware.com/usergroup/invites/IndianaDemoDay_8-7-08.html

Finally, an event focused around demonstrations!

VMware User group members chose 12 demonstrations out of over 35 submitted.

There are over 25 sponsors participating (including: Cisco, Dell, Symantec, EMC, Wyse, and more)

This is a must attend event whether you are new to VMware or a veteran.

We hope you can make it!

-Phil Lavoie

Offer from ReviewNet

RoudyBob — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:36:00 GMT

IWUGers-

We received the following e-mail the other day should anyone want to take advantage of this company's offer. It's not a formal endorsement, just something we thought you might want to look into!

I understand that you manage the Indiana Windows user group. ReviewNet would like to extend an opportunity to your user group members to take our new Windows, Active Directory and Security skills tests to evaluate their skill level. Individuals that complete a beta test will be credited as an advisory panel member on our website at http://www.reviewnet.net/meetexperts.cfm. Individuals receive their test results and can see where their skills compare with other test takers. Participants also qualify for our Advisor Rewards program and a chance to receive quarterly cash prizes. You can learn more by visiting http://www.reviewnet.net/advisor.htm.

I would like to extend this opportunity to you and your members. What would be the best way for me to spread the word to your group about this opportunity? Can I mail you a flyer to hand out at your next meeting?

I look forward to hearing from you soon. I can be reached at the number below or by email.

Best regards,

Michelle Bartie

ReviewNet Corporation

www.reviewnet.net

Message from Microsoft User Research

RoudyBob — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:17:00 GMT

Microsoft User Research is inviting IT professionals to participate in a user research study. We are looking to learn from those who perform IT services for their company; such as routine server maintenance tasks, various levels of troubleshooting, daily server, network or desktop management, and the planning and implementation of technology. We want to meet at your office to learn from you, the experts, so that we can determine what needs to be improved inour software. This gives you the chance to tell us what your needs are and meet with some members of our product team. We highly value your feedback and will be offering you free Microsoft software inappreciation of your time and participation. If this is something that you or others at your company would be interested in, please reply to ms_sitev@microsoft.com at your earliest convenience. We are scheduling site visits to start in mid-April.

IWUG on CS Techcast

RoudyBob — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:54:00 GMT

IWUG makes an appearance in the "Meet your Local User Group" portion of the latest CS Techcast. Visit http://www.consortioservices.com/podcasts.aspx and check out Episode #4.

CS TechCast is a podcast series released every Wednesday and is hosted by the Consortio Services experts Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, and Josh Jones. Each week they discuss the latest IT trends, news, and bring you interviews with key members of the IT Community. Frontline information technology professionals should find the information both helpful and relevant to their careers.

Sharp Business Systems Tech Expo

RoudyBob — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:33:00 GMT

Gary Sobczak, IWUG member, wanted me to pass along that Sharp Business Systems is holding a Technology Expo event at the Colts Football Center on October 17th, 2007. Information for the event can be found in the attached PDF.

MSFT IT Professional Survey

RoudyBob — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:09:00 GMT

Culminis has contacted our user group asking for input on how the Microsoft Windows Client team can better support us as IT Professionals. They would like you to complete the short survey at http://survey.culminis.com/takeSurvey.asp?surveyID=14 no later than June 26th. PLEASE INCLUDE OUR GROUP NAME AS IWUG.

If we have 10 or more completed surveys, we will be eligible to win an Xbox 360. This is a great opportunity to tell Microsoft what you really think regarding the desktop and deployment, so I would encourage you to take part.

-Bob

Perpetual Technologies Microsoft Fast Track Seminar

RoudyBob — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:41:00 GMT

I don't know how many folks would be interested as this is developer-focused, but I received the invite and thought I would pass it along. This isn't an IWUG-sponsored event so you'll need to contact the folks at Perpetual Technologies if you're interested in attending.

I would like to invite your members to attend a free Microsoft Fast Track Seminar on Thursday, April 12^th. Attendees can choose their own fast track, SQL or .Net, to enhance what they do best.

Perpetual Technologies, Inc. and presenters from various local users groups have coordinated this one-of-a-kind event as an open learning opportunity. We hope you will share this information with your members. I believe they will find the sessions informative and useful.

To register, or for more information, please visit www.perptech.com/events.

Windows Connections Discount for IWUG Members

RoudyBob — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:45:00 GMT

Culminis, in conjunction with Tech Conferences, has arranged a special discount for you and the members of Indiana Windows User Group to attend the Microsoft Exchange Connections, Windows Connections, and Office Connections on April 1-4 at the Hyatt Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando.

Microsoft^®, Windows IT Pro magazine, and Tech Conferences all come together to produce this essential conference on Windows, Exchange, and Office technology for systems administrators and IT managers.

Each member of Indiana Windows User Group who uses the discount code "CULMINIS" when registering will receive $200 off the price of admission.

To register, click here

Co-located with Windows Connections this spring will be: Microsoft® Exchange Connections and Office Connections each with their own set of tracks and speakers. As an attendee of Windows Connections you may attend the sessions at any of the concurrent events for FREE!

Attend in-depth sessions on Exchange, Vista, and Office. There are over 100+ sessions to choose from and 60+ industry experts presenting in-depth sessions and hands on labs. If that is not enough there is the expo hall with exciting new products and the great networking receptions.

If you are not familiar with this event or if you would like more information, please visit http://www.winconnections.com/

IWUG 2007 Board of Directors Voting

RoudyBob — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 03:04:00 GMT

Voting for the IWUG 2007 Board of Directors is now open and will remain open until March 14th at 12:00am ET. Please visit the site below to vote - it takes only a couple of minutes and requires no registration or signup. You are limited, however, to voting once.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=227823292884

Windows Server Product Team User Group Survey

RoudyBob — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 02:05:00 GMT

The Windows Server Product Team would like to hear from the User Group Community. This is a direct anonymous survey, with the goal to improve services targeted towards User Groups. We want to know what your experience is with the community resources and information that is available to you today as a member of the User Group Community. We also want to know what you think could be done to improve your Community Experience. Please take a couple of minutes to provide us your candid feedback via this survey so we can provide the most effective experience possible.

Here is the link to the survey: User Group Community Survey

IWUG Board of Directors Elections

RoudyBob — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 01:23:00 GMT

Fellow IWUGers:

We've been threatening to do it for some time now. It's just we haven't made the time to actually follow through with it. It's time for us to elect our IWUG Board of Directors. This is the formal governing body for the group - the folks who are "officially" responsible for IWUG. Four dedicated geeks have been serving in this capacity since the group's formation and have done a wonderful job - but it's important that the group be led by a team of individuals who have been truly elected by the membership. Which is why we're kicking off this process and hope that we'll have it wrapped up in Jan.

This is pretty simple, actually. The first step is to make sure that we have a list of nominees which the group feels is complete - this is your chance to either nominate yourself or nominate someone who you feel will do a great job in leading IWUG over the next year. Once the nominations are in, we'll have a web-based voting period during which everyone can make their voice heard. There are five members of the Board of Directors so you'll be able to vote for up to five people from the list of nominees. The Board of Directors is important - it's the group that choses IWUG's President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer and appoints folks to the Steering Committee. So, make your nominations and votes wisely!

Here is the current list of nominees:

Sumeeth Evans
Sumeeth is IT Director for Collegiate Housing Services. He's been very involved as a Steering Committee member for almost 2 years and is also serving as the current IWUG secretary.

Jimmy May
Jimmy is one of the founders of the group and has been involved with it since its inception in June of 2003. He is currently employed by Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) and is also involved with many other groups around town including the SQLPass user group.

Bob Roudebush
Bob is a former Technology Specialist for Microsoft and is now working with Double-Take Software. He has been involved with the group since its formation in June 2003 and has served as the IWUG president. Since it has been vacated for the last several months, Bob has also served as the IWUG vice-president.

Ben Smith
Ben is a local Technology Specialist for Microsoft Corporation. He has been involved with the group since its formation in June 2003 and has served as both IWUG secretary and IWUG treasurer.

Please feel free to send your own nominations to info@iwug.net. Or, feel free to post them as comments to this blog entry. Nominations will end January 18th, 2007 at 12:00am. We'll release the final slate at the January meeting and provide details on how you can cast your votes then.

Your Fellow Geek,
Bob Roudebush - IWUG President