AWUGU Meeting Report about SIGs
by Tom Piper, Coordinator

This Apple World User Group University online gathering of Apple user group leaders was held at 5:00pm CDST, on November 21, 2022, via Zoom. We had 30 participants for the topic of “AUG Special Interest Groups” (see attached JPG image and PDF attendance list). The 78-minute video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/8DmbTgPw3Cc (unlisted on YouTube).

This session opened with my welcome, plus a quick review of the meeting protocols. Doug Smith, Chair of the Apple User Group Advisory Board (AUGAB) provided backup support during the call.

The first segment was a presentation by Steve Welsh (The Oregon MacPioneers User Group) describing the many aspects of and opportunities for SIGs (see attached PDF slideshow). Many questions and comments followed. His “Tips for Success” were welcomed by many as excellent ways to build SIGs in Apple User Groups.

Next was a discussion by Susan Jensen (President, Apple Users’ Society of Melbourne [AUSOM]) about their extensive set of all-day Saturday Special Interest Groups in hourly break-out rooms (see attached PDF schedule). Many questions and responses were then exchanged, and thanks provided for describing their wide array of SIG opportunities.

Of the 8 attendees whose AUGs hosted SIGs, some brief descriptions were provided to share the variety of ways that these topics were handled. More questions and comments followed describing tools and services others used.

This was followed by a description about AWUGU Feedback 2022 provided by Marie Boughenou (Hyper Pomme Paris) who illustrated many of our group’s topics over the past year and shared compliments about the process. Although she struggled with English (French is her first language), many thanked her for her observations and inspirations, and made numerous suggestions about online translators.

Additional questions were asked, comments made, experiences shared and suggestions offered by user group leaders with the following excellent links providing further information:

David Bourne: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/6643133682957-Enabling-and-configuring-translated-captions
Russ Conte: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/translate-me-live-translator/id1231853258

We are very pleased with this 11th and last meeting of 2022. Files related to this meeting (including chat, closed caption, agendas, reports and videos) are available on our AWUGU shared folder: https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0kF7XwYI98VG0fqvL86PJm02g#AWUGU. AWUGU 2025 Predictions and Product Reviews may also be viewed here (more submissions are invited).

A brief discussion about future topics like why to be a AUG member and where to find good speakers, it was suggested “AUG Security Provisions” be scheduled for January 16, 2023, at 5:00pm Central Daylight Saving Time (all current AWUGU registrants will receive an invitation to all future meetings).

To become a participant, any interested Apple User Group leader must first register with the AWUGU Coordinator by emailing their name, location, and user group name and web link to macquest@mac.com. Registration must be received by January 14 in order to receive a Zoom Meeting invitation.

November 2022 meeting attendees