Hi,
As you may know we have a joint meeting with MapInfo on the 5th July at the Motor Heritage Museum. Details can be found at http://www.mapinfo.co.uk/events/mapworld.cfm. If you join the MapInfo user group you will be able to come along to this meeting for free! However we have many more benefits:- The MapInfo User Group UK & Ireland has a web site at www.muguki.com which we would encourage you to visit and has all the details and application forms for joining. Any individual may join and the fee is £100 per annum. There is no corporate class of membership (but see below for corporate benefits). The Group usually holds three main one-day events throughout the year at venues throughout England & Wales and in addition, runs regional events in Ireland and Scotland, and occasional specialist workshops/meetings on demand. Unless otherwise stated, all food & refreshments at events are covered by the annual subscription. The web site covers news, details and on-line booking for events, member's contact details and interests, discussion forums, regular surveys of member's development priorities, recruitment pages, downloadable event presentations, hints & tips, utilities and shareware, employment pages, and links to key resources. Perhaps the most valued benefit for the Groups' 300+ members however is the "Talklist" support tool where members can post technical queries and expect to receive (usually multiple) responses within hours from the community at large. We hope to upgrade this facility shortly to a searchable knowledgebase. The Group is entirely independent of MapInfo Ltd and its business partners but has a good working relationship and direct access to each. It also exchanges views with User Groups elsewhere in the world. Members have a single vote and its active committee constantly seeks to encourage a sense of a "user community" and to canvass member's views for the development of the Group. Corporate Benefits The Group is very much aware that organisations are often reluctant to fund membership of software user's groups and we are keen to stress that while membership is individual there are significant corporate benefits arising from the subscription of the very first representative of that organisation to enrol. Firstly, the organisation can send a proxy to events in place of the named member. Second, the named member can take up to two 'guests' from the same organisation at a heavily discounted rate (to cover marginal refreshment costs) to any of our regular events. The most important benefit arises from the concession that any colleague within the member's organisation can have unlimited access to the "Talklist" support tool at no extra charge. Given that a single member's annual subscription at £100 is but a fraction of a days' on-site support or a day's training from suppliers, this represents a valuable corporate benefit. Finally by ensuring an effective user's group exists the organisation can both protect its own investment in MapInfo technology and influence the future development of MapInfo products and services. If you have any further questions about this then please do get in touch. Regards Martin Hodder National Coordinator www.muguki.com <http://www.muguki.com/>
