These words will not console you.

I have been Chairman of SCRUG the HP Southern California User's Group since
1982.  At one time we were considered the largest RUG.  We saw conference
attendance decline from a high of over 1,000 attendees to a low of about 100
users.  We had a three-day program with about 36 usually very high quality
talks.

We probably kept the whole thing running for 6 years beyond its time,
thinking, no hoping that somehow we were missing something.  About 3 years
ago, we finally just stopped.  We determined that it was not us.  No matter
what we did, hardly anyone would come to our annual conference.

I believe that several factors have contributed to the demise of the local
MPE user group.  Among these are the Web, listservers (HP 3000-L), maturity
of the product line, smaller staffs at HP 3000 sites, the switch in new
application acquisition to WinTel and UNIX, etc. I believe that others will
add the details as these threads progress.

Charles Finley
Transformix Computer Corporation
(310) 630-1773
(310) 630-1770

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of RON HORNER
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 1999 10:56 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: The closing of a RUG
>
>
> <venting>
> During our committee meeting this morning, it was decided to
> close the RUG.
> Now I understand that I'm new in getting involved, and that the other
> committee members have been in it for awhile.  But it just feels
> so wrong to
> give in and pack it up.  There has got to be a way to get the local HP
> community excited, again.
>
> The straw that broke the camels back was the not so good attendance at our
> vendor day. We got the stats back and they did not look good at all, thus
> the closing.
>
> Now here I sit, at my desk, feeling like I want to rip someone's head off.
> It's like now what to do.  I've worked on the platform for 13
> years and love
> it.  All of those who say that box is dead, "their full of it".  Start
> working with my RUG in trying to get the word out; and, now the loss, like
> "what do you mean it's over.  I just got started working with you
> on this."
> Where did we go wrong?  Were we not aggressive enough?  Did we
> not know what
> our users want?
>
> All I know is that I'm pissed off, and I want to do something about it.
> </venting>
>
> Ron Horner
> Operations Manager
> Administrative Management Group
> [log in to unmask]
> (847) 870-2175
>