Now that Interex is no more, what does the future hold for its former
members?
For those who may not know me, my name is Chris Koppe, and I was an
Interex volunteer and member for many years. For the past 2 years I
served on the Interex board as a volunteer director. Prior to that, I
was a SIG Leader for 3 years and a member of the HP World Program
Planning Committee for 4 years. Oh, and I've been actively involved with
the HP e3000 platform for the past 19 years. ;-)
As a long-time Interex volunteer, like most of you, I was deeply
saddened to see Interex go. The financial losses incurred seem minimal
compared to the loss of community which we enjoyed for so long. Interex
members convened at conferences and user groups to network, share ideas,
and learn. Now what?
I am confident that we can rebuild the community. Without a doubt, it
will take some work. And this brings me to the purpose of my letter.
Shortly after Interex closed its doors, I was contacted by Encompass and
invited to serve on their Board of Directors. Encompass is (now) the
largest Hewlett-Packard User Group. Encompass has been around for many
years with its roots coming from Compaq (CETS) and Digital (DECUS). You
may remember the Encompass name from the last two HP World conferences
in Chicago and Atlanta. They were co-sponsors of both events.
I am delighted to be part of another organization that values its
members and has the same sense of community that Interex had. Encompass
has asked me to reach out to the former Interex community and offer them
a new home. I cannot think of a volunteer task that I would enjoy more
than reaching out and creating one HP enterprise technology user group
from which we would all benefit.
For the last couple of months, I have been working with my colleagues on
the board to develop and implement programs that would provide value to
former Interex members. This is what we've worked on so far:
* Helping support those that were affected by the HP World
conference collapse
* Complementary HP Technology Forum conference passes for
customers that paid for HP World conference registration.
* HP Technology Forum discounts for vendors that were
exhibiting at HP World and lost their deposits
* FREE 1st year membership in Encompass for all Interex members
* A plan to reach out to the local user groups to offer them the
support they may need to continue operating and supporting their local
communities
* A plan to reach out and provide a new home for the many Special
Interest Groups (SIGs) that gathered and operated under Interex. (SIG
Itanium was the first to move. SIG Migrate and SIG SoftVend have also
expressed interest in doing the same.)
* Specific plans to provide homes for the legacy HP platform
communities, like the HP e3000.
I am extending a personal invitation to you to join and get involved in
Encompass. I know many of you have had a long-time relationship with
Interex, but I encourage you to not only get involved but also to spread
the word. Together we can have a collective voice to HP and have a voice
in the programs we would like to see Encompass offer.
In a year from now, I would love to see a large gathering of former
Interex members at the next HP conference in 2006. The more we get
involved now, the more influence we can have on this event.
I also encourage all of you to take advantage of the FREE membership
offer. There are no strings attached. For more information and to take
advantage of this offer, simply visit the following URL
http://www.encompassus.org/interex.html
Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I would be more than
happy to answer them
Thanks,
Chris Koppe
Board Member, Encompass
* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *
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