On Tuesday night I did something I have not done for almost fourteen years, I attended an IBM i (AS400) user group meeting.
Before moving to Southern California I lived in Tucson, Arizona, and attended many of the AS400 user group, BARMUG, meetings.
I find that interacting with just your work colleagues, who just do the same thing day-in-day-out and having the same arguments, makes you myopic. Interacting with your peers brings width of vision as, I find, most are willing to share ideas of what and how they are working.
There once was an AS400 user group in the San Fernando Valley, SMUG, but it closed down years before I moved here. This made OCEAN, in Orange county, the closest.
Tuesday evening I drove for three hours from the western San Fernando Valley, through the dreaded rush hour traffic of Los Angeles, to Costa Mesa to attend a meeting of OCEAN. Alas, I did not get there early enough to interact with many. The subject matter, "JavaScript from an RPG perspective" by Robert Swanson, was very interesting and I learned something new.
Earlier today I mailed an application and my dues to become a member of OCEAN. And this made me think: perhaps the IBM i (AS400) user group is an endangered species. If we do not become part them they will all be gone.
I think most people do not go to user groups as they do not know where they are. This is where I want your help and feedback. I would like to create a page on this blog, providing I get enough feedback, that lists all of the IBM i/AS400 user groups in the world. If you are a member of one please send me the details of it, a link to a website or if one does not exist an email address for the organizer. I will collate them onto a page.
Please send:
- Name of user group.
- Location - Where in the world is this user group located? (city, state, country, etc.)
- Web site or email address.
You can send me the information either via the Contact Form on this blog (preferred method as I can reply to you with any questions I might have) or add a Comment below (if I have questions I cannot reply).
Thanks
Let me start with two groups that I know are active:
Amen! Local user groups are great!
ReplyDeleteI know that COMMON had a project a while back to try to document the various local user groups around the US. I'll see if I can find out where that project stands and if they have published their list anywhere. Maybe you can join forces.
If there is one central list held by an organization like COMMON I would willingly share what I have here with it & redirect the 'IBM i user groups' page to that site.
DeleteTennessee IBM Midrange Users Group www.imugtn.com
ReplyDeleteThanks Ricky.
DeleteAnother user group is Vermont Midrange User Group its website is http://www.vtmug.org/.
ReplyDeleteFrom the About section of the website -
The Vermont Midrange User Group (VTMUG) was formed in April 1992 and provides IBM i educational information and related presentations at an incredibly low price.
VTMUG is also affiliated with NEUGC which runs a 2 1/2 day conference each spring in Framingham Mass. The conference is similar in nature to the Common conference and is very highly rated by the speakers and attendees.
We are an independent organization (supported, but not sponsored, by IBM). We have by-laws, a bank account, and officers (volunteers from among the membership). We meet regularly to discuss topics related to the IBM i. Some are technical, some are management related. IBM presents new product information as soon as it is available. Presenters may be from IBM, other vendors, consultants, or members of the group.
Anyone interested in the IBM i may attend the meetings. You do not have to own an IBM i to become a member; users of other systems, consultants, etc., are all welcome. (Our mailing list is not distributed.)
We have a summer meeting held in West Lebanon, NH and a fall technical conference held in the Burlington area.
Joining VTMUG is FREE. Costs for individual events are determined annually but it is minimal.
Questions may be directed to the group's president: Skip Marchesani
Formed in the '70s and located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, STATUS (System Three And Thirty-two User Society...OMG) has met monthly to discuss IBM midrange and related technologies. Our web site is located at http://www.statususer.org. Members are businesses and partners from NorthEast Indiana and Northwest Ohio that currently are using IBM i (aka AS/400) systems.
ReplyDeleteSTATUS meets on the second Tuesday of the month, between September and May. Meetings alternate between dinner meetings and breakfast meetings. Each meeting includes a presentation on a wide range of IBM i related technologies followed by a discussion around the presentation.
People interested in joining or attending can find more information at our web site.
Midrange Users Group of Western New York (mugwny.org), based in Buffalo, is still going. The only one left in upstate New York, I believe.
ReplyDeleteThis is a shout-out to anybody in Miami or South Florida interested in an informal meet somewhere.
ReplyDeletePlanet Linux Caffe in coral Gables is very friendly to any and all tech groups that want to meet, but how about let's find each other for networking, and even educational presentations? I'm willing to talk about getting the most out of service programs, API's, et. al. Suggestions?
CassidyA --at-- acm.org
COMMON Europe lists the various European COMMONs at http://www.comeur.net (under reconstruction at present). COMMON US links to some of them too. Maybe COMMON is the best place to keep the total list?
ReplyDeleteI do think it would be a good idea to have one central, up-to-date, list. But as far as I can find there is not one. Several have been suggested to me, but they were all way out of date or did not work.
DeleteIf such a list does exist on COMMON, or someone there wants to take what I have & make it into "the list", then I am all for it. I would drop the page on my site & link to the one on COMMON in a heart beat.
QUSER is the group that covers the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. This geography is home to some large IBM i shops and we typically host 20-40 attendees at our monthly meetings. More info at quser.org.
ReplyDeleteNEMUG
ReplyDeleteThe New England Midrange Users Group
http://www.nemug.com/index.htm
Fort Wayne Indiana has a group
ReplyDeletehttp://www.statususer.org
Rob Berendt
Thanks Rob for the link.
DeleteFortunately I already have them on my list.
I used to belong to the Delaware Valley Computer Users Group (DVCUG), in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. www.dvcug.org. I haven't been a member in a long time (I moved away), but I remember them with great fondness.
ReplyDeleteDVCUG is on the list. Is there a User Group where you now live?
Deleteis there an iSeries user group located near Jacksonville, Florida ?
ReplyDeleteYou are not the first person to ask about Florida. I do not know of any user groups in the Sunshine State.
DeleteIf you find one please let me know so I can add it to the list.