*4th* Anniversary Idea!

The idea: This June 1998, QMUG/LA celebrates four years of existence, of meeting each and every month for the past four years, of working really hard to make really good, helpful and informative presentations, of helping lesbian, gay and bisexual Mac users. Four is not normally a special number, so the idea came that maybe we could make it special by association, by drawing attention to Mac products that are also “4.0” and actively request them. In exchange we would prominently feature them on our *4th* Anniversary page and ads, and encourage our members to, and give them reason to, purchase these products. The idea is that we could mutually celebrate and promote each other.

QMUG/LA’s “Four is a Fabulous Number” two-tier Raffle idea:

  $1 tickets qualify for:
    *  America Online 4.0
    *  Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0
    *  ZDnet MacBench 4.0 ................................... $005 value
    *  QMUG/LA’s Absolutely Fabulous Gay Software Disks:
          All Four Years  (10 floppy disk set w/ labels!) ... $010 value
    *  $10-off coupon good towards the purchase of a $5
          raffle ticket product ’til Oct 4th, 1998 .......... $010 value
    *  Peachpit Press “Gay & Lesbian Online” book ........... $020 value
    *  Peachpit Press “Netscape Communicator 4.0” book ...... $020 value
    *  Peachpit Press “Adobe Photoshop 4.0” book ............ $020 value
    *  Peachpit Press “Quark XPress 4.0” book ............... $020 value
    *  IDG “Macworld Quark XPress 4.0 Bible” book ........... $025 value
    *  IDG “Macworld Adobe Photoshop 4.0 Bible” book ........ $035 value
    *  Hayden “Photoshop 4.0 Complete” book ................. $035 value
    *  Berkeley Systems After Dark 4.0 Deluxe ............... $040 value
    *  Qualcomm Eudora Pro 4.0 .............................. $040 value
    *  AP “FileMaker Pro 4.0 Companion” book ................ $040 value
    *  IDG “Macworld Complete Mac Handbook 4th Ed.” book .... $040 value
    *  IDG “Macworld Mac Secrets 4th Ed.” book .............. $040 value
    *  Delorme Street Atlas USA 4.0 ......................... $045 value
    *  Adobe “Classroom in a Book: Photoshop 4.0” ........... $045 value
    *  Microsoft Works 4.0 .................................. $050 value
    *  Mindscape PrintMaster Gold 4.0 ....................... $050 value
    *  Netscape Communicator 4.0 ............................ $060 value
    *  Casady & Greene Conflict Catcher 4 ................... $065 value
    *  Adobe Type Manager Deluxe 4.0 ........................ $070 value
    *  Symantec Norton DiskLock 4.0 ......................... $080 value
    *  Infowave PowerPrint 4.0 .............................. $100 value
    *  Symantec Norton Utilities 4.0 ........................ $100 value
    *  Dantz Retrospect 4.0 ................................. $150 value

  $5 tickets qualify for:
    *  FileMaker Pro 4.0 .................................... $200 value
    *  Opcode Studio Vision Pro 4.0 ......................... $200 value
    *  Strata VideoShop 4.0 ................................. $330 value
    *  La Cie Apple external 4GB HD ......................... $480 value
    *  Adobe Photoshop 4.0 .................................. $560 value
    *  Quark XPress 4.0 ..................................... $700 value
    *  Apple Personal LaserWriter 4/600 ..................... $830 value

Of course, a couple of these items are *not* 4.0 yet, like AOL and Norton Utilities, but perhaps by June... And a couple of items may not exist by June, namely Photoshop may go 5.0, which may negate the need for all the Photoshop 4.0 books, and Apple’s Personal LaserWriter is difficult to get even now... And lastly, I’ve made some executive decisions to not request some products, such as Adobe Streamline 4.0 (~$130), QuickBooks Pro 4.0 (~$200), Final Draft 4.1 (~$240), Adobe Premiere 4.2 (~$500), MS Office 4.2.1 ($~450), BBEdit 4.5 (~$100), MetaCreations Infini-D 4.5 (~$530), SAM 4.5 (~$65), and Stuffit Deluxe 4.5 (~$50); one exception is Conflict Catcher 4.1 in that (1).we already have it, and (2).C&G advertise it as just 4.

The plan is to finish these web pages and letter of intent, consult w/ Suzy of LAMG, Karen of DQ, and Brighid of Apple about this and get their feedback and what specific people at these companies we could, and then first contact these people or the company’s User Group Relations, Public Relations, or Special Promotions people, and bounce the idea off of them. If they like it, get their e-mail address, fax number, and US mail address, point them to our website, and then e-mail, fax and US mail them our letter of intent.