Just a quick note to wrap-up last week’s L.A. area MUG Leaders Forum — words of appreciation, feedback results, and a few updates.  Please forward this to other leaders from your group who attended. 

 
First and foremost, I just have to thank Garr Reynolds again for driving down 5 1/2 hours to meet w/ us, and then having to drive back up another 5 1/2 hours to Cupertino.  This really was a very special visit, and I’m still thrilled it happened. 

Secondly, I have to thank all of you, of course, for taking time out of your busy schedules to come to 3rd & Fairfax to meet Garr.  I hope you had some great food at the Farmers Market, enjoyed the Apple Store, got to ride the Trolley, and all-around enjoyed yourselves. 

Thirdly, I would love to thank any of you who took pictures at the Forum or of Garr at the Apple Store and could e-mail them to me for the Forum’s website.  File size is not an issue as the Forum’s e-mail account is not restricted.  Thank you in advance! 

 
I’ve gone through the Feedback cards (26 of ’em), and 46% thought the Forum was “Totally!” worth your time, another 38% of you were between “Totally!” and “Eh.”, and only the remaining 16% thought “Eh.”  Nobody thought this was not or “Not at all!” worth your time. 

Regarding doing it again, nobody said no, which means everybody said yes, you would do it again: 16% before the next 6 months, 46% in about 6 months, another 16% between 6 months and a year, and the remaining 22% would do this again in about a year. 

Regarding what you liked most, that included:  always nice to hear an Apple rep, availability of food was great, feel all was handled very professionally, Garr’s enthusiasm, good stats, I loved it, Introductions, learning about resources, the Q&A, the handout, and more. 

Regarding what you liked least, that included:  that lack of and need for air conditioning, the room being cramped or too small, experiencing a major effort to park, the Forum being too short, hearing too many complaints, no liquids provided, too noisy to hear, and more. 

And the people who volunteered to help w/ the next Forum/Summit/___ (7 people), w/ being a Regional Liaison (5 people) or an Advisory Board member (10 people) have all been contacted.  Again, there’s no guarantee here, but you can’t be asked if no one knows you’re interested! 

 
Regarding a few updates, the Adobe Technology Exchange and the L.A. Palm/Portable User Group sent in information about their groups, which has been reflected on the Forum’s website. They take total L.A. area membership to 6080 people, and monthly attendance to 1530.  Wow! 

And speaking of the Forum’s website, all “Feedback” results, “Garr Reynolds: On Tour,” “Los Angeles: MUG Stats,” and “Resources” have been added.  And we definitely encourage you to save the “Resources” document to your hard drive and update it specifically for your group. 

Oh, and there’s one more thing...  <hehehe>  I am totally thrilled to add to the Forum’s website “Los Angeles: Websites,” a gallery of thumbnails of L.A. area MUG website main pages, *and* the opportunity for us to e-mail in our constructive feedback about them.  So check ’em out! 

 
So, I hoped you enjoyed yourselves, will use your handout to hook up w/ other groups whose successes may be your challenges, will use the Map and Calendar to work w/ groups close to you in space or time, and will use your Resources to make your group even better. 

I totally enjoyed making this happen — the Forum, handout and website — and look forward to seeing you at the next one when we might tackle some specific challenges.  ’Til then, keep your online locator info up-to-date, check out Garr’s new user group site redesign, and have fun! 

 
Sincerely,