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Peggy Ireland

I'd like to share a little bit with you about my own experience with computer user groups and how that has qrown into my involvement with the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG) and the Jerry Awards (featured elsewhere in this issue of Cristina Connections).

I blundered into my first computer user group looking for some inexpensive training and local support for some of the computer applications I was using in the hopes of furthering my own career goals. Ever since, I've been fascinated with the dynamics of computer user groups. Certainly my own local computer user group, Capital PC User Group (CPCUG) with a motto of "Users Helping Users" seemed like a logical place to find what I was seeking.

So joining with rather high expectations of the bargain I was going to get, I was surprised to find that my expectations were exceeded. It was amazing that the various "experts" who belonged to the group were so willing to help a mere beginner and were so gracious with their time and energy.

And as things evolved, I was surprised to discover some areas where I might even be able to teach and pay back in a small way some of the ongoing benefits that I was receiving. Well, it just kept growing and growing. The more I started volunteering to train and taking a leadership role with CPCUG, the more benefits I seemed to be receiving with new friends and new opportunities to learn and develop professionally.

Interestingly enough, the APCUG founder Jerry Schneider, whose name has been given to the "Jerry Awards" that recognize and reward community service projects of user groups, was also a founding father of CPCUG. Since CPCUG had been a part of APCUG since its inception it wasn't long before I went to my first APCUG Conference. And so my world began to expand to APCUG's motto of "User Groups Helping User Groups."

It was at this Conference that I first heard of the National Cristina Foundation and the groundbreaking work they were doing to benefit people with special needs through the use of computer technology. As the parent of an adult with developmental disabilities, this work was especially interesting to me. But it was the attention that was given to the Jerry Awards and the various projects that were entered that first opened my eyes to the possibility of how a group of computer user groups, APCUG, could make a difference in my community and other communities.

One of the projects recognized in the 1998 Jerry Awards was the Greater Cleveland PC User Group's "Computers Assisting People" program that had refurbished and donated dozens of computers to the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Retardation. I discovered they had organized about 40MB of software (shareware or software that they had written) that was educational and fun for the clients to install on the machines. I contacted their President at the time, Jim Evans, to see if we could use their software here. Jim put me in touch with the right folks to make that happen.

Suddenly the motto for me had been expanded to User Groups helping User Groups to help their communities.

There are so many life-changing stories that could be shared from the various community service projects that APCUG member groups support. For me the most exciting part is that through our alliances with organizations such as our Jerry Award sponsors (the National Cristina Foundation, Adobe and Microsoft's Mindshare User Group Support Program) we have an opportunity to recognize and share experiences and ideas and to reach out to communities around the world.

How wonderful that my discovery of a computer user group so many years ago has led to my seeing people in my own community have opportunities that they scarcely dared dream of before. And, even more wonderful to see those opportunities expanded to communities around the globe.

Peggy Ireland is President of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups, comprised of 400 member groups representing about 350,000+ individuals worldwide. She can be reached at president@apcug.org