SCPCUG Holiday Party 2009
The Space Coast PC Users Group held its 7th Holiday Party on Dec 19, 2009 at the Merritt Towers Club House. This annual "Covered Dish" event was attended by over 35 people. Everyone present received a Door Prize. Great food and conversation were had by all. View a slideshow of 30 party photos at http://www.scpcug.com/album2009/party.html.

Impact of Recession Survey
Michael Surkan until recently was employeed by Microsoft for 9 years doing customer & market research. Now that he is between jobs he is pursuing a research subject on his own about how recessions impact the technology industry. The study is about how the global recession is (or is not) impacting enterprise and consumer IT plans. He has requested SCPCUG members to participate. It is a short questionaire that takes 5-10 minutes.

The survey is designed so that people who say they have an IT related job will be shown enterprise-type questions. Everyone else will see questions about technology spending in the home. Participants are free to take the survey twice if they are particularly ambitious, answering both the enterprise and consumer IT sections.

Survey results will be available on Michael's blog (www.surkan.com) in the coming weeks. Michael is doing this as part of his own private research effort. It isn't being done on behalf of any corporations or clients. There are no fancy prizes or incentives offered for taking the survey (i.e. he has no research budget), only the reward that comes from helping your fellow man.

You can find the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Co3CDMHC47_2fTCyYvGNSa_2fA_3d_3d&c=320.

Florida Association of Computer User Groups

2010 FACUG and Corel Photo Contest
The first annual FACUG Photo Contest sponsored by the Corel Corporation will be conducted on the Feb 26 – Mar 01, 2010 Technology Conference Bahamas Cruise. Photographs will be judged on originality, technical excellence, composition, overall impact and artistic merit. DO NOT have to be present to win. All photographs submitted must have been taken between Jan 01, 2010 and Feb 15, 2010 and received no later then Feb 15, 2010 or submitted on Feb 26 during the on board registration process for the 2010 FACUG Technology Conference, Bahamas Cruise.
Details at http://facug.org/Conference/2010PhotoContest.asp.

2010 FACUG Technology Conference Bahamas Cruise
FACUG is delighted to note a very special and unique event - a four-day/three-night Technology Conference Bahamas cruise, on the Norwegian Sky sailing from Miami on Friday, February 26, 2010, calling on Nassau and Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas, returning to Miami on Monday, March 1, 2010.
FULL DETAILS and REGISTRATION at http://www.facug.org/Conference/conference-Reg.asp
Cruise Promo MP3 at http://www.facug.org/Assets/video/09-BB-KRUZ.mp3

FACUG/APCUG 2009 Spring Regional Conference
The FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF COMPUTER USER GROUPS (FACUG) and the ASSOCIATION OF PERSONAL COMPUTER USER GROUPS (APCUG) held a combined Spring Conference March 13-15 at the Lions Club in Zephyrhills Florida. This first time ever event included Vendor Faire, Roundtable Discussions, Vendor Presentations & Tech Sessions, and Exhibits.
Conference Video Stream links to Sessions, Presentations, and Sponsors Key Notes are at:
http://facug.org/ConferenceSpring/conference-s.asp
http://facug.org/ConferenceSpring/Presentations-S.asp
http://facug.org/ConferenceSpring/Spon-KeyNote.asp

FACUG Proceedings
FACUG Proceedings are available online in PDF format at http://www.facug.org/newsletter.asp.

Subscribe to the FACUG Yahoo! Group
In an effort to enhance communications amongst the User Group members of FACUG an E-Group on Yahoo has been created. This will become a vehicle for the exchange of ideas, suggestions, and assistance that all who join the group can share. All posted messages are automatically sent to all of the FACUG E-Group subscribers so that your message will get the most exposure. This is a “Moderated” group to insure that all posts are either Computer or User Group relevant.
Group is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FACUG/.

Association of Personal Computer User Groups

APCUG Reports
APCUG Reports is a quarterly publication of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups. Most recent issues are available for reading online and in a compressed (zip) PDF file for download at http://reports.apcug.org/. The 1st Quarter (Jan-Mar) 2010 report is available at http://reports.apcug.org/2010q1.htm.

APCUG Presentation on Windows 7
Informative August 19, 2009 Live Meeting 44 minute Presentation on Windows 7. Download this 45.26 MB Windows Media Video (WMV) file at http://www.apcug.net/live_meeting/Windows_7.wmv.

APCUG 2009 Newsletter, Website, and Digital Photo Contests
The APCUG 2009 Newsletter, Website, and Digital Photo Contest awards were announced at the FACUG/APCUG Spring Conference. Entries were submitted via the new APCUG SharePoint Site (http://sharepoint.apcug.net/default.aspx). Judging took place in February.
Instructions on using SharePoint are at http://reports.apcug.org/2009q1/sharepoint/contest.htm.