MaUsE does many things to promote itself to the general public. We welcome anyone to attend our meetings or to download copies of DoubleClick from our web site, without requiring that they first become paid-up members of the club. This leads to the question of what benefits they receive as a member of MaUsE that they could not get as a non-member. Following is a summary of such benefits.
Ready to Join? Sign up online!
These are CD's that the club attempts to produce on a monthly basis. They contain several kinds of resource materials, such as copies of DoubleClick, the previous month's meeting slides, various Mac-related audio and video files from the Internet, and other items. We currently make these available only to members who make it out to the meetings. We are looking for volunteers to help us make them available upon request to members who are not able to attend meetings. These CD's are not available under any circumstances to people who are not members of MaUsE, simply because some of the software provided on the CD is licensed to User Groups with exactly this stipulation.
Offered through the Apple User Group Advisory Board, many of these vendor specials are applicable to User Group Members worldwide, although a few are restricted to U.S. residents only. They are ONLY available to paid-up User Group Members. The MaUsE web site includes a publicly-accessible page which will display all of the current offers but without the special ordering codes required in order to take advantage of the offers, AND will include another version of this page accessible only to club members, which includes the special ordering codes.
Our past practice has been to provide free raffle tickets to ALL attendees to our meetings, but we have had some raffles where we have restricted eligibility to actual paid up members of MaUsE. It appears we could make this the default procedure rather than the exception. There is no guarantee that there will be raffles at EVERY member meeting, but we do have the ability to restrict eligibility to Paid-up club members when we are holding one.
People who purchase a new Ethernet enabled Mac but are coming from a Mac which does not support Ethernet, or are coming from a Windows computer, may need help in transferring their files from their older computer to their new Mac. The club has the hardware to connect AppleTalk to Ethernet enabled Macs, and we believe that we can also be of help to someone who needs to move files from a Windows PC to a Macintosh. Such assistance is available free of charge ONLY to paid-up members of the club.
This is the free email list (mause@topica.com) which allows members to leave email asking questions or for support which will then for forwarded to all other club members who have registered themselves on this service. Through this mechanism, people get to solicit the advice from over 40 club members at one time rather than sending an email or phone call to just one person at a time. This service is only available to paid up members of the club.
As we launch the revised MaUsE web site in early 2006, MaUsE Members will be able to access and utilize the Forums area to post questions and solicit support in a manner very similar to the topica.com mail list. Both resources will be available only to paid up MaUsE Members.
A primary service of MaUsE is to provide one-on-one support to people who have problems or questions related to their Mac. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, such as telephone calls, personal visits, or meeting discussions. This is a wide ranging topic but the point is simply that members of MaUsE are willing to go quite a bit farther to assist a fellow club member than they might be to assist a member of the general public.
Club members are allowed to post business card sized advertisements in DoubleClick at no charge, and in the future will be able to enjoy similar privileges on the MaUsE web site.
Upon occasion, the club encounters the opportunity to make a bulk purchase of Macintosh accessories, software, books, or hardware at a substantial discount to normal retail prices. When such instances occur, the opportunity to participate in such lower pricing is offered to club members but not to members of the general public.
MaUsE provides the opportunity for sub-groups of members to organize specific initiatives or Special Interest Groups [SIG's] which may be of interest to just a limited number of club members. The club can cooperate with such sub-groups in such ways as publicizing their activities to the rest of the membership in our newsletter or emails or in helping the SIG people find suitable venues for their activities. Once again, membership in MaUsE is generally a prerequisite for participation in any MaUsE SIG's.
We do not bar members of the general public from attending our monthly member meetings, nor do we charge such people for attending. Nevertheless, there is a real and substantial financial cost involved in putting on these meetings. This expense represents a significant portion of each member's annual dues. In general, the number of non-members in attendance at any given monthly member meeting is quite small and is viewed as an opportunity for MaUsE to prove its value to a potential new member, NOT as giving away for free what members have to pay for. If and when the club Executives notice someone who is not a club member coming to meetings on a frequent basis, we do take steps to discuss this one on one with the individual in hopes of persuading them to sign up as a member. In all my years of attending meetings, this has occurred on only a very few occasions. With all this in mind, we believe people should view the monthly meetings as a tangible benefit of belonging to the club.
The vast majority of people who read DoubleClick each month do so by downloading a copy from the MaUsE web site or by picking up a paper copy at a regular member meeting. There is no attempt to restrict delivery of DoubleClick only to MaUsE members, EXCEPT to the extent that paid up members of MaUsE can request that their copy be mailed to them via Canada Post. There are several disadvantages to choosing this process, but nonetheless it represents a benefit available to MaUsE members which is not available to non-members.
Club members also have the opportunity to influence the content of DoubleClick each month, whereas non-members have virtually no input or say in the editorial direction of DoubleClick.
A fact unknown to many people is that, once you join a Macintosh User Group in one locality, your membership card will make you welcome at any other Mac User Group event in other locales. Some other User Groups charge members of the general public to attend their meetings, but virtually all will welcome free of charge someone who is a member of a Mac User Group elsewhere, just by having them show their MaUsE membership card as they enter.
For many years, User Group members have been offered free Exhibit Hall passes to the annual Macworld Expo events traditionally held in San Francisco and major east coast U.S. cities each year. In addition, there are often specific User Group events held at Macworld which only Paid-up Members can attend at zero or very little expense. Examples include the traditional Adobe Breakfast as well as User Group University events.
Macintosh Users East has assembled a substantial Library of Macintosh-related books, video tapes, and other items which may be borrowed by MausE Members at no charge. A complete description of the current resource Library inventory is included in the monthly DoubleClick newsletter on a quarterly basis. As this web site develops, space may soon be made for the Library inventory to be included.
Overall, we think this is a pretty impressive list considering that MaUsE membership fees are currently only $45.00 per year. We hope you will agree and show your support not only by renewing your membership in but in promoting the club to other Macintosh users you may know. Those of us on the Executive of the club will continue to look for ways to make your MaUsE Membership a valuable resource to you, while at the same time attempting to make MaUsE as inviting as possible to new people who are just becoming familiar with us.
