President’s Letter: Onward!
It is already the middle of 2009. Boy, time flies. Have you looked back at the beginning of your year to see what has been done? Have you looked forward to see what is still needed? The second half of the year will fly by. Let's take a look back and a glance forward.
From January to June
We started off with a little help from our friends at Autodesk who graciously funded the January payment for our website. This allowed us to transition from 2008 to 2009 without any downtime - something I know that you appreciated!
AUGI CAD Camp and AUGIWORLD were immediately impacted by our transition in management. As you know, we are still trying to get CAD Camps rolling. AUGIWORLD went "green" (electronic only), which kept costs down and prevented us from missing an issue.AUGI HotNews proceeded without interruption as well, plus we expanded the distribution and unified the publication to enhance and expand readership. Both our AUGI Training Program and e-Learning offering continued without interruption.
The rocky end of 2008 with the election outcome had us focused on a Special Election. We gathered a Nominations and Elections committee and they proceeded to gather names, interview possible candidates, finalize a ballot, and open the elections. The results are in and the new board members are in place. Click here for details.
The International Community gathered at Autodesk University 2008 and approved the International Assembly. We have had several meetings so far. Autodesk no longer is funding the work of the Country Coordinators, so we have seen an impact in focus in some areas. We continue to see expansion and dedication in many regions, especially Japan and Central Europe.
The AUGI Wish List was open and we gathered great input from the members. We delivered to Autodesk the results of the first round of voting in May. We even developed a special edition of HotNews devoted solely to the Wish List.
We launched a new publication, AUGI AEC Edge, which is devoted to the AEC industry. The premier issue was focused on BIM and Revit. We are thinking of expanding to other industries and would encourage you to become an author. Without members to provide content, none of our publications would be at the superior level that they are.
July and Onward
The AUGI CAD Salary Survey is coming together. Melanie Perry and her team are finalizing the results and they should be published in the Fall issue #5 of AUGIWORLD magazine. This is a key annual process that AUGI members participate in. Your input is being reviewed, correlated and organized. Look for the survey results near the end of the year.
AUGI AEC Edge was published live in late June. The premiere issue was well received. The results show positive responses from members and others. Here are a few “I must tell you that, seeing AUGI active in such a way, it gives motivation to enjoy AUGI's platform especially during this downturn economy. “ and “In short, this is the best publication of its type I’ve seen. Great job!”
We are beginning work on the next issue already. Take a look. http://www.augiaecedge.com/
Looking for a job? AUGI is soon to unveil an AUGI Job Board. This will be a full service site to assist you in looking for new positions in the CAD world. Posting a resume and searching for an open position will be free to members. We will be moving away from the Forum Career Corner and on to an interactive, expansive job listing, search and posting site. Look for this in the next 30 days.
We have other items that we are looking at and hope to announce in the near future. Early 2009 had some bumps, but I am excited about the rest of 2009 and beyond.
