Each week for the next year (yes, year), we’ll be providing you and your group a tip on how to improve and put you in the User Groups 2.0, best of class category. Many of the pieces to the puzzle are simple. Some will be repeats, yet we see many groups who don’t do them. If you’re already doing them, that’s great: you’re ahead of the game. If not, we believe most of them will be easy to implement, especially if you are truly interested in moving your group forward.

“Taking Your Group to 2.0″ will include best practices, ideas about what you have been doing, what you should be doing and more, all in bite-sized pieces that are more likely to be implemented than if we just published one big list that looks overwhelming. We want to help you get and keep you in the mindset of advancing your group.

We’ll start the list with a very simple one: Publish your group’s next meeting date and topic on the front page of your web site.

Sounds simple, but take a few minutes, go to The MUG Center’s Surfboard, start clicking on links and you’ll learn just how few do it, or do a good job of it. .We surf plenty of MUG web sites and it is still amazing how many groups offer all sorts of information on their front page, but make visitors click once, twice, even three times (and sometimes even scroll) to find out when the group meets next and what the topic will be.

Find a place to put your meeting info on your front page, preferably in the same spot every month. Post it in red letters, post it in a bold font, do whatever you need to do to make it obvious, but make it one of the first, most obvious things that your members or guests see when they go to your site, besides your name and logo.

Key points:

• What you did at your last meeting might be very interesting, but we missed it. What’s coming up next that will cause someone to get off the sofa, into their car and to your next meeting? Information that can easily be found and is interesting.

• Want to include lots of details? That’s fine…but do it on a dedicated page within the site where you are free to elaborate fully without boring the casual reader or taking up too much front page space. Date and Topic.

• Don’t make a visitor click even once to get to the information. That means no “Our Next Meeting” links or pages, or at least not as a replacement for your front page.

• Make sure that you are clear about what listings or events are “meetings,” as opposed to Special Interest Groups, Workshops, officer meetings or whatever else your group has. “Presentations” is a good word, but would that indicate something to download or the topic of the next meeting?

Want a couple examples? The Rhode Island Macintosh Users Group makes their next meeting info the centerpiece of their front page. Visitors know exactly when, where, what and who without even trying.

MacCore of Kansas City does a great job of defining an area of the front page for “Upcoming Meetings” with date and topic. They use their page’s layout as a way to make the write-up of the next meeting the feature article, but if you don’t need the details, the key info clear, concise and easy to find.

Don’t make your members or visitors search for your next meeting information…they might find something else to do.

Gathering feedback from your members should be at least an annual activity. You will stay in closer touch with what their interests are, understand the general levels of expertise, and will be able to make your group’s meeting topics, web site, publication(s) and any other offerings a greater value. That translates into better membership retention and more benefits to attract new members.

Barriers to Success
Accomplishing this obvious task is another matter. If you ask for feedback at your meeting, a hush usually falls over the meeting and everyone is suddenly very interested in their shoes. Some are afraid to speak up in front of a group for fear of being in the minority. Others don’t want to appear ignorant; they may feel inferior to the rest of the group (in spite of the fact that there are probably plenty of other people in the room with the same question or comment). And then there’s the old user group joke, with plenty of truth behind it, that if you make a suggestion, you are suddenly in charge of the project…whether you wanted to be or not.

You might pass out paper surveys, or even include them in your newsletter. One problem with this approach is that there is still a boring form to fill out and return. Another is that you have handwriting legibility issues to deal with. Finally, you will need to aggregate the results into something useable, especially if you used a multiple choice format to cut down on the chicken scratch problem.

Getting It Done
What’s the solution? On online survey! You don’t even have to chain your webmaster to a chair to create one. There are a variety of survey services on the Internet that offer all the capabilities you need, many for free.

There are multiple benefits to this approach. Distribute the link to your survey in your newsletter, as a clickable URL in an email to your members, or even in the electronic version of your newsletter (text or PDF), and as a link on your web site. An iBook or PowerBook set up in a corner of your meeting space will allow attendees to complete the survey while attending. With all these options for publicity of your survey, better participation is guaranteed.

The answers are also likely be more substantive. Because a respondent can type their answers, you are less likely to get those annoying one or two word answers that leave you more curious than informed.

Add in the ability to create multiple choice and ranking questions and the survey can actually be fun to complete.

Be sure to tout the fact that all answers are anonymous, but include a place for a name and email address, in case the volunteer spirit moves someone as they are giving you their information.

You might even consider taking a page from The MUG Center and do a new survey question every month. Your members stay involved and you stay informed. If you can get members in the habit of providing feedback, your percentage return goes up again.

The Results Are In
When the time comes to analyze the results, the survey service has already done the aggregation work for you, in numbers and percentages. Just log in to your account and start analyzing.

Share the results with the rest of your leadership team by giving them the service password, taking screen shots, or, if you opted for a paid service level, export them to an Excel spreadsheet for further study and manipulation

Choosing A Service
What service to use? Do a Google search to find a wide variety, but our choices are Survey Galaxy, Zoomerang, and our favorite, Survey Monkey.

We like Survey Monkey because it allows up to 100 responses in one survey under the free account, has a clean, easy to understand interface and produces surveys that are not intimidating. Upgrading to a paid account won’t lose any of your existing surveys or results, gives you the export to Excel option, and provides customization options in the form of logo inclusion, custom color schemes and more. Answer our latest TMC Survey question (found at the top of our ad bar on the right hand side of any page on The MUG Center) to see what a Survey Monkey Survey looks like.

No matter which service you use, be sure it accommodates your needs and offers plenty of flexibility.

Get Your Members Involved
Present the results of your survey at a meeting, or every meeting, if you make your questions a monthly activity. Your membership stays involved in the process, and will help you develop future questions. (Hint: People are much more willing to provide questions than answers.)

Take the participation concept a step farther by making the creation of a new survey or survey question a demo at an upcoming meeting. Reinforce the importance of responding, walk through the process to demonstrate the ease of answering, and introduce your members to a new service they might benefit from at their work or in other activities. Truly a win, win, win scenario.

The Bottom Line
Like any business, a successful user group will only benefit from information on what the “customers” want. Finding ways to involve your members can start with something as simple as an online survey.

What and How
Your group’s ambassador is someone you select as the “point person” to interact with Apple’s user group program for at least some if not all of the benefits offered. It can be an officer or someone you specifically designate as a separate position.

Ambassador status is confirmed with Apple when you either register or update your group’s listing in the Apple User Group Locator. It can be changed at any time by your group’s leadership simply by editing your information.

Some groups designate Ambassadors for different responsibilities such as vendor interaction, special events, etc.

Responsibilities
Apple doesn’t specifically designate the duties of the ambassador, other than being the primary point of contact if/when necessary. That doesn’t mean there are not responsibilities that every ambassador should accept and embrace.

The Ambassador should be responsible for keeping the listing in the Locator up-to-date. That includes the information the public sees when they look for a MUG in the Locator, such as name, location, web site URL (and it is amazing how many of those go out of date quickly), and the information that isn’t included in the public listings, such as the three primary contacts for your group and their email addresses, etc. As a best practice, your ambassador should surf the Locator at least two times each year to check your listing and update any information. Of course, if there is a change in the information, that should be updated immediately.

The Ambassador is also usually the one designated to have access to your group’s Apple Sales Web account and Apple Sales Training Online. The former gives access to presentation materials and scripts for Apple products and services, the ability to order the Maibox DVD, special user group copies of such items as the current version of the Mac OS, select products (both for group demos and use only), and more. The latter delivers online training about Apple hardware, software and services, to help prepare presenters for your Apple-product focused meetings.

At the very least, the Ambassador should subscribe to the Apple User Group Bulletin (AUGB), Apple’s official communication method to user group leaders. There’s a common misundertanding that, by being designated as one of your group’s three contacts, or even as the Ambassador, that you are automatically subscribed to that list. Apple’s policy (one we wholeheartedly agree with, and that has become industry standard) is to not subscribe anyone to any email list without a specific request.

Contained in each month’s Bulletin is news for user group leaders, a members news section with information that is suitable for newsletter publication, and special vendor offers available to user group members only. The Ambassador should either pass this information along to the group’s publication editor, or better yet, have them sign up for the Bulletin themselves, to be sure this valuable resource is not overlooked.

The Ambassador should also subscribe to the Apple User Group Discussion email list. Open to any user group member, officer or activist, this is the forum Apple provides for discussion of topics of interest to those who lead Mac user groups around the world. Like any specific-topic list the traffic waxes and wanes, but it can be a great place to get new ideas or ask for help with challenges your group faces.
Other types of ambassadorship
Ambassadors can be designated for other special activities as the need dictates. For example, not every group can attend Macworld Conference & Expo, but it can be beneficial to have a member who is attending act as an Ambassador to user group events at Expo, such as the Adobe User Group Breakfasts. If your group designates this type of one-time ambassador, be sure you provide your ambassador with all the information about your group, copies of newsletters to share, and a clear understanding of who gets to keep the give-aways and/or raffle prices. That last might sound a little strange, but we’ve seen it become a point of contention after the fact. Better to have it spelled out right up front.

The Bottom Line
The position of User Group Ambassador can be an essential to your user group if performed properly. Taking advantage of Apple resources, keeping your group’s information up-to-date so you can be found, representing your group at industry functions and more are all hallmarks of an ambassador’s job well done.

We surf *a lot* of MUG web sites each week as part of gathering news for the MUG Event Calendar more. We’ve also had discussions with mainstream Mac journalists who cover user group news and events. Their frustrations are ours, so that’s where we start.

Pretty is Good; Functional is Better
We’ll leave the attractive design discussions for another time. Having a great looking web site is important, but delivering the information is what is really needed. You would be amazed at the number of sites (is yours among them?) that don’t incorporate the basics in a user friendly, efficient fashion.

The Front Page
More people will see your front page more than any other on your site. That means it has to deliver the most critical data efficiently and either answer the questions the visitor has or allow them to get to their answer quickly.

Keep the most important information “above the fold,” so visitors don’t have to scroll (let alone click) to find what they are looking for. Where “the fold” occurs depends on the screen size and resolution of your visitors’ computer, so the general rule is, “the higher on the page, the better.”

Does your front page deliver? Let’s start with two basics.

Identity Crisis
This should be an easy one. Make the name of your group clearly visible. Acronyms are popular in the user group world, but very few stand up as an identity. If your group is SFMUG, does that stand for “San Francisco” or “Silicon Forest” or something else? Don’t assume that you are the only xxMUG out there. To get an idea of how many acronyms are potential repeats, take a look at The MUG Center’s Surfboard. You’ll find more SMUGs, SMOGs and TMUGs among the alphabet soup than you can shake a stick at. Any letter or two preceding “MUG” has a better than not chance of being taken.

If you feel your group’s acronym is truly that important, integrate it in to the presentation. A couple great examples of this come from MacCORE and the Serious Macintosh Users Group of Bloomington. While their acronyms are prominent, there is also no doubt about what their name is or where they are located.

Location, Location, Location
Unless you are located in a major, absolutely unmistakable metropolitan or geographic area, list something in the way of a city, state and, yes, perhaps even country. What is obvious to you is not to someone outside your immediate area. The web is a global medium and surfers want to know where on our little ball of mud you are.

“Smithview, only a few minutes drive from Jonesburg in Franklin County”

That type of description isn’t going to help when a vendor surfs your site to see if they might be able to stop by when they are in your area on unrelated business.

“The Lloyd School District’s Macintosh User Group, meeting at Lincoln High School.”

Um…where? If you are associated with an educational insitution, company or any entity of that nature, please include a few more details. Your visitors will thank you.

Directions to your meeting location are a terrific idea, but put them on a separate, dedicated meeting location page. You save valuable front-page real estate and also make it easier for them to be printed. Be clear, cite major highways and landmarks, and give accurate mileage estimates. Linking to MapQuest is nice but go out and drive the routes yourself, just to be sure.

And please, please, please, label the link as something like “Meeting Location” or “Directions” and differentiate it from the page where you list details of your next meeting topic and details. We will talk about that in a future Best Practices, but for now, trust us.

“I Read You, Over”
Finally, as cool as that title graphic or logo is, all of the above information needs to live in text in some fashion on your front page so the search engines can find and catalog your site appropriately. Besides our Surfboard and the Apple User Group Locator one of the other primary ways surfers find your group is through a web search. If you aren’t listed, you can’t be found.

The Bottom Line
None of those are difficult and they can greatly increase the usability and greatly reduce the frustration of your guest surfers. Go take a look at your group’s web site right now and see how it measures up.

• Advertise each meeting under “computers” in the classified section of your local newspaper. Run this advertisement the Sunday before your next meeting. Mention the main theme or topic for the meeting. Change this advertisement every time you run it.

• Check if your local radio stations have a Community Calendar feature. Send a notice of each meeting to the person in charge of that feature. Same for the Community Calendar program on your local cable TV station.

• Ask a member of your group to serve as a “greeter” at your meetings. This person should approach new people, invite them in, give them some background about how the meeting will proceed, and introduce them to current members. Your greeter should be personable and welcoming – technical competence is optional.

• At the beginning of each meeting, ask newcomers to introduce themselves. Point out others in the group who have similar interests or who live near the new member.

• Invite young people who are not members to give presentations to your group about topics that interest them. Suggest that they bring a friend or two to give them moral support. Some of these young people will find the topics of your meetings interesting and will join your group.
• Contact local school districts and see if you can help them with any responsibilities they face. Try to arrange a face-to-face meeting and send a business-savvy, professionally-attired representative of your group to that meeting.

• Volunteer to help with some of the school district’s activities. (For example, offer to run a short “technology update” session at one of their in-service days.) Educators will learn about your group and will consider joining.

• Send a professionally-attired representative to local computer stores and offer to help get equipment working together, solve problems, offer self-help seminars or do whatever else the manager might like you to do. Don’t ask for anything until you’ve been helping for at least a month. Then ask the manager if he/she minds you putting out small, attractive flyers somewhere in the store.

• Always accept “No” graciously; even when a store manager or school district misses a good opportunity. Always assume the store or school district has a good reason for not working with you — even if they don’t.

• Give a small summer stipend to a popular high school or college student. Have that student do things for the group, including upgrading the membership database and giving presentations. Encourage the student to bring friends to the meetings.

• Call each new member after he or she has been with you for two or three months. Try to get ideas for presentations and services that will attract this member. Give the member your home phone number and ask him or her to keep in touch.

• Telephone your long-time members occasionally. Solicit feedback about ideas they suggest for the group.

• Run joint meetings with nearby user groups. Show the nearby folks how interesting and exciting your meetings are. You’ll discover how many computer users are willing to join more than one group.

• Find a nearby Windows user group. Arrange to give a 15-minute “Macintosh Technology Update” to that group. Invite the leader of that group to give a similar “Windows Technology Update” to your Macintosh group. You’ll be surprised at how much you learn.

• Make your meetings FUN! If people aren’t smiling from time to time, ask yourself “Why not?”

Dr. Warren Williams is President of the AppleWorks Users Group (AWUG) and Editor of AWUG’s monthly newsletter, the AppleWorks Journal. Dr. Williams is an Emeritus Professor of Technology at Eastern Michigan University.

Cathleen Merritt is Director of the AppleWorks Users Group and is Associate Editor of the AppleWorks Journal. Ms. Merritt has written more than 300 articles published in numerous technology magazines and newsletters.