Report from the Future of CUG Committee

CUG should continue its work, include high-end SGI users

by Helene E. Kulsrud

CUG attendees, including the Cray Research, Inc. (CRI) representatives, have agreed on the directive that the Cray User Group should continue its work and expand its activities to include high-end Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) users. Therefore, the Future of CUG (FOC) Committee has been asked to recommend changes to bring about this new emphasis.
So far, the FOC Committee has dealt mainly with short-term solutions such as holding one meeting a year. To formulate long-range CUG plans, the committee has attempted to obtain some input about the long-range plans of both CRI and SGI. These attempts have not been very successful (possibly because there are no long-range plans). Therefore, we must consider our options in light of CUG's past successes and current interests.

One meeting a year

The bylaw change for "at least one meeting a year" is now in place. But what about keeping up during the rest of the year? How can we avoid losing momentum over a 12-month period? To answer these concerns, the FOC Committee feels it is of prime importance to provide for new CUG activities. Of particular importance is a plan for organizing small meetings.
To help encourage this activity, the FOC Committee is currently in the process of writing guidelines for preparing small meetings sponsored or under the aegis of CUG. The main idea here is to encourage groups of 30 to 100 people to hold meetings or workshops at different times of the year--mostly in the Fall season. These meetings can be based on:

Geography (meetings such as are held by the German or Japanese user groups)

Special interest (topics of concern to a CUG Special Interest Committee--operating systems, operations, etc.)

Industry (topics of interest to automotive, energy, or aircraft companies)

Current technical interests, such as visualization or data warehousing

Anything at all . . .
Affiliation with CUG would be useful for the organizers because CUG would be able to offer help with mailing lists, advertisements, web services, planning, and even finances. In addition, CUG could organize parts of a meeting agenda that might be in common with other meetings and thereby reduce the necessary preparatory work.
The logistics would be as follows: a person or group wishing to sponsor such a meeting would apply to the CUG director for the region where the meeting would occur (the CUG regions are North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific). The director, in addition to serving as a coordinator among meetings, would also provide contact to the knowledgeable person or people in CUG. The director would also be responsible for obtaining support from the CUG Board of Directors.

World organization

CUG is a worldwide organization. Although meetings have been planned (through the year 2000) to alternate between North America and Europe, no meeting is planned for the Asia/Pacific area. The FOC Committee believes that a small meeting should be planned for this region for Fall 1998. This meeting would be sponsored by CUG but not directly involve all the active groups in CUG. It might be designated a "mini-meeting."

Web service

CUG has been slow to take advantage of web services. We need to accelerate our World Wide Web activities. In the next few months, we plan to begin processing paper submissions from our web page; publishing our newsletter, CUG.log, primarily on the web; and publishing the CUG Proceedings on the web. We are encouraging the Special Interest Committees to develop their home pages and use them for their favorite activities. We would like to see the CUG web be maintained by professionals.

Basic structure

The FOC Committee has also been asked to look into the structure of CUG as determined by both the bylaws and the policy procedures. (Policy procedures are written directives from the Board of Directors and therefore are more easily changed than the bylaws.) Some of the policy is based only on folk law.
Problems have recently arisen from the vagueness of CUG financial policy. Though member sites pay dues that cover normal expenses such as speaker fees, publication fees, and Board of Directors travel, larger amounts of money are involved with meeting preparation. In the past, meetings have turned a profit or had any losses absorbed by the sponsoring site. In the "mean and lean" 90s, tighter control is necessary. Changes in both the organizational and technical structure of CUG are needed.

Your help

We invite members of the CUG community to:

Suggest ideas and form plans for small meetings or workshops.

Offer ideas on how to encourage SGI users to attend CUG meetings.

Use and critique our web services.

Consider whether one full meeting a year will be sufficient to deal with our fast-changing industry.

Consider whether the Special Interest Committee/Mutual Interest Group (SIC/MIG) structure is the best way to organize our technical interests.

Send us any ideas that can help satisfy the primary directive.

Let us know what you think!

The bylaw change for "at least one meeting a year" is now in place.

A small meeting should be planned for the Asia/Pacific region for Fall 1998.

In the "mean and lean" 90s, a tighter financial policy is necessary.

Future of CUG Committee members:
Helene E. Kulsrud, chair (laney@ccr-p.ida.org)
Mary K Bunde (mkay@cray.com)
Gary Christoph (ggc@lanl.gov)
Hartmut Fichtel (fichtel@dkrz.d400.de)
Barbara Horner-Miller (horner@cosmos.jpl.nasa.gov)
Bruno Loepfe (loepfe@rz.id.ethz.ch)
Michel Jaunin (jaunin@sic.epfl.ch)
Fred Johnson (fjohnson@nist.gov)
Hans Mandt (hans@skipper.rt.cs.boeing.com)

Contents || CUG home

Comments to: lester@ucar.edu

by Helene E. Kulsrud	CUG attendees, including the Cray Research, Inc. (CRI) representatives, have agreed on the directive that the Cray User Group should continue its work and expand its activities to include high-end Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) users. Therefore, the Future of CUG (FOC) Committee has been asked to recommend changes to bring about this new emphasis. So far, the FOC Committee has dealt mainly with short-term solutions such as holding one meeting a year. To formulate long-range CUG plans, the committee has attempted to obtain some input about the long-range plans of both CRI and SGI. These attempts have not been very successful (possibly because there are no long-range plans). Therefore, we must consider our options in light of CUG's past successes and current interests. One meeting a year The bylaw change for "at least one meeting a year" is now in place. But what about keeping up during the rest of the year? How can we avoid losing momentum over a 12-month period? To answer these concerns, the FOC Committee feels it is of prime importance to provide for new CUG activities. Of particular importance is a plan for organizing small meetings. To help encourage this activity, the FOC Committee is currently in the process of writing guidelines for preparing small meetings sponsored or under the aegis of CUG. The main idea here is to encourage groups of 30 to 100 people to hold meetings or workshops at different times of the year--mostly in the Fall season. These meetings can be based on: Geography (meetings such as are held by the German or Japanese user groups) Special interest (topics of concern to a CUG Special Interest Committee--operating systems, operations, etc.) Industry (topics of interest to automotive, energy, or aircraft companies) Current technical interests, such as visualization or data warehousing Anything at all . . . Affiliation with CUG would be useful for the organizers because CUG would be able to offer help with mailing lists, advertisements, web services, planning, and even finances. In addition, CUG could organize parts of a meeting agenda that might be in common with other meetings and thereby reduce the necessary preparatory work. The logistics would be as follows: a person or group wishing to sponsor such a meeting would apply to the CUG director for the region where the meeting would occur (the CUG regions are North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific). The director, in addition to serving as a coordinator among meetings, would also provide contact to the knowledgeable person or people in CUG. The director would also be responsible for obtaining support from the CUG Board of Directors. World organization CUG is a worldwide organization. Although meetings have been planned (through the year 2000) to alternate between North America and Europe, no meeting is planned for the Asia/Pacific area. The FOC Committee believes that a small meeting should be planned for this region for Fall 1998. This meeting would be sponsored by CUG but not directly involve all the active groups in CUG. It might be designated a "mini-meeting." Web service CUG has been slow to take advantage of web services. We need to accelerate our World Wide Web activities. In the next few months, we plan to begin processing paper submissions from our web page; publishing our newsletter, CUG.log, primarily on the web; and publishing the CUG Proceedings on the web. We are encouraging the Special Interest Committees to develop their home pages and use them for their favorite activities. We would like to see the CUG web be maintained by professionals. Basic structure The FOC Committee has also been asked to look into the structure of CUG as determined by both the bylaws and the policy procedures. (Policy procedures are written directives from the Board of Directors and therefore are more easily changed than the bylaws.) Some of the policy is based only on folk law. Problems have recently arisen from the vagueness of CUG financial policy. Though member sites pay dues that cover normal expenses such as speaker fees, publication fees, and Board of Directors travel, larger amounts of money are involved with meeting preparation. In the past, meetings have turned a profit or had any losses absorbed by the sponsoring site. In the "mean and lean" 90s, tighter control is necessary. Changes in both the organizational and technical structure of CUG are needed. Your help We invite members of the CUG community to: Suggest ideas and form plans for small meetings or workshops. Offer ideas on how to encourage SGI users to attend CUG meetings. Use and critique our web services. Consider whether one full meeting a year will be sufficient to deal with our fast-changing industry. Consider whether the Special Interest Committee/Mutual Interest Group (SIC/MIG) structure is the best way to organize our technical interests. Send us any ideas that can help satisfy the primary directive. Let us know what you think!
The bylaw change for "at least one meeting a year" is now in place.
A small meeting should be planned for the Asia/Pacific region for Fall 1998.
In the "mean and lean" 90s, a tighter financial policy is necessary.