We have a strong Business Intelligence community, and invite you to join at www.asug.com Check to see if your company is already a member. We have the following upcoming webcasts:
7/23/08 BOBJ Series: Crystal
7/29/08 BOBJ Author Cindi Howson: “Secrets to Making BI a Killer App”
7/30/08 BI/BOBJ Integration
Also, we have a quarterly networking webcast that we hope you’ll attend:
7/31/08 Quarterly Networking Webcast
Regards,
Tammy Powlas
ASUG Volunteer
tpowlas (BOB member since 2008-06-18)
Hi, Tammy, and Welcome to B:bob:B! I’ve moved your topic into the User Groups and Conferences forum as that’s the more appropriate place. I have also added an “ASUG” tag to the list of gruops / conferences so folks can identify ASUG events.
Bob (BOB member since 2002-06-06)
Am I reading this correctly - the membership fee for universities (which I assume falls under “Public Sector Organizations”) is $1500, and without that we can’t use web seminars etc? There’s no way our institution will be willing to pay this. I really appreciate that ASUG is trying to welcome the BusObj community, but going from no-charge to a hefty annual membership fee isn’t going to work for us.
Amy Miller
Amy Miller 
(BOB member since 2002-06-07)
Well, here in Austria the BO-Stammtisch-community has already been invited at the local SAP Headquarter in Vienna and we are in contact also with Austrian branches of the DSAG (=German SAP User Group)… These SAP Groups are well developed and organized - mostly represented by people from big SAP-Customers - so we don’t know how we will do it in future - whether simply to cooperate or to try a fusion … fees would be - also in Austria - a killer argument, since lot of active bo-users are participating out of personal and technical interest … so we will seek for gentlemen agreements to work- and use information channels -together …
Cheers from Austria / Vienna…
Wobi
Wolfgang Bidner 
(BOB member since 2002-08-30)
I second that. We’re in the same boat. We’re a small group with a tight budget, and there does not exist an extra $1500 that we weren’t anticipating needing to join a user group that used to be free.
Anita Craig 
(BOB member since 2002-06-17)
I completely agree with Anita and Amy. I’m at a public university that is in the process of taking severe budget cuts because the state is in sad shape financially. Management is complaining about licensing fees (and we are an incredibly tiny installation). No way are they going to ante up an additional $1500 for something where the value for that kind of money is unproved. I’m lucky I’ve been able to attend the user conferences in the past - this year is still in doubt.
What do we get for paying the membership fee? Is it being used to pay somebody a salary? If we don’t belong can we still attend local user group meetings?
I guess I’ll just have to stick with getting my news from BOB.
Debbie Kelly (BOB member since 2002-08-15)
From what I understand, the ASUG meetings are part of the annual fee, and the ASUG meetings are separate and distinct from the new Business Objects Community Alliance. I imagine Melissa will step in and correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the BOCA is going to continue the standard user group meetings, while ASUG continues their meetings as a separate venue.
If your company (or educational institution 
) is already a member of ASUG then you’re set. If you want to join ASUG then you get the additional meetings, webinars, and so on that ASUG puts out. If you want to continue the standard user group meetings that are “classic” Business Objects style, then the new BOCA will be managing that.
So you’re under no obligation to pay for ASUG unless you want to take advantage of the extra services they offer.
Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)
To much money to join a users group for me. 
Steve_Johnston (BOB member since 2008-05-19)
Thanks for the explanation Dave.
It seemed absurd that I would have to pay membership fee, when I have no idea what value the ASUG group provides. Perhaps they should consider some sort of trial membership for Business Objects customers (like me) that are unfamiliar with the ASUG organization.
Scott
Scott Emmons (BOB member since 2002-09-12)
Yes, I agree. And they could get many new members if the membership proves to be useful.
Marek Chladny 
(BOB member since 2003-11-27)