Nicholas Pyers Presents: End of Year Tasks for User Group Members

Nicholas PyersMany groups do not meet from late December to early January, but there are things you can do while your group is on hiatus. Nicholas Pyers, Apple User Group Advisory Board member and popular presenter from AppleUsers.org, offers thoughts on ways to thank those who have served your community in the past year and ways to plan ahead for an even better year ahead for your group and members.

http://www.appleusers.org/ugr/end-of-year-tasks-for-apple-user-group-leaders/

Taking his advice regarding thanking those who have made our user group experience better, we’d like to say thank you to Nicholas for his many articles over many years. We look forward to taking his advice on planning for the year to come and thank him for all of the expertise and wonderful resources he has provided over the years.

Nicholas Pyers is known for AppleUsers.org, the Apple Users Spotlight, his clever puzzles, and long-time championship of all things Mac.

Learn more at:

https://www.appleusers.org/

Meeting Idea: Apple’s Privacy and Security Features

Your members have privacy concerns and a privacy and security meeting topic could be a hit. Apple builds in privacy at every level to help users keep their information secure. From Passkeys that can replace passwords with an easier and safer sign-in method, to Intelligent Tracking Prevention, Privacy Report to Password monitoring, Social widget tracking prevention, Fingerprinting defense, Private Browsing, Location fuzzing, Random identifiers, end-to-end encryption, and so much more, privacy is an integral part of the Apple ecosystem.

Start your meeting with the clever Privacy on iPhone video and go from there:

Privacy on iPhone

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News to Use: “How Ted Lasso Did It” Night at LACPUG

LACPUGThe 6,000+ member strong LA Creative Pro community will hold their next meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 29 at the Gallery Theatre in Hollywood. And, the meeting’s topic is a winner: they are having a How Ted Lasso Did It night, featuring editors Melissa McCoy and A.J. Catoline. But wait, there’s more: the team from DigitalFilm Tree who did the VFX, Color, PreVis and GeoDailes will be there too. Still not sure? Stump the Gurus and the World Famous Raffle will be part of the evening’s entertainment. 

Learn, network, and increase your skills.

lacpug

Apple Support on YouTube: Use Point and Speak on iPhone or iPad

Need a quick topic to include with your meeting? Apple Support on YouTube often has quick, fun, and easy-to-implement tips that your members will enjoy.  For example, in under 1 minute your members can learn how to use Point and Speak in Magnifier on your iPhone or iPad with LiDAR to have text read to you. Just point your finger at signs, keypads, labels and more to hear them read out loud to you. The technique works great for users, including users with low vision or blindness.

How to Use Point and Speak on iPhone or iPad

Ambassadors, November is a great time to use Apple Support on YouTube

(Thanks to Apple Systems Engineer and artist Dave Marra for this great tip!)

Blast From the Past: Apple User Groups on the Apple User Group Connection

user group connection mugThe Apple User Group Connection Archives offer a fun look back at past announcements, products, and meetings. The January 1988 video offered a look at Apple User Groups. The narration is pretty awful, but it is fun to look back at groups many of which are still active today. The speakers include members from Mac Nexus, AzApple, DBug, SMUG, and more. In fact, there is an incredibly young Raines at BMUG, lots of 80s fashions (sigh) and discussions about the ways that user group provide expertise, from classes, to meetings, to newsletters, BBS boards, and gatherings, user groups were a large part of the Apple community then and today too.

Check it out.

User Group Connection January 1988

Meeting Ideas: Be Prepared

Apple Support

You may remember the Scout’s Motto: Be Prepared. Sill, do your members know how to prepare for account recovery, how to add a legacy contact, or even how to prepare a device for sale or trade in? Why not base a meeting around preparedness? An account recovery contact can help make sure that you always have access to your account, even if you forget your Apple ID password or device passcode. A Legacy Contact is someone you choose to have access to the data in your Apple account after your death. And before you sell, give away, or trade in your Apple device, you will need to transfer information to your new device, if any, then remove your personal information from your old device. Interested in buying a pre-owned phone? Apple Support has guidance and a checklist for that too!

Each is easy to do and there are great resources to help you be prepared for a great meeting.

How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple ID

Set up an account recovery contact

What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your iPhone or iPad

Learn how to inspect a preowned iPhone.

Ambassadors, October is a great month to check out Apple Support

(Thanks to Rick Ortiz, User Group Advisory Board member, amazing freediver who recently achieved two national freediving records, user group leader, and owner of The MacPro for this great idea.)

AWUGU Meeting Report about Sports Streaming by Tom Piper, Coordinator

 

AWUGU Meeting Report about Sports Streaming

by Tom Piper, Coordinator

This Apple World User Group University (AWUGU) online gathering of Apple user group leaders was held at 5:00pm CDST, on October 16, 2023, via Zoom. We had 24 participants for Sports Streaming (see Zoom JPG image and PDF attendance list in shared AWUGU folder). The 68-minute video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/wVfyEF1LUkM (unlisted on YouTube).

This session opened with my welcome, plus a quick review of the meeting protocols. This was followed by an interesting presentation by Steve Welsh (OMUG) about Sports Broadcasting Concerns (see his slideshow in shared AWUGU folder). Many questions and comments were then added.

Related to the topic of Sports Streaming, a few observations were shared and suggestions were provided by user group leaders with the following links in the Chat Room:

We are very pleased with this tenth meeting of 2023. Files related to this meeting (including chat, agendas, reports, announcement links, slideshows and videos) are available on our AWUGU shared folder: https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0kF7XwYI98VG0fqvL86PJm02g#AWUGU.

After a brief discussion, it was decided that “Gadget Gift Guide” would be the topic on November 20, 2023, at 5:00pm Central Daylight Saving Time (all current AWUGU registrants will receive an invitation to all future meetings)

To become a participant, any interested Apple User Group leader must first register with the AWUGU Coordinator by emailing their name, location, and user group name and web link to macquest@mac.com. Registration must be received by November 18 in order to receive a Zoom Meeting invitation.

Maui Apple Users Society: Apple User Group Assistance and Refurb Program

Maui Apple User GroupA key component of user groups and user group members is service to community, and the Maui Apple Users Society will be donating refurbished Apple computers to victims and families of the Maui wildfires. From Ireland’s ClubMac’s computer donations, to Pittsburgh Mac’s Computer Reach  user groups worldwide have responded when disasters struck. Is your group doing community-focused service? Let our editors know.

Apple User Group Assistance and Refurb Program

Fun Blast From the Past: James Burke and HyperCard

user group connection mug

 

The Apple User Group Connection Archives offer a fun look back at past announcements, products, and meetings. If you are a fan of British science and technology journalist and historian of science James Burke’s Day the Universe Changed and Connections, August 1988 had Mr. Burke explaining HyperCard and interactive video for the User Group Connection. This was 35 years ago, so the video reminds viewers to be kind and rewind 🙂

What a gem.

HyperCard and Interactive Video – August 1988

(I taught the full Day the Universe Changed series to undergraduates as part of a course on Descartes for more than a few years, so Mr. Burke is dear to me.)

The Day The Universe Changed – Infinitely Reasonable: Science Revises the Heavens

Day the Universe Changed

News to Use: LACPUG Looks at Assistant Editors and AI

LACPUG

The 6,000+ member strong LA Creative Pro community will hold their next meeting on October 25 at the Gallery Theater in Hollywood. And, the meeting’s topic is a winner: Assistant Editors and AI Night. With popular host Michael Horton, Zack Arnold (ACE) – founder of Optimize Yourself as well as a 20-year veteran editing film & television, TV Assistant Editor Ashley McKinney, Film and TV Assistant Editor Scott Jacobs, and VFX Editor and Co-Founder of the Master the Workflow Richard Sanchez, the lineup is superb.

Still not sure? Stump the Gurus and the World Famous Raffle will be part of the evening’s entertainment. 

Learn, network, and have fun.

lacpug