News & Views

When I joined the Mac community, oh, some thirty-thousand years ago, things were a lot different than they are today. Apple was a wee lil' Jetta in the metropolitan highway known as the Tech Biz, and the only media attention it ever got - that is, when it got media attention at all - was fearful predictions of its inevitable demise. Mac users were huddled in a secluded world of microscopic marketshare and public indifference.

We weren't highly regarded - no, quite the opposite, really. "Ha, ha!" PC-using misanthropes would shout. "You Mac users are so stoooopid! Can your Mac play games? I didn't think so!"

We'd attempt to respond, often in vein. "Actually, Macs can play -"

"Ha, ha! Your Mac can't play games! It's such a toy!"

At that point, we'd realize an argument was futile - "Don't argue with an idiot, the rest of us won't be able to tell who's who" - and move on, shaking our heads, knowing our platform was unquestionably superior, but unable to prove it without hollow threats of physical pain and/or slightly-modified Jedi mind tricks.

But in this world of Windows-only software, media snubbing, and PC user smugness, there was one thing that kept our little community together; the Mead-Hall of the Mac world that binded us in ways no Windows-using ubergeek could break. That thing, my friends, was the concept of Mac User Groups.

Every month or every week - or even every day, for some jobless Macophiles - a group of diehard Mac junkies would meet and discuss the Issues Of The Day, from the latest and greatest in Mac software to Apple's most recent hardware fumble. Newbies would show up in droves, tapping the on-site Super Nerds for help with everything from faulty printers to those bloody extensions that never seemed to work right, no matter what you downloaded or deleted or moved around or kicked or threw out the window or yelled at or...

You get the point.

Mac-focused vendors would demo their spiffy new products to the MUGs, and then offer discounted goodies and raffle away boxes full of really-cool-but-probably-too-costly-to-buy stuffs. Mac celebs would travel far and wide to get up on stage and offer helpful and entertaining advice to the throngs of captivated attendees. Groups themselves would often host special super-secret get-togethers, where their most dedicated members would plan violent raids on neighboring PC user groups, which were often scantily attended and poorly defended.

MUGs were a bastion of Mac userness, offering stray and confused Apple fans of the world a place to get together and network; to discuss topics of mutual interest, to learn about the Latest and Greatest, and to befriend people of unlimited diversity.

Owning a Mac meant more than simply being a "Mac user"; it meant being a member of a tightly-knit and welcoming community; it meant having the opportunity to meet folks who were able - and willing - to help you in your time(s) of need. It was a great thing.

Today...well, today, things are different. Mac user groups are still around, ready and eager to help the Mac Masses. But they lack one key component that keeps them alive and kickin', the one thing that drives these groups to be as helpful and as effectual as they once were - they lack members.

Across the board, user group member numbers are declining - old members aren't renewing and prospective members are nowhere to be found. Groups are being forced to cut benefits or close up (raising member fees is a big no-no), and the continually decreasing incentives lead to further member erosion.

To put that in terms that don't sound like Greenspan's jargon-filled market reports: User groups are dying.

Even while the Macintosh user base grows, Mac-related groups and activities are slowly fizzling out. Recently, IDG announced that Macworld Boston 2006 was cancelled. Reason? Not enough interest. Over the summer, the organizers of the MacHack/ADHOC conference announced that it, too, would be cancelled. Reason? Again, not enough interest.

A Mac user group I'm very close to is facing a major financial crisis. Membership numbers have dropped dramatically, volunteer numbers are dropping off just as fast, and the benefits the group once proudly boasted on handout-sized flyers distributed to Mac fans eagerly awaiting an Apple Store opening are now almost impossible to deliver.

I can hear you now, furiously working to swallow that piece of cheesecake that you just had to eat because, after all, there are people starving all over the world. "Oh Dan," you say, covering your mouth so as to avoid spewing crumbs in my face. "Why are the beloved MUGs dying, Dan, why are they dying?"

They are dying not because of lessened importance or a declining Mac user base (we already established that the opposite is actually true), they are dying because people fail to recognize their significance. Mac users these days don't realize how truly helpful and caring a Mac user group can be. They don't understand the joy that comes from spending an hour or two each month with people who share their interests, people part of a community, eager to spread their knowledge and discuss things the group wants to discuss.

I've seen many a friend brought to group meetings - souls who'd typically never be caught dead or dying in such situations - who immediately took to the camaraderie and companionship (and free stuff), and started returning to meeting after meeting, slowly becoming more involved in the group they came to love.

Want to help these groups - these landmarks of the Mac community - stay alive? Just join one. See how great they really are. Bring an old gadget to give away; bring advice to help your fellow users; bring a problem *you* need help with. Volunteer to help the group with promotion, with membership, with organization. Tell your friends how fun the last meeting was and how they should really, really come to one, or risk missing out on a life-changing experience that they'll regret until their dying day.

Remember, most MUGs don't only offer networking and support. Many groups have regular prize raffles (free stuff!), a wide-array of discount offers (cheap stuff!), and even organization-sponsored giveaways like shareware CDs and mousepads (cool stuff!). Before you know it, the MUG membership will have paid for itself - ten times over.

To find a group near you, visit Apple's User Group locator page. No group within biking, driving, or hang-gliding distance? No problem - start one of your own!

<http://www.apple.com/usergroups/find/>

Get involved. Trust me, you won't regret it.

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Dan Pourhadi is a freelance technology writer from the Chicago suburbs. Aside from writing for Passages, he has contributed to MacAddict Magazine and writes a weekly column for Macteens.com. He maintains a fitfully-updated, though semi-interesting blog at www.pourhadi.com.

(The following article can be used by any MUG newsletters -- if you're going to use it, please e-mail me [dan@pourhadi.com] with the name of the publication. Please credit The NorthWest of Us MUG (www.nwou.org) and Northwest Passages, the newsletter the article first appeared in.)