September
1, 2004
David M. Sanders
Community.
Webster's
dictionary defines Community as "a unified
body of individuals."
Within the
IT PRO Community are many diverse
populations who come together with a common
goal: to learn and expand their technology
expertise and capabilities. To accomplish
this goal, they often come together and form
IT PRO User Groups. It is this population
and its leaders that Culminis seeks to
serve. I am very familiar with the
challenges and effort that IT PRO User Group
leaders face.
I'm one of you. In addition
to leading Culminis, I also lead the
Carolina IT PRO Group (CITPG), made up of
some 4000+ IT PROs.
IT
PRO User Groups can vary greatly in their
technology focus and the benefits they provide
individual members, but they generally have the
same goals:
-
Increase
financial stability
of IT
PROs by providing networking
opportunities with other IT PROs and
career guidance.
-
Increase job security
for IT
PROs by providing training on leading
edge IT skills needed by the
marketplace.
-
Build a sense of community and belonging
among
IT PROs by providing a collaborative
team environment.
-
Increase self-esteem
by
recognizing IT PROs for their
accomplishments in both the workplace
and the community.
-
Encourage personal and professional
growth
of IT PROs by providing learning
challenges and promoting the concept of
“lifelong learning.”
It is these
five goals that continue to guide Culminis in
developing services for its Member
Organizations, so that they can in turn support
the needs of their individual members and their
communities.
IT PRO User Groups range in type and nature
from highly structured associations to very
informal gatherings.
At Culminis,
we are delivering tools and services to
provide greater capabilities for leaders to
manage their organizations effectively while
also creating greater value for the members
of these organizations.
Through
this process, we are also hoping to create
an organization which moves beyond the
traditional user group mold...a community.
We are
creating an entire landscape of services and
processes that we hope will encourage the
creation of IT PRO Communities,
which provide a host of
valuable benefits to IT PROs world-wide.
Here are
some of the services coming online for our
Culminis Alliance Member Organizations:
-
Top
industry speakers in the Culminis Speakers
Bureau
-
44 top
speakers are now available, and more are
being added on a continuing basis.
-
Leaders
can request a speaker through the
Culminis Speakers Bureau Request Form in
the
Culminis Connections Portal.
-
These
speakers provide a valuable part of the
overall IT PRO community membership
experience. Use of quality speakers like
these drive new members to the Member
Organization, increasing the
participation in the community at local,
regional and national levels.
-
Technology
presentations
-
Over
300 MB of presentations are now
available for immediate download by
Alliance Leaders through the
Culminis Connections Portal to help
leaders provide great technical content
and learning for their members.
-
Member
Organization Web Sites
-
Each
Member Organization receives their own
collaboration web site, hosted for free by
Culminis, and each site includes
discussion boards (to hold discussions,
seek advice and answers), announcements,
event calendars and document libraries.
This is a valuable tool for
communication and sharing (both
essential in building a community).
-
30+
Member Organization Web Sites have been
released since July 2004, and more are
being launched each week.
-
Rich
feedback channels
-
Feedback surveys are available in every
one of our Member Organization sites,
which provide an opportunity for IT PROs
to provide feedback directly to
Microsoft and other Partners of
Culminis. Additionally, leaders have
their own Feedback Channel on our
Connections Portal. This provides a
direct line to Microsoft and Culminis
Partners to connect IT PROs to the
companies who build and provide the
services and products that make IT PROs
successful. It also provides an
additional valuable service to our
Leaders to increase the value of
membership in their organizations.
-
Product
discounts
-
We are
launching the Culminis IT PRO Shop in
the near future, which will feature over
90,000 IT solutions, including hardware,
software, educational materials, books,
publications, training, etc., at exclusive
discounts for Members Organizations and
their individual members.
-
Purchases made through the Culminis IT
PRO Shop will provide a percentage BACK
to the Member Organization from which
the purchase originated. This will
provide a revenue stream for leaders to
strengthen their organizations and
enable them to provide quality events,
upgrade systems, and expand services for
their individual members.
-
Operation
services
-
Culminis will be providing services
specifically geared towards helping
leaders manage the day-to-day operations
of a community-based organization, such
as free checking accounts for Member
Organizations located in the U.S. (we
are working on Europe and will be moving
into South America in the coming
months). This service will enable
leaders to provide better management of
their sponsorship funds, membership dues,
and overall financial management of
their organizations. Additional
operation services are being developed
based on feedback provided by Member
Organizations.
We are trying
to help leaders move their groups up to a
level of community that has not been done
before. While some have criticized
our efforts and shown impatience at our
progress and results, I would like to ask
that you examine our intent for the future
and not judge us on immediate results. While
it is fairly simple to pull together some
basic services and presentations, it is much
more of an effort to create a lasting and
quality community. It takes time, effort and
hard work.
There
is an old saying, "you can give someone a
fish and feed them for a day or you can give
them a pole and teach them to fish, then you
feed them for a lifetime."
We
are building a global community.
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