WMNUG History
West Michigan Novell Users Group (our acronym W.M.N.U.G. is affectionately referred to as whum-nug) began in the fall of 1987 through the initial efforts of Paul Hillman of Conway, Dierking, and Hillman (now known as CDH).
WMNUG's members come from all segments of the marketplace, with the largest membership coming from school districts, consulting firms, and Novell partners. In 1994, we became affiliated with NetWare Users International (NUI) which has over 300 affiliated user groups world wide.
In addition to our monthly meetings, we have occassional “install-fests” and hands-on training sessions on weekends. New Horizons has made the hands-on sessions possible by allowing us to “borrow” classroom space and equipment.
Our largest project each year is “The Big EveNt”. This event has grown from a humble start in 2003, as an evening presentation by Alan Nugent, former Novell CTO, to a 2-day long event with over 45 sponsors. This event is organized, planned, and executed by volunteers – all of whom have full-time jobs in IT and are not professional conference planners. As a result, we learn new things each year.
The birth of “The Big EveNt” started with a phone call from Ken Orzechowski (former WMNUG president) to Alan Nugent and asking Alan if he would be so kind as to come out and present at our January meeting. Ken had been working with Alan and Novell on a big IDM project and, lucky for WMNUG, had Alan’s direct line. Our board, with some additional financial assistance from CDH, arranged to hold the event at the downtown campus of GVSU.
In 2004, Alan wasn’t available, but Novell generously provided us with another executive as our speaker. With no money in the bank, WMNUG asked one of our corporate members to host the event at their facility and provide the food and beverages. This lack of funding helped prompt the idea in 2005 of adding sponsors.
Luckily, Mary Matthews (former WMNUG president) ran into Alan Nugent at BrainShare 2004 and was able to secure his presence at the 2005 “The Big EveNt”. At the time the event didn’t have a formal name, but as Mary kept referring to it as “our big event” the name just kind of stuck.
The idea for the 2005 membership drive meeting (the original intent of our January meeting) was to get 3 to 5 sponsors to help pay for food for the afternoon event. Karen Downard (our former Novell rep) helped us get in touch with Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC). GRCC was kind enough to donate the space, and what started as a hopeful search for a total of 5 sponsors, culminated in a sponsorship of over 20 companies, with a special post-event VIP cocktail hour.
For 2006, GRCC was once again kind enough to donate the space for our use. We had some last minute panic and adjustments to our speaker schedule, Novell made sure we had a Novell executive as our keynote speaker. Luckily, Nancy Faigen was able to adjust her schedule at the last minute to be our keynote presenter. We added a VIP lunch, with a special presentation by Nancy Faigen. In addition to extending the event to an all-day event, we added several presentations to the event. Yet another learning experience.
The 2006 event brought us over 35 sponsors, and proved that we’d outgrown our home at GRCC. Henry Devries, VP of IT and Financial Services at Calvin College generously offered the use of Calvin College’s Prince Conference Center for the 2007 event. A recent addition to the campus, it had the perfect room to use as a sponsor’s hall, with lots more classroom space to use for presentations.
The move to the Calvin campus proved to be very successful. We had over 45 sponsors, we filled the sponsors hall, and had several technical sessions as well. It’s beginning to look a lot like the start of BrainShare – which also started as a user group event. The event moved to a 2-day long experience, with a lot more door prizes, and a truly fun ending keynote courtesy of Ted Haeger, Director of NUI, and Jeff Price from Novell and MythTV fame. Nancy was able to land before the snow started and proved to be a hit, once again. Even though we were up against year-end and quarter-end deadlines for Novell and many of our sponsors, they still came out for our event. We learned a lot about planning sessions (what to do and what not to do), and decided to move the event to a time of year with more “hospitable” weather.
The 2007 event also brought a collaboration with the local HDI chapter, which helped us out with more volunteers (thank you all!) and new sponsors. Expect the HDI collaboration to continue along with “The Big EveNt”. The additional hands they brought to the event helped immensely, as noticed by everyone.
2003 Planning Committee
Ken Orzechowski, President
Tom Jillson
Michael Price
2004 Planning Committee
Michael Price, President
Tom Jillson, Scholarship Director
Mary Matthews, Secretary
Ken Orzechowski, Technical Director
Karen Downard, Novell
2005 Planning Committee – Alan Nugent Keynote
Mary Matthews, President
Michael Price, Vice President
Steven , Treasurer
Mark Sapoznikov, Secretary
Tom Jillson, Scholarship Director
Ken Orzechowski, Technical Director
Karen Downard, Novell
And countless volunteers – thank you all!!
2006 Planning Committee – Nancy Faigen Keynote
Mary Matthews, President
Chad Griewahn, Vice President
Patrick Tenhoopen, Treasurer
Mark Sapoznikov, Secretary
Melissa Anderson, Technical Director
Kimberly Fetter, Novell
Tim Grocki, Novell
And countless volunteers – thank you all!!
2007 Planning Committee – Nancy Faigen Keynote
Chad Griewahn, President
Mary Matthews, Vice President
Patrick Tenhoopen, Treasurer
Mark Sapoznikov, Secretary
Amanda Jones, Technical Director
Kimberly Fetter, Novell
Tim Grocki, Novell
HDI Board
And countless volunteers – thank you all!!
The Big EveNt wouldn’t function without all of our volunteers, sponsors, and the planning committees. A big thanks to everyone who helps pull this event together each year. (If anyone’s been overlooked, it’s all Mary’s fault).