starting a SWUG in Belgium

[Eddy Alleman]

Last weekend I enjoyed the SLUGME6 live stream.

thanks to @Artem @gupta9665 @Alin and a lot of others who showed great content.

What a great bunch of enthusiasm that was!

This got me thinking. In my region there is no SWUG (SolidWorks User Group) and I think some of you here are SWUG leaders.

Can you give me some real live advice on how to start things up (not the webpage on how you can apply)
Is it best to contact SolidWorks users upfront to see if there are enough volunteers? Is it something you do mostly alone? What are the minimum activities you have to organize? What are the activities that attract people the most?

Any story on how you started it up yourself is much appreciated!

Thanks,

Eddy

[DennisD]

SWX actually is doing a pretty good job of helping get SWUGs started and run. They had a big purge a few years ago and disbanded a bunch that weren't having at least two meetings a year.

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/56c45 ... 9c4f3dd069

[Eddy Alleman]

Thanks Dennis,

that is extra useful info!

Eddy

[matt]

Last weekend I enjoyed the SLUGME6 live stream.

thanks to @Artem @gupta9665 @Alin and a lot of others who showed great content.

What a great bunch of enthusiasm that was!

This got me thinking. In my region there is no SWUG (SolidWorks User Group) and I think some of you here are SWUG leaders.

Can you give me some real live advice on how to start things up (not the webpage on how you can apply)
Is it best to contact SolidWorks users upfront to see if there are enough volunteers? Is it something you do mostly alone? What are the minimum activities you have to organize? What are the activities that attract people the most?

Any story on how you started it up yourself is much appreciated!

Thanks,

Eddy

I started a dozen groups up and down the US east coast 10-15 years ago. I burned out on it in the end. I was active in user groups from about '98 to probably 2010. It can be fun, but get help, pace yourself, and don't expect anyone to keep their promises.

[Eddy Alleman]

I started a dozen groups up and down the US east coast 10-15 years ago. I burned out on it in the end. I was active in user groups from about '98 to probably 2010. It can be fun, but get help, pace yourself, and don't expect anyone to keep their promises.

Thanks Matt
That is what I'm afraid off. I'm expecting to do most of the work at least in the beginning.

Does Solidworks help with finding users in your region in any way?

[matt]

Thanks Matt
That is what I'm afraid off. I'm expecting to do most of the work at least in the beginning.

Does Solidworks help with finding users in your region in any way?

Everything is different now. They used to send out emails for you based on postal codes. Maybe now they give you a roll of stamps. I'd find one or two other people to help you before you even get started. Make some friends at the reseller, and maybe some other third party products. It's hard to find (local) people to do presentations. If you can do that yourself, you're ahead of the game. You need someone to help with organization, and manage the money, order the pizza, take attendance, get a location, send out announcements, manage any online broadcast you might want to use, recruitment, line up speakers, contests, give-aways, yada yada yada.

best of luck.

[Eddy Alleman]

Thx Mate
All good advice

Eddy

[David Matula]

It used to be easy.
Contact the swug manager for your area, to find more details.

I used to just contact the vars and send them information of when and where I was going to have a meeting, asking them to please fwd to all the users in the area. I'd would also get the vars to do presentations on topics if there were no volunteers. That and post it to the swug website. That was the good old days when it was simpler.

[Eddy Alleman]

Thx David!

Does any of you know SWUG leaders here on the forum that are doing it nowadays? Obviously a lot has changed over the years.

[Tahhhd]

Last weekend I enjoyed the SLUGME6 live stream.

thanks to @Artem @gupta9665 @Alin and a lot of others who showed great content.

What a great bunch of enthusiasm that was!

This got me thinking. In my region there is no SWUG (SolidWorks User Group) and I think some of you here are SWUG leaders.

Can you give me some real live advice on how to start things up (not the webpage on how you can apply)
Is it best to contact SolidWorks users upfront to see if there are enough volunteers? Is it something you do mostly alone? What are the minimum activities you have to organize? What are the activities that attract people the most?

Any story on how you started it up yourself is much appreciated!

Thanks,

Eddy

Eddy,

Really glad to hear that you enjoyed SLUGME this year!
(If you haven't taken part in any of the events in the past, we have been uploading the videos from the previous years to the SW_SLUGME channel on YouTube. This is where we will be adding the videos from this year after we break them up into the individual presentations.)

Much like SLUGME, running a User Group is a labor of love - it is up to you to decide how much time you put into it and how much you want to do with it.

In addition to coming up with the idea for SLUGME, I am also the founder and former leader of the SolidWorks User Group of Nebraska (SwugOne). I've run, or helped run, the User Group for nearly 20 years. (If it wasn't fun, I would have stopped a long time ago.)
I was also the SolidWorks User Group Network (SWUGN) Representative for the Southern US for nearly a decade - These representatives are the ones that are here to help when you want to get a group up and running.

I stepped down from the User Group and SWUGN in 2020 just before COVID hit. It was a lot of fun, but I had started a different job, and I was wanting some more free time for projects around the house.

For my User Group, I would usually have 4 or 5 meetings a year.
For SWUGN, I would try to attend and/or present another 15+ user group meetings per year.
This meant a lot of time on the road.
For reference, this is a map of the territory that I covered.
(I put the outline of Belgium toward the top for scaling purposes.)

They made Texas its own territory the year that I stepped down from the SWUGN Committee, so the the new Southern Region has one less state to cover. (But it is still pretty big!)

It can be a lot of fun, but how much fun you have is really up to you.
todd

[Eddy Alleman]

Hi Todd,

Great initiative you started.
Thx for the feedback

I´ve been contacted by the Solidworks swugn manager and applied for it today.

Eddy

[Tahhhd]

Hi Todd,

Great initiative you started.
Thx for the feedback

I´ve been contacted by the Solidworks swugn manager and applied for it today.

Eddy

Thanks!
Dan Wagner (from SolidWorks) is a good guy, and he'll help you get started.
Kirby Downey is the SWUGN Rep for that region, he's also a good guy, and will be a great resource to keep your group running.
Good Luck!
todd

[Eddy Alleman]

Good Luck!

appreciate it!

Eddy

[Eddy Alleman]

The Belgium SolidWorks User Group BESWUG is officially started up.
Have a look at the meetup page and join if you like to:

https://lnkd.in/dDhp7w7w