We have made some changes to Capital in the last year. We recently hired a trainer and target market sales per-son. His job will be to provide scheduled customer training and the ex-pertise necessary to consult with customers interested in accounting, networking and custom database design. I see the role of any users' group primarily as a local support network. New and prospective users need to know that others have gone through the awkwardness of learning the ''new technology'' and have survived.
Experienced users can find that helping others can be informative and can help sharpen their skills.
The ''collective knowledge'' that a users' group has is extremely valuable. There's only so much reading and ''rumor control'' that any one person can handle. In relation to Capital, it is important for the group's collective knowledge to keep us informed as to its needs. These calls to SMUG members are usually made to obtain ''free,'' unbiased advice in a non-threatening way. On-campus, Apple has made the university bookstore a source of Apple information for departments, faculty and staff.