Thank you for deciding to start a Be User Group. BUGs are extremely important to Be. We appreciate your help in allowing Be-folks to congregate and trade ideas. Your active contribution and feedback are instrumental in the growth of Be and the proliferation of the BeOS.

The BUG Handbook is a source of information for planning, publicizing, and running your BUG. It also provides a list of resources for information about Be, BUGs, the BeOS, and applications for the BeOS. The book contains information contributed by BUG presidents and members. It aims at providing you with ideas, guidelines, and resources to help you run your group successfully. Apart from some necessary procedures, there are no set rules on how to run a BUG: be creative, do what you think is appropriate to run your group successfully and promote the BeOS.

This handbook does not pretend to be exhaustive. Our goal is to provide BUGs with the best information and resources we can. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please write to: victoria@be.com

Table of Contents:

• I. Setting Up Your BUG - Laying the Foundation
• II. Running Your BUG
• III. Be Resources

You don't need to be a computer professional or own your own company to start a BUG. All you need is access to the Internet, a web site where you can post info about your BUG (this can be you own home page), and people who share your interest in Be and the BeOS. Obviously, if you have received this document, you've already passed some of the hurdles and your group is now official. Like anything else, however, setting up and organizing your BUG will benefit from a little planning. This section covers the basics of what to consider when you launch your BUG, and lots of helpful tips on generating publicity for your group. And remember: wear the shirt! You are now an official member of the Be Team, and an ambassador of Be in your community!

There are some things you'll want to consider before you set your first meeting. They may seem mundane at first glance, but you will benefit later on if you take the time to think about them now.

The first thing you should do is take a good honest look at your schedule and decide how much time you can give to your group. When doing this, here are some of the things you may want to consider: meetings, setting up and maintaining a web site, creating and putting up leaflets and posters, e-mailing your members about upcoming meetings, events, and announcements. Once your group gets up and running, you will likely discover that you have a wealth of volunteer support, ready and willing to share in BUG tasks and responsibilities.

When you applied to start your BUG you had to provide a statement about what the focus of your group would be. What is the focus of your BUG? Creating a mission statement is a helpful and easy way to define what it is you want to do with your group. Do you want to focus on a particular aspect or application of the BeOS, or do you want to cast your net wide and be a resource to anyone in your community interested in learning more about Be?

Where should your BUG meet? Ideally, your meeting space will be conveniently located for most of your members. You will probably want to have a computer at your disposal or at the very least some place to plug one in if you bring it yourself. Other considerations include availability of parking, whether or not you will need to pay for the space, and whether or not there are any rules you should be aware of when meeting in that space (such as no food, no drinks, etc.). Some possibilities for meeting sites: a school or university classroom or computer lab, someone's office, a local church or temple, a community center, your home.

How often should your BUG meet? As a rule, a general meeting once a month is a good choice. More often may be too much of a commitment for some people. For others, however, once a month may not be often enough. Assess your group and decide what you think is best. If some people in your group want to meet more often, you might suggest they create a special interest group (SIG) within your BUG that meets as often as they like. This is a great way to make everyone happy.

Insofar as setting a day and a time for meetings, conventional wisdom holds that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are generally good days to hold a meeting. Friday seems to be a bad day for meeting because it's the end of the week, and people are reluctant to make a commitment so close to the weekend. Saturday and Sunday likewise.

When setting a time for meetings, consider your members. For working people, evening meetings are usually most convenient. This may differ if your group is made up of students. Whatever the optimal time appears to be, try to give people enough time to get to the meeting from work or class without rushing. When setting a starting time for a meeting, be sure to set an ending time also. This gives people a general idea of when to show up and how long the meeting will last.

Many user groups will set a starting time anywhere from half an hour to an hour before the meeting begins, in order to give members a chance to talk and hang out. For example, if you plan on starting your meeting at 7:00 PM, you might say in your announcement, "meetings begin at 7:00 PM, but feel free to show up at 6:30 PM for an informal chat before the meeting." Chat time is very important to user groups. It gives people a chance to come together outside of the structured environment of a meeting.

The administration of your group is something you may want to define at the beginning, when you are laying the foundation for your BUG, or it may be something you choose to put off until later, after your group has become more defined. Administration issues you may want to consider include electing officers, collecting membership dues, and recording meeting minutes.

What are you going to do for your meetings? This section provides you with some ideas for meetings, activities, events, and promotion.

Meetings are what it's all about! A meeting doesn't necessarily have to have a strict agenda. Sometimes, you may just want to have a good, solid Q&A session and discussion of the OS or programming issues. Below are some suggestions for activities you might plan.

You've got the latest OS release and the BeOS demo script. You're all set! A demo is a sure-fire way to kindle the enthusiasm of your group. Learn how to give a good demo. The more you practice the BeOS demo, the better it looks, and the more enthusiastic your audience will be.

Demo the BeOS applications. We encourage our developers to send you copies of their application (see the "Be Resources" section). You can also go to the BeWare (http://www.be.com/beware/index.html) section on the Be web site and download applications. Demonstration versions of many applications are available at BeDepot.com (http://www.bedepot.com/). Show your audience what's going on in the Be Developer community, who has applications and how to use them.

You might also invite Be software developers to your BUG meeting, or invite Be to make a stop at your BUG for a demo and a Q&A session in your area.

One great activity for enticing people into your BUG is teaching classes. For example, you might teach an introductory class on navigating the BeOS, covering things like how the file system works, configuring and using PPP and NetPositive, and basic command line skills for those unfamiliar with working in the Terminal window. Another good idea for classes are software intensives, teaching people how to use a particular software package.

SIGs, or special interest groups, are groups within your BUG that focus on a specific component or use of the BeOS. A SIG might focus on programming 3-D graphics, creating and using digital audio, or writing a game or an application for the BeOS. SIGs can bring a lot of energy to the group, because the group can take an active role in their accomplishments and discoveries. Whenever possible, have your SIGs present what they are working on to the rest of the group.

Offsite events are a great way to energize your group, promote it and get new members, and to advertise the BeOS.

Find out about local computer and technology trade shows and set up a booth for your BUG. If you need help and support from Be Inc., contact victoria@be.com. We will give you opportunities to attend and participate in Be Developer Conferences, and set up a table in the Developer Lab. Give you own demo tour, presenting the BeOS and software for BeOS to groups at schools, colleges, businesses, and other user groups. You would be surprised to see how many people are interested in hosting a BeOS demo.

As the group grows and its membership and activities multiply and diversify, you may find that it becomes difficult to handle all of the responsibilities alone. This seems to be especially true once a BUG begins to generate an income and needs to create a budget and manage its finances. When this happens, you might want to consider appointing or electing a board of officers or a steering committee. There are some advantages and some disadvantages to having a board, but if you are at the point where appointing a board seems like a good idea, the advantages probably outweigh the disadvantages.

Advantages: You'll have a lot less work to do. Also, the BUG will benefit because generally an officer can give all of their attention to their appointed function, whereas a single BUG leader can only give a portion of their attention to that function.

Disadvantages: It can sometimes be more difficult to make decisions within a committee. Also, since officers are typically elected, your BUG will need to invest some time and energy in running an election every so often.

Membership dues can enable your group to buy better hardware, the latest software, snacks, books and magazines, and can enable you to hold special events. You can set up an advertising budget to publicize your group and publish a decent newsletter. Asking for membership dues means you must be able to justify asking for dues. You can justify dues by providing a space where your members can meet, by putting hardware and software at their disposal, and by organizing activities that are worth paying for.

Note: in America, you will need to apply for special tax status if your BUG collects dues above a certain amount of money.

You will also need to create a budget and keep good records in order to keep your members informed about the status of the BUG's finances. If you do decide to ask for membership dues, make sure that you talk about them up front and explain what they are used for. Don't make paying dues a contingency for attending meetings. Instead offer extra incentives to convince people to become a member. These might include discounts on software and hardware, admission to special events that non-members have to pay for, a free subscription to the newsletter, etc.

No one is going to know about your BUG unless you tell them. We offer below several suggestions on how to advertise your group. Be sure to also read the Be Resources section. All of the publicity ideas mentioned here assume no budget or a low budget for advertising.

A newsletter is a great tool for disseminating information about your group, the BeOS, and applications for the BeOS. Done right, it can generate revenue for your BUG in the form of subscription fees and advertising dollars. Producing a successful newsletter usually means that you have people willing and interested in creating content, a production team to do the editing, word processing, and layout, and at least a small budget for materials and printing (and coffee and doughnuts for the production team!).

Letter writing campaigns are good for making your presence felt. The idea is to get as many people as possible to bombard an entity (a hardware or software company, for example) with a request about that their product(s) support BeOS or Be. This forces the entity to at least acknowledge you, and perhaps somewhere down the line to even consider your request!

Don't underestimate who's going to be interested. Lots of other people besides engineers and developers are computer savvy theses days; artists and musicians, architects, accountants, web developers. Don't forget the gamers either! Let them all know about your group. It is almost guaranteed that any effort you put into advertising your BUG will benefit the group.

If you advertise your group, you advertise the BeOS and its applications. So, the first thing to do is to demo the BeOS. When you advertise your group, consider including the following information: the name of your BUG, where you meet, brief directions to the meeting place, date and time of the meeting, what's scheduled for the upcoming meeting (presuming that you put up a flier before every meeting), your mission statement, a telephone number or URL where people can get more information.

T-shirt equity should never be underrated. Be T-shirts do not beat around the bush: the 50,000-point font "Be" on your belly is going to get noticed. Create a presence, create a stir, create instant camaraderie. Wear the T-shirt!

Web Site The web is a great place to advertise your group. Create a cool web site and update it regularly with meeting schedules and BUG news. If you want to expand your group membership, show you're an active group; a regularly updated web site shows that something is going on. Take a look at the Be web site for inspiration and look at other BUGs ' web pages (http:/www.be.com/usergroups/index.html).

E-mail An Internet account also means quick and painless communication with Be and with all of your BUG members.

Note: many local ISPs will donate a free or discounted account to user groups. Find out if yours does. If they don't, ask them why not. Would they?

Newsgroup - Mailing List Find out about local Internet newsgroups and mailing lists in your area (schools, colleges, computer science departments, computer clubs, user groups, etc.). They're all great opportunities for advertising your group on the Internet and it's FREE.

Note: local electronics bulletin boards or web sites for computer users may also be willing to post announcements about your BUG's meetings and events.

Contact local computer magazines, newspapers, and computer-related special interest newsletters in your community. A good way to find these publications is to go to a computer store or technical bookstore. Many of these publications have a section where user groups can at no cost post an announcement about their meetings.

You might also decide to put up fliers or posters. Put fliers and posters in places likely to reach your target audience. These might include college computer labs, computer stores, technical bookstores, bookstores, cafes, grocery stores, or anywhere potential Be users might congregate. If there are parts of your community where high-tech companies are concentrated, then target merchants in these areas.

Note: always ask before you put up a poster or leave fliers. If you put up a poster or flier, be sure to date it. Most community bulleting boards have a policy of taking down fliers that have been up for a certain amount of time. If they don't know how long yours has been up, it may be taken down prematurely.

An identity package typically consists of letterhead, envelopes, and business cards bearing your logo. It serves the purpose of coordinating the look of all of your communication materials to create a sense of organization and to define your image. Creating an identity package is not a requirement for running a good BUG, but it can bestow upon your BUG a certain aura of professionalism and organization, which can come in handy from time to time.

Here's how to do it cheaply: design a logo for your club (usually there is at least one person in every BUG with some artistic skills!) Have a rubber stamp made with the logo, your BUG name, address and phone number and/or URL on it. Buy a colored ink stamp pad. When you have an official BUG business, print your letter and envelope on your laser printer and then stamp the envelope and the paper with your BUG stamp to create an "official" 2-color letterhead. Two colors create the illusion that the pieces was printed on a press, and imbues it with a certain air of professionalism. (Bonus points: stamp business cards with it, too, for trade shows, visits to other user groups, and offsite demos. Business cards for a BUG are pretty nonstandard. Astound people with your innovations).

Remember when we mentioned T-shirt equity? Well, what's true for Be is also true for your BUG. T-shirts usually require some more serious funds, but your BUG members will probably be more than delighted to cough up the $7 to $10 you will need to charge to cover expenses. There is nothing that provides unity and cohesiveness like having your group members show up for those offsite activities in their BUG T-shirts!

One of the best resources for researching how to run your BUG is another user group. Sometimes just finding out which other user groups are in your area can be very educational. When you do attend another user group meeting, don't go "under cover." Introduce yourself and tell people that you represent your BUG. Take some of your BUG business cards and hand them out. You never know whose interest you'll pique. Some things you might want to take note of when attending another user group: when does the meeting start and end? how does the meeting start and end? how is the meeting organized? who is attending their meetings? what kinds of activities are there?

This section is designed to provide you with resources and incentives from Be, Inc. for supporting and promoting your Be User Group. This is certainly not exhaustive! If you have any ideas to add, please send them to us.

Be maintains an up-to-the-minute web site, including press releases, white papers, lots of helpful information for developers, a current archive of downloadable software, lists of Be software developers and their current releases and projects, archives of the Be Newsletter, and of course an entire section devoted to BUGs. We try to update and rejuvenate the BUG section regularly to fit your changing needs, so check the Be web site regularly, it's a great tool to give your group the latest info!

Register to this mailing list . It's an easy and fast way for Be to communicate with BeOS users everywhere and keep you up to date. We send you news and press releases. It's also a way for your group to get free publicity, and let other user groups know what your BUG is up to. Post announcements about your BUG's upcoming events and meetings. Feel free to start a dialogue with other BUGs and exchange ideas and point of views.

BeDevTalk is another mailing list to which you can both read and post. This list is more developer oriented, so feel free to use it when you want to contact Be developers and let them know about your group.

BeCodeTalk is another mailing list to which you can both read and post. If your BUG is working on a project and is looking to discuss source code, this is the place to go.

When your group is created, we'll let our developers know and we' ll encourage them to send you copies of their software and get in touch with you. They can be a valuable help to your group! Contact them, invite them, utilize them!

You want to get developers in your area more involved with your group? You're setting up a special meeting or event and you need Be Developer' s support? Let us know. We cannot give you contact information about Be developers, but we can contact them for you. Please feel free to send us your request and the area you are looking for, and we will send the message for you.

You can find all Be freeware and shareware in the BeWare section of our web site. Feel free to take a look at it and demo it to your group.

Many commercial applications for the BeOS are being released. BeDepot.com is an online commerce system for selling and buying applications, and also has demonstration versions of many commercial applications. Take advantage of it!

Use Be applications, show them, demo them. Contact developers and let them know about your group's feedback on their software!

Be strives to be approachable and responsive to its developers, users, and BUGs. Take advantage of this! You have received your starter kit and you are on track. We have committed to ship you our latest BeOS releases and all press releases and announcements. Please update your web site and let us know how your group is doing, And send us suggestions and comments!

If you are interested in having Be schedule a demo for your BUG, or if you have specific BUG questions, Victoria Huntzinger is the Be User Group coordinator; write to victoria@be.com.

We would like to involve our BUGs in our Developer Conferences. We will set up a BUG area and provide stations for you to promote your group and to display examples of your activities (photos, newsletters, reports on special events, T-shirts, merchandise, etc.).

We've given you as much information as possible, but if you have any questions, please let us know. Your main contact at Be is Victoria Huntzinger, victoria@be.com. Don't hesitate to contact her.