St. Louis CAD/BIM Meeting on September 10th

There is another meeting of the Gateway AUG coming up. This is for anyone interested in design tools who is in the St. Louis Metro Area. Our meetings are always free, and you don't *have* to RSVP. Feel free to show up and bring a friend. Not only do you hear from some local experts about their fields, you can also network and hang out with some really cool folks. Hope to see you there! P.S. Please note, our Fall Quarterly meeting was supposed to be the night before the CAD Camp, but, it looks like that event has been canceled. We'll miss the instructors and the chance for some good classes, but, that's all the more reason to try to show up to some Gateway AUG meetings. If you've got an idea for a topic you'd like to see (or present), please feel free to contact any one of us. (PLEASE NOTE: the below is a copy of an email sent out to all GAUG members, if you did NOT get this email, please contact nicholas to make sure he has your correct email address)

Everyone,

Here are the details of our next Gateway Autodesk User Group meeting

When: 10th of September - Wednesday - from 6 to 7:30 pm

Where: Masonry Institute, 1429 S Big Bend Blvd, St Louis, MO (google map).

What: "Interoperability between BIM and Building Performance modeling applications like Eco-tect and Green building studio" by Tomislav Zigo

What else: If you are a GAUG member and if you are present at the meeting, you might win a pass to Autodesk University 2008. ($ 1,845 value).

You can RSVP here to make yourself eligible for this AU draw by joining GAUG!!!!

I hope to see you there!

IMMANUEL NICHOLAS IYADURAI, LEED AP

President - Gateway Autodesk User Group

CAD Manager Survey 2008

Now that I've asked you to take part in the AUGI Annual Salary Survey (for all job titles and all disciplines) and you've given such a great response, I'm going to encourage you to take part in Robert Green's CAD Manager 2008 Survey (if applicable).

He does a great job with this every year, and his results are one of the multiple resources that I keep handy to analyze how competitive my pay is.

The results of my Salary Survey come out in the September/October edition of AUGIWorld Magazine, and the results of Robert's CAD Manager Survey will be in the November issue of CADalyst Magazine (You can find additional results respectively on the AUGI Survey Channel and in the October and November issues of the CAD Manager's newsletter).

From the CAD Manager's Newsletter:

Thanks to all the readers who sent in their comments regarding the survey. I've incorporated a number of questions into this year's survey to reflect reader concerns!

Now the fun begins: Participate in the survey! Forward this newsletter to everyone you know who functions as a CAD manager and ask them to participate. I'm especially interested in getting responses from Canada, European Union countries, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand because these markets haven't been analyzed as completely as I'd like.

To take the survey, just click on this link: http://www.cad-manager.com/survey

Results will be published in the November issue of Cadalyst magazine, and more detailed analysis will be included in CAD Manager's Newsletter in October and November, so be sure to check back!

Color me Happy, my new Dell is here!

Well, contrary to the cautionary tale from our friend over at Dell, it wasn't held up for two weeks, and my DH has just taken receipt of a brand spanking new 17" Dell Studio for me.

I plan on posting a review on the Tech-Tea blog within the next few days (as soon as I have time), complete with pictures and comparisons to the Dell Inspiron that I had been using.

I'll be happy to be up and running on a fully running machine after all of these weeks banging my head against the wall.


Other tiny updates... the next Gateway AUG meeting is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, September 10th, the AUGIWorld staff is currently working on prettying up the results and article I've given them for the 7th Annual Salary Survey (my 5th as Manager), my first offspring is about to start kindergarten, I'll return to school myself the following week and my second offspring is trying to kick a hole in my abdomen to make sure I really enjoy the remaining 85 days (or so) of his gestation.

Oh, and in case you hadn't heard about it yet:
AUGI Changes Management Companies
Big changes ahead for some of the AUGI programs but the Board of Directors and the Volunteers hope to make it as painless a transition as possible.

The official announcement is here:
http://augi.typepad.com/augi_news/2008/08/augi-news.html

Current volunteering opportunities are listed here:
http://www.augi.com/volunteering/default.asp?page=33

To offer your services for anything else, contact the Volunteering Manager (currently Jennifer Loftfield volunteering@augi.com ).

Two More Weeks?

Looks like it could be two more weeks before my computer woes are fully resolved. ~sigh~ I'm a little twitchy and feeling technologically crippled.

Please bear with me. :-)