Mac User Groups on the Wane

I'm 27 and notice all of the clubs I have joined or participated with here in Houston are very, very gray. That includes a jogging club I tried, several bicycling clubs, and yes, the Mac Users Group here. This trend goes well beyond MUG. That said, I find the users group to be helpful for (human) networking and to keep up with Mac news/tips/software etc., even if that info is scattershot throughout the web.

I would suspect that university Mac groups would be the exception here. At universities, there are tons of club type organizations and people always join stuff. The shrinking clubs would be more outside university centers.

Joining in all the other presidents of the other MUGs here, as president of the Official Mac User Group of the National University of Singapore (MacNUS), we are growing stronger by the day!! Check us out at http://www.macnus.org

There is new alternative like net4mac.com

The Malaysian Mac User Group has been growing steadily, albeit slowly. We just had our last meeting last Saturday. Here's a report and some photos on my blog.

It's a different generation. I went to a few meetings last year. For the things I was interested, it really didn't add anything that I didn't already know. A quick Internet search can usually turn up answers to most Mac problems.

There's a potential social aspect but that was overrated in my case. User groups are probably not for power users.

As a member of the Board for the Lawrence Apple Users Group we've noticed a huge up swing in the number of member in the last 2 to 3 years. Both new users and switchers have been joining our group and we are at capacity in our current venue.

http://www.laugks.org/

We've seen the same thing in Austin, Texas where our biggest Mac User's group looks like an AARP meeting and the developer's group wasn't even worthy of that name, which is fine because its demised added to a group that I belong to, CocoaCoder.org.

Our group's average age is still a bit "old" at 32. We tried to open up to the local University, U. Texas, but they didn't seem interested. Guess we're too old for them.

yeah, the greying is the hardest part of getting a group some new life. as a 10 year president of a MUG, our group has gone from 60 people a month to about 10 die hards that show up every month. it's still fun to get together and folks should seek out their local group. and instead of segregating yourself because you think you're a power user, come and share your expertise with a local group! the grey headed ones there will appreciate it!

Yeah, that's what surprised me the first MUG meeting I went to. Everyone was so old (and I'm 42)!