Vantage/Epicor North Central US Area User Group - Call for Members

This message is specific to sites in the Minnesota, Dakotas, Iowa and W. Wisconsin area who are not already participating in the local user group email list that was setup for the meeting at the Epicor Twin Cities office on October 6th. If you are already on that email list the following will be of interest but there is no need to respond.

A "pre-organization" meeting was held today to get the ball rolling on developing a regional user group in the North Central U.S. area. Attending today were:

Kristen Hoff from Analog Technologies
Joe La Bore from Micro Dynamics
Toby Keeler from HiRel Systems
Todd Caughey from Harvey Vogel Mfg. Co.

The North Central area has not had an active user group since the old Minnesota Vantage group sort of faded away several years ago. Given the increasing issues with Vantage 8.0 and beyond and the need for unified communication with Epicor we feel it is time to organize a regional group.

An actual organizing meeting has been tentatively set for Tuesday, March 6, somewhere in the Twin Cities. The specific location will be determined and interested persons contacted by email later. The goal is to find an affordable meeting place and probably incorporate lunch. There will be some amount of cost (hopefully small) for this meeting as opposed to our utilizing the Epicor offices this time. One option being looked at is teleconferencing capabilities to use WebEx or something similar for people at sites too far away to travel.

The tentative agenda and topics for the meeting will be:
- Meet to organize
--- structure of group, funding (if needed), "charter", etc...
- NOT requiring EUG membership....but still coordinating with EUG
- Discuss common concerns
--- General Epicor wide concerns - not specific issues (see below)
--- Relationship boundaries between group and Epicor
- Formalize local level evaluation of enhancement requests
--- and how to communicate through EUG channels
- SIG breakouts for special interest groups
--- such as 6.10 to 8+ Migration, 8.0 issues, 8.03 issues, MRP or other topics of interest to multiple sites

Tentative schedule:
11:00 Meet and sign in
11:30-12:00 Lunch
12:00-3:00 Organizing Meeting
3:00-.....? SIG meetings

If you are already on the local email list and have been receiving group messages you will receive further notice on this meeting.

If you are NOT already on the mail list please contact me OFF-LIST direct to my email address at caugheyt@... . If not replying, with changed address, to this message please reference "North Central Vantage Group" in the subject. I will collect the addresses and forward them to Kristen who is keeping the master email list for the group. Please do not reply via the Yahoo group - change the email address.

If you know someone at another Vantage site who does not participate in the Yahoo group and is not already on the local email list please forward this message to them.

Thank you,
Todd Caughey
Harvey Vogel Mfg. Co.







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]