Blog-Posts from June, 2010

Regardless of how the title of this post might sound this is not going to be another request for people to volunteer within PIUG. Instead I would like to focus on partnerships and what they mean to PIUG as an organization and to our individual members.

Somewhere, once upon a time, I heard the expression, "They like me, they really like me!". The line stuck with me since the person who uttered it seemed genuinely surprised that people would enjoy his company or appreciate what he had to offer. The same thing can be said about PIUG and our standing in the patent world and our ability to help shape and influence the emerging IP Marketplace. More and more PIUG is being approached as a group and asked to supply guidance in matters germane to patents and patent information. I mentioned this in my first post on the role we can play with the major patent offices of the world.

There are other groups and organization though, outside of the patent offices, who are interested in partnering with and cooperating with us to accomplish goals that are mutually beneficial to both groups.  The first one I would like to talk about is the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).

AIIP will be familiar to many members of PIUG and in fact many of our members who own their own businesses are also members of AIIP. They are a complimentary group to ours since their members are also information professionals of all stripes. They tend to focus on the skills needed to run one's own business but since they are information professionals they are also interested in staying current in the field information retrieval, analysis and presentation.  In this way, even though our main focus are different, some of our goals are aligned.

As I mentioned some of our members a also members of PIUG and with the overlap in Annual Meeting dates this year some people had a difficult decision to make about which meeting they would attend this year since they could not obviously attend both.  Led by Edlyn Simmons is sub-set of our members suggested that we establish a partnership with AIIP and seek reciprocal benefits to members of our respective organizations.  A few of us on the Board met wi the Chair of AIIP and it quickly became clear that a partnership between our two groups would benefit both of us.

Of course, this is not the first time PIUG has partnered with sister organizations.  In the past we have co-created content with the ACS CINF division and with the SLA. In this case though we are thinking about taking things beyond co-hosting content and providing reciprocal member benefit.  For instance PIUG members might be allowed to attend the AIIP meeting at the AIIP member rate and vice versa.  We might also share mailing lists between our organizations and even look to provide a discount on membership dues to each other's organizations.  These would be benefits that would be available to paid members of PIUG and would increase the value you receive for being a PIUG member.

So, I have a question for you that I hope at least some of you will take the time to answer in the comments; Is partnering with AIIP in this way a good idea for PIUG? Would this be a benefit of PIUG membership that you would appreciate and potentially take advantage of.  In the spirit of increased knowledge sharing and participation I would like to hear from the group on whether this is a good idea before we go any further with it.

AIIP is not the only who has approached PIUG in this fashion.  I was recently asked by the host of a major information based conference if I thought that PIUG members would be interested in a discounted rate for meeting attendance.  If our group thinks these are a good idea and provide incentives for sustained PIUG membership and value for our members we could also think about approaching other conference organizers and like minded groups to establish partnerships.  As a matter of fact, as some of you may have seen recently, the organizers of the IPWARE Summit are offering PIUG members 15% off admission.  This is a great deal for members interested in this conference.

I would love to hear from as many of you as possible on the topic of PIUG partnerships either in the comments of this post or by email.  I can be reached at tony@piug.org and I look forward to getting your opinions.

Thanks for your time,

Tony

In the spirit of open communication and sharing the workings of PIUG with the members I have decided to start a blog and make regular contributions to it.  I hope as many of you as possible will read these posts and more importantly I hope you will comment on them so we can start a dialog here.

It is a great honor and privilege to serve all of you as the Chair of PIUG. I had several people ask me during the Annual Meeting if I knew what I was getting myself into and if I had any idea how much work this was going to be. I even had a friend advise me that I should do what I could to keep myself from getting fired from my day job since it would be easy to let this position with our group become all consuming and distract me from what provides for my family. I thought long and hard about this before I accepted the nomination to become Chair and in the end I decided that with a predominately volunteer organization like PIUG all of us need to do our part and that it was my turn to do my part in is fashion.

I am not alone in taking on additional responsibilities in service to PIUG, it's mission and it's members. Joining me on the Board for the first time are Jim Brown as Secretary and Diane Wein as Director-at-Large. Staying on the Board are Cynthia Barcelon-Yang as Immediate Past Chair, Denise Fobare-DePonio who has moved from Secretary to Vice-Chair, Ken Koubek as Treasurer and Heidi Stone as our other Director-at-Large. All of us believe strongly in what we can accomplish as a group and are passionate about the future of our profession. I am looking forward to working with them.

We also have three people leaving the Board who have had a huge impact on our group and continue to still be active leaders in the activities we are pursuing. All of us owe a special thanks to Suzanne Robbins, Doreen Alberts and Edlyn Simmons for the time and effort that they have devoted to our group. PIUG continues to grow and expand it's reach and influence and we have these people to thank for helping us get to where we are now. I personally feel that the current Board is stepping on the shoulders of giants in coming in after these people.

I mention the other Board members and my own experience joining the PIUG Board to make the point of how important volunteers are to success of our group and it's on going mission. We need everyone, to their interest and abilities, to get involved and help PIUG continue on the upward trajectory it has been on over the past decade. We have amazing opportunities in front of us and it will take our combined efforts to make these visions a reality.

In future blog posts I will go through these visions in detail but to give you an example of what I am referring to I will mention that as a group we are being approached more frequently by the patent offices of the world. They want us to help provide them with a user's perspective on the work that they do. This started with WIPO asking for our assistance in developing workshops and continues with the USPTO asking us to help them with suggestions for how they re-vamp the US Classification system. As a group and as individuals we are making a big impact on the world of patent information. Our knowledge, expertise and opinions are valued and sought after and one of the visions I have for the group is that we do more to build relationships with the major patent offices of the world and make sure that our voices are heard.

We have a great deal to say and it is important and relevant to an area which is vital to the economic growth and prosperity of our countries. We can't be shy about asserting ourselves and working together to achieve our goals. We get there faster when as many of us as possible help with the effort. Many of us are doing so much already and I hope even more of us will get involved as we pursue the critical mission of our group.

Thanks for the time,
Tony
tony@piug.org