Meeting at the NEOSWUG Clubhouse

By

If you think a SolidWorks User Group meeting has to be held in a classroom or stuffy hotel meeting room, think again.  There have been meetings scheduled at museums, indoor racing venues, even bowling alleys.

For the past few years, Dan Bertschi and the Northeast Ohio SolidWorks User Group have been "getting their grill on" with a summer meeting at the Furnace Run Metro Park in Richfield, Ohio.  The Brushwood Pavilion is the perfect setting for a picnic/user group meeting with outdoor grills and tables on a covered patio.  The site also offers a heated/cooled meeting room for the technical portion of the evening.

It's a potluck event, and Dan tells me the members step up with some fantastic dishes – Robbie's Brownies, Jim's "World Famous Blackberry-Peach Cobbler", and always a lovely dessert dish from Pete's wife. Main dishes include hamburgers and hot dogs, and there's always plenty of potato salad to go around.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

It's not just a food and fun event, unless you consider learning about SolidWorks and related products to be fun (which, by the way, I do).  Technical sessions are the main reason SolidWorks users attend meetings, and the NEOSWUG annual cookout meeting provides that as well. 

The 2011 Cookout and Potluck is scheduled for May 16th (5:00pm to 9:00pm) and will feature Avelino Rochino and Jim Ustar from DS SolidWorks.  Hopefully the weather cooperates (it has been an issue in the past) and the ants behave themselves.  The NEOSWUG members always enjoy this annual meeting and show up hungry and ready to learn.

If you're a user group leader and are considering such a meeting, Dan has some advice for you:

"No matter what the advertising says, "matchlight" charcoal still needs lighter fluid. And…don't forget the matches."

Richard Doyle

Richard Doyle

My official title is Senior User Advocacy & SolidWorks User Groups - but most people just call me "The User Group Guy". I've been a SolidWorks user since 1997, and was one of the founding members of the SWUGN Committee. Since starting the Central Texas SolidWorks User Group in 1999, my career path has led me to DS SolidWorks and a dream job supporting the SolidWorks User Group Network worldwide.
Richard Doyle

@https://twitter.com/swugn

Richard Doyle