I'm often asked, "I'm not comfortable, experienced, or knowledgeable enough to do a presentation. How can I help the Gateway JUG other than doing presentations?"

Here's your chance. The Gateway JUG is forming a standing committee to manage Gateway JUG sponsorship.

This committee will focus on how we will manage sponsors for the Gateway JUG. Areas of focus will be:

• Identifying types and specific sponsors we'd like to have (recruiters, trainers, hardware/software vendors, etc.)
  
• Recruiting and retaining new sponsors
  
• Developing a policy for handling out of town sponsorship requests
  
• Maximizing sponsor exposure to our members
  
• Developing a business model to cover JUG operation costs
  

The 3 - 5 members of this committee should be JUG members whose contributions to the JUG are not limited to sponsor activities. To get started, I will chair this committee, but anticipate a new committee chairperson will be selected once the committee is staffed and stable.

The committee will provide the following deliverables:

• A Sponsor Agreement to specify terms of JUG sponsorship, scheduling, changes, etc.
  
• An annual sponsorship schedule. This first plan will cover November 2007 through December 2008. In September of each year, the committee will formulate the next year's sponsorship schedule.
  
• A quarterly review and revision report. At the start of each quarter, the committee will review the next quarter's sponsor schedule and revise it if necessary, taking into account schedule topics, special event, etc.
  
• A list of possible sponsors. These sponsors will come from our local business community, hardware/software companies, and other interested parties.
  
• This committee will be provided with an operating budget for its meetings and marketing to sponsors.
  

I anticipate the first meeting of this committee will be late the last week of September depending on individual schedules. A forum will be dedicated for this committee's use, so much of this committee's work can be done online.

If you'd like to volunteer and give back a little to the group, please contact me directly at president@gatewayjug.org.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jack Frosch,