Join the AADUG!
Hi – Gary Olsen here. As a Microsoft Directory Services MVP, my colleagues and I started the Atlanta Active Directory User Group (AADUG) in March of 2009 and we’ve had great success for a new UG.
We currently have about 60 members joining from as far away as Birmingham and even one from Ohio. We meet on a monthly basis, the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7:00pm in the Microsoft Alpharetta office, 1125 Sanctuary Parkway, Suite 300. Typically, 2 speakers present on timely topics, food and prize giveaways and we have a great time. For those unable to come to Alpharetta, remote access to each meeting is provided via Microsoft Live Meeting.
What are the benefits of joining the AADUG?
Well for starters its all Free! Free! Free! - Free to Join: There is no membership fee
- Free to All: Our meetings offer Remote Access via Live Meeting.
- Free Food: Pizza, sandwiches, snacks, and drinks are served at our meetings.
- Free Prizes: At our monthly meetings we have recently given away a LOT of technical books from MSPress and O’Reilly, Software such as Office 2007, Windows 7, and various other prizes.
- Free Books: O’Reilly publishers offers AADUG members any book (even some from Microsoft Press) for free in exchange for a review on Amazon. No limit but you can only get one at a time.
- Free Knowledge: Use members as resources to ask questions and find solutions to problems, and find consultants to assist in projects.
- We have a SharePoint site to share technical information with group members.
- In 2009 all of our members received either a free 1 year TechNet Plus subscription or a free voucher for a Microsoft Curriculum Test.
- In 2010 we obtained a group TechNet Plus subscription for all AADUG members to share.
Discount Stuff!
- Don’t want a write a book review? Members get 40% off the price of all MS Press books and 50% off MS Press Ebooks.
Great People and Great Events! - We have a SharePoint site where we can share technical information with group members.
- Bi-Monthly AADUG Newsletter and occasional emails informing you of meetings, special deals (no advertising!!), technical notes and news. These always come from me and are sent BCC.
- Our meetings are typically the 2nd Tuesday of each month, with occasional exception depending on speaker availability. Meetings are held monthly from September to May with summers off (June-August) as members are vacationing and less available.
- Our summer meeting is dubbed the “Techstravaganza” where we reserve Microsoft's or HP’s training facilities for a half day of speakers, hands on labs, demos, etc. And what would a big event be without prizes. Last year there was over $200 in prizes.
- We’ve had presentations on many subjects including:
- Active Directory Troubleshooting
- AD New features 2008R2
- Group Policy and GP Preferences Troubleshooting
- New DNS Features in Windows 2008/R2
- DNSSEC (secure DNS)
- Exchange 2010
- DirectAccess with 2008R2/Windows
- Small Business Server 2008
- Virtual Machine provisioning on Hyper-V
- and more
Want to eat, listen, laugh and learn? Come be our guest!
Want to participate or be a speaker? Even better!
We have a lot of room to grow and would love to include you in our group.
We are always looking for new topic ideas, new speakers and ways to improve.