Meeting Registration

Many thanks to Katy Mackey Hess at Polaris Library Systems for posting presentations on the Polaris Extranet.

PUG 2009 was a success! Myrtle Beach was beautiful, the weather was great and the Southern hospitality was a real treat. PUG 2009 was the largest annual meeting to date with 175 attendees, 21 vendors represented and 19 Polaris staff on site. This year’s program included 4 session tracks making the number of Member/Polaris sessions available total 20.  Thursday was Polaris Day and Vendor Day. Bill Schickling and other members of the Polaris Team spent the day sharing information and giving us peaks into things that will be available in future upgrades.  One of the highlights of the meeting was Thursday afternoon’s Speed Dating with Polaris Staff.  Also on Thursday we had Technology Demos inside the vendor Exhibition Hall.  The Vendor Reception was informative, fun and had good food.

Friday was a day packed with good presentations, networking opportunities, Michael Porter - lunch keynote speaker, and a trip to the aquarium. Bill Schickling’s President’s Reception was certainly at the top of the list of PUG 2009’s memorable events.

Friday was a day packed with good presentations, networking opportunities, Michael Porter - lunch keynote speaker, and a trip to the aquarium. Bill’s President Reception was certainly at the top of the list of PUG 2009 memorial events. 

Saturday was another day of informative sessions followed by a good lunch. The Saturday afternoon training sessions were well attended and provided much requested information.  Your Steering Committee election results were announced at the last business meeting of the day.

I want to thank everyone involved with making PUG 2009 such a huge success. The Steering Committee worked hard for 12 months to make this happen. Patricia Jones (Pia) was the event planner and without her, the meeting wouldn’t have been the outstanding event it was. Karen Knox, the program chair, and her committee did an excellent job of planning sessions, recruiting presenters and developing an excellent program for the meeting.  I want to especially thank the presenters for sharing their time, knowledge and skills with all of us. Our webmaster, Juliane Morian, works closely with the steering committee all year. She does a wonderful job of keeping the website updated and available.

The hospitality of Lesta Sue Hardy, Leslie Hamm, Libby Messina, Sylvia Lee, Miranda Rainey, and others was most appreciated.  I didn’t know that working a registration desk could be so entertaining! It was fun to work with such a great group.

And of course, Bill Schickling and the Polaris Team – what can I say but thank you and thank you again. Without Polaris support PUG wouldn’t be the exceptional users group that we have become in just 9 short years. Having an outstanding, supportive ILS makes it easier to recruit outstanding, supportive customers for PUG.

 Thanks to the many people that have worked on and with the steering committee over the years. We are growing because of your hard work and dedication.  I hope I didn’t leave anyone out with my thanks. If so, I apologize.

 The presentations are posted on the extranet so if you didn’t attend PUG2009 you can see what you missed. Photos are posted on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/43522625@N02/sets/72157622578794242/.

I look forward to seeing everyone I Syracuse in 2010. – Mary Hedrick