Community Affiliations

International User Group Council

The International User Group Council (IUGC) is a federation of IBM user groups represented by their Presidents. The current international user groups represented in the IUGC are COMMON, COMMON Europe, GUIDE SHARE Europe, IDUG, INTERACTION Australasia, Japan GUIDE/SHARE, and SHARE Inc.

Mission

The IUGC was created to enhance the effectiveness of individual user group members world-wide.

Objectives

The IUGC exists to serve its members. The IUGC seeks to be the leader in user group relations with IBM and with the Information Technology industry. As the IUGC is a 'federation' of constituent user groups, the IUGC does not of itself seek to be THE user group but seeks to enable its member groups to be the best of breed in each of the areas in which they operate. To enable each of the member groups to operate for the greatest benefit of their members in a cooperative fashion, the IUGC provides:

• A regular forum to exchange strategic concerns and share experience between its members;
• A regular forum to identify and understand common issues and to discuss differing approaches to "common problems";
• A vehicle for providing mutual support by means of endorsement of: positions and concerns, exchange visits of members of the groups' management, speaker exchange, publication exchange;
• A coordination point for selected (joint) work.

The IUGC acts as THE advisory council for IBM regarding validation of new world-wide strategies, business practices, and technology offerings, as well as on identified common "Matters of Concern".

The IUGC performs a role as interface to other world-wide operating user groups.