Hi All,

I hope the young semester is treating you well. Topics in this email include:

1) Progress update re: exams, printing
2) Two Mac User Group meetings planned for Fall 2007
3) Presenters needed
4) Support from Apple!
5) Call for new members, Officers, presentation/meeting ideas

1) Exams & Printing
To update, I haven't yet received any official word about using Macs for exams. The latest official news is that Ben, the new IT chief, is testing the software and should make a decision about Macs and exams by the middle of the semester. He's also working to enable printing from Macs in the library.

Unofficially, rumor has it that a 1L was told that she'd be able to take exams with her Mac this semester (source: Lampasona). I'll follow up next time I get a chance to speak to Ben, and will pass on any further news.

2) Two Mac User Group meetings planned for this semester
John, one of the librarians, has volunteered to make a presentation on Mind Mapping software for the Mac -- what it is, how to use it, and why Mind Mapping will help you research and write legal papers more clearly and more efficiently. This will take place at lunchtime on a Thursday - date still to be determined.

The topic for the second meeting will be about options for taking notes and outlining in Law School.  This might seem pretty basic for a 3L, but all of us have different techniques and have learned things the hard way, through trial and error. We can probably learn something new by sharing with one another, and the 1L's can certainly learn something new. This leads to...

3) Presenters needed
I'm looking for volunteers to make a short presentation (I'd guess just a few minutes each), to teach others about their system for taking notes and/or outlining. What program do you use, what do your notes look like, what are the advantages and disadvantages of your system, etc.?

For example, just this semester I decided to use a program called Omni Outliner (free and installed with all Macs) to take notes, and I love it. I don't think anyone else uses this program, though, so I'll present about using Omni Outliner. Some use Word, others use NeoOffice, and still others use iFlash, and each of us has our own workflow.

Another example might be how you took notes for different professors or for different classes. Tables are great for Shatz, and I used a fixed width font (Courier) to easily reproduced drawings on the board in Property.

If you're willing to present, please let me know and we can discuss further.

4) Support from Apple!
I've spoken to USF's Apple Sales Rep, and she's been very supportive of our user group. She's offered technical support to our IT staff and is willing to pay for food for our meetings, which she plans on attending. Excellent service and support, indeed.

5) Officers, new members, ideas & shared information
As is, I'm running this thing myself (though Lampasona is now our official Windows-using rep... VP of Windows for Mac Users - sorta like Jews for Jesus, I suppose). Anyway, leaving me alone with this is always a bad idea. As we're an official & newly minted student group this year, we should elect officers
 and really push to add new members.

I've seen lots of 1Ls in the library with shiny new Macs. Let's get them signed up! If you know anyone who'd be interested, please have them sign up with the Yahoo! Group. The more members we have, the greater our pull with the USF administration.

Also, I'm always looking for new ideas for this group. What would you like to learn about your Mac? What support is lacking at school? Are you running into questions about using your Mac for school or at home? Let me know or post on the message board in the Yahoo! Group. Every time you participate, everyone else benefits. No such thing as a Gunner here.

Whew! Sorry for the extra long email. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Please let me know if you'd like to present and share your note taking or outlining techniques.

Think different,
Katz

michael.katz@...
415.290.1220