As immediate past president of OTUG, I strongly encourage and welcome Object Partners consultants and all other Twin Cities or Minnesota java developers to consider commandeering the OTUG Java SIG for your own uses.

Here are some of the many advantages:
1) An environment avidly free of corporate influence and open to anyone from anywhere presenting at any time.
2) Public meeting space graciously provided free of cost at the University of St. Thomas campus in St. Paul (and probably downtown Mpls as well)
3) The existing active yahoo group otug_java_sig with 135 members (join at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/otug_java_sig/join or email to
mailto:otug_java_sig-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)
4) An active group of 30 volunteers (the semi-private planning committee yahoo list otug_pc)
5) Already purchased website space available at www.otug.org.
6) CA$H! That is, OTUG and OTUG SIGs have some treasury funds remaining with which to bring in speakers from outside the Twin Cities. Such recent talks include: Working Effectively with Legacy Code presented by Michael Feathers, Refactoring Your Wetware presented by Andy Hunt (Pragmatic Programmer co-author), Ruby on Rails presented by Obie Fernandez, and Future of Hibernate presented by Gavin King
(creator of Hibernate and author of Hibernate in Action).

- Clyde

   Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 17:32:01 -0600
   From: Richard Hansen <richard.hansen@...>
Subject: Re: Introducing the Minneapolis Java User Group

One option to consider, rather than starting a new user group, is
hooking up with the Java SIG from  OTUG (Object Technology Users Group).
The Java SIG has been a little moribund lately and I'm sure would
welcome new blood. You can get in touch from the OTUG site at www.otug.org.

Rick Hansen

--- In tcjug@yahoogroups.com, Don Pablo <tnarg412002@y...> wrote:
>
> Members of the Java Community,
>
> I am a former speaker at the TCJUG, and a former avid
> member of the group in general.  I have recently been
> informed that myself and all consultants of our
> employing consulting company Object Partners are no
> long allowed to present at the TCJUG meetings that
> occur at Intertech Training in Eagan.  So, since I am
> a member of the java community who likes and wants to
> participate in our community I along with all of my
> fellow coworkers are starting the newly formed
> Minneapolis Java User Group.
>  
> Our first meeting will be an organizing meeting at
> which we will talk about how the group should take
> shape.  We have the current mailing list and will be
> sure that everyone in the community is aware of our
> plans and the location of the meeting in the coming
> weeks.
> 
> I was planning on giving a presentation on the coming
> Spring 2.0 release and will be ready to give it in
> March.  We will have a long list of presentations that
> will be delivered by some of my favorite java
> developers and architects.  Some of them include those
> same guys that no longer have a forum on which to
> share there experience and knowledge with the
> community. 
>
> I would like to thank Brian Repko, Tom Wadzinski,
> Chris Rosenquest, and a long list of others who I have
> enjoyed both working with, presenting with, and
> forming relationships through the TCJUG.  I am excited
> about the opportunity to move forward with our new
> group.  We will also gladly invite anyone from any
> other company to pitch a presentation appropriate for
> our community.
>
> Again, I look forward to getting together with others
> in the Minneapolis and Twin Cities area and exploring
> the great platform that is Java.
>
> Thanks,
> Adam Waldal
> Object Partners Inc.
>
phone: (651) 271-5782