VDUNY History

The group was initially started in early 1996 by seven individuals here in Rochester, NY, along with the help of Microsoft's Keith Partington and Todd Abel who have provided support and guidance to get this group rolling. We would like to mention the support of Gordon Rogers and Meliora Systems, Inc. for providing us the facilities to hold our pre-planning meetings, RIT for the facilities of our early meetings, Element K for many years of support by providing a location, and now Microsoft for our current location. Without the help of these individuals and companies it would have been difficult to get launched and continue to this day.

Our first meeting was in January 1996, and we continue to grow as a strong and active group in the Upstate New York area. Tell others about it - there are many people who don't know about us who are thinking right now: "Boy, I wish there was a group of developers to share knowledge with..."! This is everyone's user group and it is user-driven. If you want to learn more about Visual Development - come to the meetings and provide input and help steer the organization in the right direction. This group can become a place to turn to when trying to make development decisions or just find out what others are doing locally with these great programming languages. In short, there is tremendous opportunity to learn from others, to teach others, and to make Rochester a stronger development community.

Have a look around and we hope to see you at the next meeting.

Objectives are listed in the club By-Laws.

Why do we have no membership fees?
The planning committee believes that the VDUNY group is able to be truly revolutionary — that is we think we can fuel the VDUNY group operations solely on the energy, enthusiasm, and generosity of the members and our helpers/sponsors, rather than through dues-based memberships. Our web site is being donated by John Homer of Onto Technology, and is being updated by members. More often than not, our speakers come from within the membership. Outside speakers have been found and arranged for by members. We have 2 rooms for large & medium meetings being graciously provided for by Element K. And other members have been involved behind the scenes in some part of organizing each meeting, emailing, spreading the word, and participating. Without membership fees, we can avoid having a treasurer, a tax accountant, a membership coordinator, a fee at the door for guests, elections, and so on.

However, that means we take the risk of truly relying on everyone's participation (rather than elected offices and political pressure) to keep this group alive – and we can do it! The enthusiasm for this group has been phenomenal. It really seems to fill a real need – the need to network with other visual developers and to learn new things.