More than 200 atten­dees braved a cold, rainy (even snowy) week­end in Chica­go to come togeth­er, con­nect, and exchange ideas for the year ahead dur­ing the 2020 ASUG Vol­un­teer Meeting. 

On the heels of a new web­site and brand­ing launch, every­one was eager to learn where ASUG is head­ed and how these changes will affect its mem­bers. ​“ASUG is here to make more pos­si­ble,” said ASUG CEO Geoff Scott. ​“We have come into this year with a renewed ener­gy and under­stand­ing of what our mis­sion as an orga­ni­za­tion is, and that’s quite sim­ply just to help peo­ple in orga­ni­za­tions get the most val­ue out of their invest­ment in SAP.” 

The evening began with high ener­gy as ASUG acknowl­edged vol­un­teers who have led the charge to make more pos­si­ble. ​“We can talk about soft­ware all day long,” Scott not­ed, ​“but it’s the peo­ple behind the soft­ware that make the soft­ware real and make it work for your orga­ni­za­tions. And that’s real­ly the true tes­ta­ment here, and it’s all of you in this room who make that hap­pen and make that real.”

Peo­ple Make More Possible 

On the theme of peo­ple, Julieus Thomas, ASUG coor­di­na­tor for vol­un­teer engage­ment, set the stage to rec­og­nize the vol­un­teers who have shown excep­tion­al ser­vice to the ASUG net­work. ​“Tonight is about the peo­ple who make it hap­pen,” Thomas said. ​“It’s about the peo­ple who take the ideas we craft in the office and then go out and exe­cute them to per­fec­tion. It’s about the peo­ple in the audi­ence — our volunteers.” 

There were five vol­un­teers rec­og­nized for their ser­vice and extra­or­di­nary work with­in ASUG peer groups, includ­ing Chavone Jacobs of the ASUG Col­orado Chap­ter (Chap­ter Vol­un­teer of the Year), Bri­tany Chris­ten­son of the Glob­al Trade Ser­vices Influ­ence Coun­cil (Influ­ence Coun­cil Vol­un­teer of the Year), Peter Spielvo­gel of the User Expe­ri­ence Com­mu­ni­ty (SAP Point of Con­tact of the Year), John Falk of the Envi­ron­ment, Health, and Safe­ty Com­mu­ni­ty (Think Tank Vol­un­teer of the Year), and Cindy Seaburn of the ASUG Flori­da Chap­ter (SIG and Chap­ter Vol­un­teer of the Year). 

Each of these vol­un­teers played a vital role in mak­ing more pos­si­ble, as have the more than 200 ASUG vol­un­teers who work togeth­er to make ASUG the user group it is today. They work year-round to help mem­bers and orga­ni­za­tions get the most val­ue out their SAP invest­ment through edu­ca­tion and influ­ence. And the goal of this year’s Vol­un­teer Meet­ing was to help them con­tin­ue to do that in the most effec­tive and effi­cient way possible. 

Tech­nol­o­gy Makes More Possible

One of the focal points of this year’s meet­ing was to dis­cuss the launch of the new ASUG web­site and brand­ing. ​“Through research, we dis­cov­ered that our web­site was the one area that would bring the most val­ue to our mem­bers if we enhanced it,” said Cheryl Par­sons, ASUG CMO. So last year, the ASUG team went to work cre­at­ing a web­site that will serve as a tool and resource for its mem­bers look­ing to get the most val­ue out of their SAP invest­ment. At the event, vol­un­teers were giv­en a detailed walk-through of how to update their pro­files to help con­nect them with the most rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion based on their inter­ests and then were encour­aged to inspire their chap­ters, net­works, col­leagues, and oth­er con­nec­tions to do the same. 

“This has been the best tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ment in the last 12 years at ASUG,” said one vol­un­teer. ​“I can actu­al­ly find every­thing I’m look­ing for.” Once a mem­ber updates their pro­file, the new web­site frame­work will pro­vide a more-per­son­al­ized expe­ri­ence. ​“No two dash­boards will ever look the same,” said Lau­ra Bren­nan, ASUG senior man­ag­er of dig­i­tal marketing. 

As for the new ASUG brand­ing, vol­un­teers fre­quent­ly heard the mes­sage of mak­ing more pos­si­ble. ​“Our vision is to become the most impact­ful tech­nol­o­gy com­mu­ni­ty on the plan­et,” said Sarah Ahmad, ASUG cre­ative direc­tor. ​“This is a pret­ty lofty vision, but I think the good news is we have the poten­tial to get there. If your vision isn’t lofty, if it’s too achiev­able, then it’s too easy and you don’t have that North Star to keep striv­ing for. We’re the largest group of SAP users on the plan­et, so why can’t we be the most impact­ful, too?”

As part of the rebrand­ing, the team revealed the five core val­ues shared inter­nal­ly and exter­nal­ly: Join togeth­er. Work fear­less­ly. Lead the charge. Inspire trust. Cel­e­brate customers. 

Peers Make More Possible 

Vol­un­teers spent the week­end net­work­ing and learn­ing from each oth­er how to be the most effec­tive in their roles at ASUG, as well as their roles with­in their orga­ni­za­tion. After all, it’s the access to the ASUG net­work of SAP cus­tomers that is the great­est ben­e­fit to mem­bers in North America. 

“The ses­sions have been real­ly excel­lent this year,” said Ann Largent of the ASUG Col­orado Chap­ter. ​“The ones I’ve been in so far have been very for­ward think­ing, more mod­ern, and will set us up for good pro­gram­ming in 2020 for our members.” 

Vol­un­teers par­tic­i­pat­ed in road map ses­sions for both ASUG Think Tanks and Influ­ence Coun­cils. They also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn from ASUG VP of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Tom Wail­gum how lead an effec­tive pan­el, as well as best prac­tices for net­work­ing, led by guest speak­er Leah Jones. 

“The great­est take­away of this week­end is think­ing about new ways to engage atten­dees at our chap­ter meet­ings,” said Iris Galarza-Vega of the ASUG Flori­da Chap­ter. ​“I’ve learned how to bet­ter lever­age the net­work­ing that we’re doing here so that we can take these ideas back and put them­into practice.”

ASUG Makes More Possible 

It was two days packed with net­work­ing, learn­ing, and plan­ning, and the ener­gy stayed con­sis­tent through­out the entire week­end. Scott said, ​“I’ve nev­er been more excit­ed about what’s ahead.” He added, ​“When I start­ed at ASUG in 2014, the rela­tion­ship with SAP was prob­a­bly at the low­est lev­el ever. The trust wasn’t there. We have spent a lot of time and effort rebuild­ing that trust, and now it’s prob­a­bly the high­est it’s ever been.”

That trust has opened doors that oth­er­wise would not have been an oppor­tu­ni­ty to open, and it has allowed con­ver­sa­tions to take place that per­haps would not have hap­pened before. ​“Does it always work in our favor as cus­tomers?” Scott asked. ​“No, but we’re able to get out there and have pro­duc­tive and proac­tive con­ver­sa­tions with SAP, and I think that is one of the things that makes ASUG the most vibrant, most out­spo­ken, and most ener­getic user group in the world.”

The Vol­un­teer Meet­ing is meant to pre­pare vol­un­teers to be suc­cess­ful in their roles, and in turn make ASUG suc­cess­ful in its pur­pose. ​“It’s always been a chal­lenge to get every­one on the same page,” said Ter­ry John­son, ASUG Michi­gan Chap­ter. ​“But my biggest take­away this year has been ASUG’s abil­i­ty to bring uni­for­mi­ty and peo­ple togeth­er. I think it’s going to help every­one mov­ing forward.” 

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