The fol­low­ing My View, My Voice col­umn was authored by Tay­lor Weath­ers, Direc­tor of Com­mu­ni­ty Oper­a­tions at ASUG.

2023 marked a shift in momen­tum for the ASUG com­mu­ni­ty. For the first time since the pan­dem­ic, in-per­son events came roar­ing back to life, and our mem­ber­ship expe­ri­enced the trans­for­ma­tion­al ener­gy of face-to-face connection. 

Between the return of in-per­son Chap­ter meet­ings and our first in-per­son ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence since 2019, not to men­tion the launch of ASUG Tech Con­nect, 2023 was a ban­ner year for ASUG mem­bers, vol­un­teers, and communities. 

As high as the highs were last year, I am even more excit­ed for 2024. As ASUG’s Direc­tor of Com­mu­ni­ty Oper­a­tions, I’m proud to be lead­ing our ASUG Com­mu­ni­ties team in envi­sion­ing and exe­cut­ing stronger, more con­sis­tent edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ences and events, focused on pro­vid­ing our mem­bers with more oppor­tu­ni­ties to fos­ter mean­ing­ful connections. 

For me, 2024 is all about being inten­tion­al and con­nect­ing our ASUG Com­mu­ni­ties to the breadth of ASUG’s orga­ni­za­tion-wide com­mit­ment to learn­ing, con­nec­tion, and growth. Our team is excit­ed to col­lab­o­rate with var­i­ous depart­ments inter­nal­ly to ensure that we are tru­ly defin­ing the mem­ber jour­ney at every lev­el. As we kick off the new year, here are the ASUG Com­mu­ni­ties pro­grams and ini­tia­tives I am most excit­ed about. 

ASUG Chap­ters

Our Chap­ters are a vital part of the ASUG expe­ri­ence, bring­ing net­work­ing and learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to mem­bers across all regions of the Unit­ed States and Cana­da. These in-per­son meet­ings are a great way for ASUG mem­bers – new and old – to get involved, expand their skill sets, and expand their pro­fes­sion­al networks. 

Addi­tion­al­ly, ASUG Chap­ters pro­vide a plat­form for SAP cus­tomers to share their sto­ries and pur­sue learn­ing that is rel­e­vant and time­ly to their per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al goals. The val­ue of ASUG is tru­ly in the con­nec­tions its mem­bers are empow­ered to make, so we hope to con­tin­ue grow­ing Chap­ter meet­ing atten­dance in 2024 and show­ing how mean­ing­ful the Chap­ters can be for attendees. 

This year, we will offer ASUG Chap­ter meet­ings with more con­tent pre­sent­ed in part­ner­ship with SAP and devel­oped in direct col­lab­o­ra­tion with our mem­bers. While net­work­ing is one fun­da­men­tal ben­e­fit of Chap­ter meet­ings, edu­ca­tion is also a key focus, and we want to ensure that we are pro­vid­ing the most up-to-date and accu­rate infor­ma­tion on the top­ics our mem­bers are inter­est­ed in. 

To this end, ASUG Com­mu­ni­ties will grow our part­ner­ship with ASUG’s research and con­tent teams, col­lab­o­rat­ing with them as well as SAP on an ongo­ing basis. 

ASUG Vol­un­teer Oppor­tu­ni­ties

In 2024, ASUG Vol­un­teers can look for­ward to gain­ing more insights direct­ly from ASUG HQ and stay­ing more informed about ASUG Com­mu­ni­ties over­all. We intend to con­nect the dots when it comes to mem­ber ben­e­fits, pro­gram­ming, and research; this will allow the ASUG Com­mu­ni­ties team to present vol­un­teers with more vis­i­bil­i­ty and influ­ence over the con­tent to be pre­sent­ed at Chap­ter and Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance meetings. 

As we expand our con­nec­tions to ASUG’s research and con­tent divi­sions, ASUG Com­mu­ni­ties will devel­op meet­ing agen­das ear­li­er and more eas­i­ly, allow­ing the vol­un­teers to focus on mak­ing the most of every oppor­tu­ni­ty to connect.

Right off the bat, we have some excit­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for ASUG Vol­un­teers. Our annu­al, in-per­son Vol­un­teer Meet­ing is tak­ing place in Chica­go, lat­er this month (Jan. 26 – 28). Our entire ASUG team is incred­i­bly excit­ed to host our amaz­ing vol­un­teers and set the tem­po for 2024. 

Addi­tion­al­ly, ASUG Chap­ter and Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance meet­ings will kick off in Feb­ru­ary. I would encour­age every mem­ber to start the year off by attend­ing the first Chap­ter meet­ing in their area or the first town hall for the ASUG Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance of their choice. 

ASUG Com­mu­ni­ty Alliances

Anoth­er great resource for ASUG mem­bers, our Com­mu­ni­ty Alliances are set to resume in Feb­ru­ary. Cur­rent­ly, we host 10 alliances focused on dif­fer­ent top­ics that ASUG mem­bers have iden­ti­fied as being top pri­or­i­ties for their learn­ing and growth: 

• SAP Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Plat­form Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
• Con­sumer Indus­tries and Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence (CX) Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
• Ener­gy and Nat­ur­al Resources Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
• Human Cap­i­tal Man­age­ment (HCM) Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
• Intel­li­gent Spend Man­age­ment & Busi­ness Net­works Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
• IT Oper­a­tions Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
• Pub­lic Ser­vices Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
• SAP S/4HANA (ERP) Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
• Small and Medi­um Enter­pris­es (SME) Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance
• Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance

Com­posed of three dif­fer­ent kinds of vir­tu­al events – Town Halls, Task Forces, and Influ­ence Coun­cils – the Com­mu­ni­ty Alliance events not only enable mem­bers to fur­ther con­nect with one anoth­er but also empha­size col­lab­o­ra­tive learn­ing opportunities. 

Host­ed quar­ter­ly, Town Halls focus on keep­ing atten­dees updat­ed and in the know about the lat­est research devel­op­ments, key chal­lenges, and top-of-mind top­ics for their com­mu­ni­ty at large. These events pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for mem­bers to dis­cuss chal­lenges, share suc­cess sto­ries, and learn tips and tricks from peers. 

Task Forces are peer-to-peer inter­ac­tive dis­cus­sions that help our mem­bers cre­ate pro­fes­sion­al con­nec­tions and find solu­tions to real-world prob­lems. Our goal for 2024 is to cre­ate a con­tent jour­ney for our mem­bers, based on their needs and inter­ests, uti­liz­ing ASUG research and work­ing one-on-one with the ASUG con­tent team to ensure our dis­cus­sions address our mem­bers’ top-of-mind concerns. 

Influ­ence Coun­cils, final­ly, are vir­tu­al events focused on empow­er­ing ASUG mem­bers to direct­ly dri­ve enhance­ments to SAP prod­ucts and offer feed­back on the SAP prod­uct roadmap. Mem­bers meet to deter­mine what feed­back to share with SAP, ensur­ing the ASUG community’s voice is heard in a con­sis­tent, mean­ing­ful way. We look for­ward to shar­ing more infor­ma­tion on Influ­ence Coun­cils shortly. 

Stay Con­nect­ed

As 2024 kicks off, the best way any ASUG mem­ber can take advan­tage of ASUG Com­mu­ni­ties offer­ings and grow their knowl­edge base, along­side their net­work, is by com­plet­ing their mem­ber pro­file on asug​.com. 

This will not only help you con­nect with the right Chap­ters and Alliances but also ensure you are see­ing the most rel­e­vant ASUG con­tent and receiv­ing noti­fi­ca­tions for the events that inter­est you the most. We are so excit­ed about all the great oppor­tu­ni­ties planned for ASUG Com­mu­ni­ties in 2024, and our team looks for­ward to help­ing our mem­bers learn, con­nect, and grow. 

Be sure to com­plete your ASUG pro­file here.

Tay­lor Weath­ers is Direc­tor of Com­mu­ni­ty Oper­a­tions at ASUG.