ASUG is in the busi­ness of con­nect­ing peo­ple. As you can imag­ine, the head­winds are pret­ty strong right now, as the dra­mat­ic events of today have exposed us — and the rest of the world — to colos­sal challenges.

At ASUG, we are choos­ing resilience over doubt, plan­ning over pan­ic, and will always main­tain a high lev­el of faith in each oth­er to do the right thing.

As we’ve done for near­ly three decades, ASUG will con­tin­ue to vir­tu­al­ly bring togeth­er peo­ple who pos­sess a wide vari­ety of inter­ests and expe­ri­ence, to allow them to col­lab­o­rate and learn from each oth­er, even when they’re sep­a­rat­ed by distance. 

We offer more than 400 online events each year that help our mem­bers gain knowl­edge via a live call or on-demand ses­sion — and that’s not chang­ing. (Check out our events cal­en­dar.)

Our Com­mit­ment to Help You

We are respond­ing to the busi­ness cli­mate we’re all fac­ing by offer­ing sev­er­al ways for our mem­bers to con­nect — cus­tomer to cus­tomer — and talk about and share ideas on how to man­age dis­rup­tions and uncertainties.

For exam­ple, ASUG Exec­u­tive Exchange is hold­ing a series of online ses­sions this week to allow our mem­bers to share how COVID-19 is impact­ing their orga­ni­za­tion, and what steps they are tak­ing to address these chal­lenges. It will pro­vide an oppor­tu­ni­ty for Exec­u­tive Exchange mem­bers to learn from each oth­er on how best to respond to and recov­er from COVID-19 busi­ness disruptions.

Mem­bers can also join new and dai­ly ASUG Think Tank calls, which will begin on March 18. In addi­tion to pre­vi­ous­ly sched­uled Think Tank meet­ings, these dai­ly 3 p.m. CT calls will give mem­bers oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­nect with their peers in sim­i­lar roles and func­tion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties. We’ll rotate through func­tion­al audi­ences — one call per day cov­er­ing one spe­cif­ic audi­ence. Here’s a link to the ASUG cal­en­dar that offers a fil­tered view of upcom­ing Think Tank events.

Your Net­work Is Key

ASUG has enabled face-to-face con­nec­tions since 1991. Now is the time to rely on those rela­tion­ships to get us through a time when vir­tu­al com­mu­ni­ca­tions and work­ing from home will be the norm. 

Here are a few ways to con­tin­ue to build con­nec­tions and grow pro­fes­sion­al­ly dur­ing this time of social distancing: 

• You can pick up the phone — yes, call some­one you met, say, at the last chap­ter meeting. 
• Con­nect with peo­ple on LinkedIn, or final­ly write that blog you’ve been itch­ing to write.
• Set up a video chat with an ASUG con­nec­tion you haven’t spo­ken to in six months.
• Fol­low 10 new peo­ple on Twit­ter who are fel­low cus­tomers or experts in your field.
• Read a book, blogs, or take an online course on a sub­ject that will help your career.

As an ASUG mem­ber, you can expect fur­ther com­mu­ni­ca­tions from us on an event-by-event basis as we final­ize or make alter­na­tive plans. We have been and will con­tin­ue to fol­low the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO) guide­lines as well as those from the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC), and fed­er­al and local agencies. 

There has nev­er been a more crit­i­cal time to lean on your net­work. So, use the net­work that you’ve cre­at­ed, expand your ASUG con­nec­tions over the com­ing weeks, and keep the com­mu­ni­ca­tion flowing. 

Reg­is­ter for one of the ASUG Exec­u­tive Exchange online ses­sions or Think Tank online ses­sions tak­ing place start­ing the week of March 16, 2020.