Tribute Software’s 25th annual Tribute Systems Users Group (known as TSUG) was held August 10th - 14th in sunny San Diego. It was a wonderful location for the meeting and the weather was perfect: low 70’s and sunny every single day.

Despite the economy, we ended up with a sizeable number of attendees representing 32 companies and 7 vendors. Special thanks to Lynne Etling of Eaton Corp. and Ned Bindokus from Parker Hannifin Corp. for joining us and leading breakout sessions for their distributors. Thanks also go out to our participating vendors: WarehouseTWO, MRH Technology Group (Tour de Force), Enlighten.net, and Rubber Tree Systems (Tribute Mobile & TrulinX Mobile).

The TSUG Program Review Committee met prior to the meeting and reviewed 509 projects! Thanks to our current committee members Maria Panza (Progressive Hydraulics), Betty Baglia (B.W. Rogers Company), Chuck Pharoah (Valley Rubber and Gasket), Kevin Martin (S.G. Morris Co.), and Terry Montefusco (Epperson Co.) for making the Program Review meeting such a success.

We kicked off with a Welcome Reception on the pool terrace at the Westin San Diego. Everyone enjoyed meeting, greeting, and partaking of a Mexican-themed buffet, including a “make your own fajita station”. Thanks to Brian Kazmierczak, President of Rubber Tree Systems, for sponsoring the open bar!

Wednesday morning started off with a welcome from TSUG President Michael Goldstein, of Goldstein-Schwartz, Inc. Michael will continue as TSUG President through 2010. Tim Reynolds gave his annual “State of Tribute Address” and Nancy Baxter provided a brief history of the Tribute Systems Users Group. Bobbie Kaas of Iowa Fluid Power was presented with a special plaque honoring her for attending all 25 Users Group meetings!

The focus of the training at this year’s meeting was to highlight Tribute’s features and functionality that can improve efficiency and decrease costs. We also paid special attention to options within Tribute® to reduce paper and “go green”. We heard from many attendees that this year’s sessions gave them specific action items to implement when they returned to the office.

As always, we appreciate everyone who gave suggestions for breakout session topics. We’ll be sending out a survey in the next few months to start gathering ideas for tips and tricks throughout the year and for TSUG 2010! A very special thank you to the 2010 TSUG Officers and Program Review Committee Members:

President, Michael Goldstein (Goldstein-Schwartz, Inc)
Vice-President, John Dewey (Brennan Industries)
Secretary, Janie Vasu (IMS Company)
Treasurer for Life, John Magensky (Tribute, Inc)
Program Review, Maria Panza (Progressive Hydraulics)
Program Review, Terry Montefusco (Epperson Co.)
Program Review, Tim Pritchard (Zemarc Corporation)
Program Review, Chuck Pharaoh (Valley Rubber and Gasket)
Program Review, Howard Sweet (Dale Prentice Co.)
Program Review Alternate, Ed Murphy (The Hope Group)
Program Review Alternate, Kirk Downey (Hyspeco)

Thursday evening, the group walked over to The Shout House, a dueling piano bar, for dinner and hours of sing-a-long entertainment. Not only did TSUG members learn a lot to help their businesses - a good time was had by all!

Next year’s meeting location has yet to be determined and the top cities in contention are Washington D.C., Cleveland, and Memphis. We will be “co-locating” the 2010 meeting with TruNet (the TrulinX Users Group) - having both User Groups meeting at the same location to take advantage of cost-savings with a larger group. We’ll be sending out a survey sometime in the next few months to finalize the meeting location and date. We look forward to seeing everyone in 2010!