The 2010 joint TrulinX and Tribute user's group meeting was held last week at Quail Hollow Resort in Painesville, Ohio (just east of Cleveland). The meeting brought in 141 attendees from 77 companies. Both of these numbers represent increases over last year's attendance! We are thrilled that so many of you find value in attending the annual meeting.

The week began with two days of intense work by the TrulinX Program Priority Assignment Board (PPAB) and the Tribute Program Review Committee (PRC). Members review and rank the TrulinX and Tribute open project lists, which helps determine the direction for future software development. Several new officers and committee members were also elected at the meeting. The current members are:

Tribute

• President: Chuck Pharaoh (Valley Rubber & Gasket Co. Inc.)
• Vice-President: John Dewey (Brennan Industries)
• Secretary: Janie Vasu (IMS Co.)
• Program Review member: Open seat (vacated by Chuck Pharaoh)
• Program Review member: Howard Sweet (Dale L. Prentice Co.)
• Program Review member: Maria Panza (Progressive Hydraulics Inc.)
• Program Review member: Tim Pritchard (Zemarc Corporation)
• Program Review member: Ed Murphy (The Hope Group)
• Program Review member: Brandt Barber (Alt) (Heatwave Supply)
• Program Review member: Kirk Downey (Alt) (Hyspeco Inc.)

TrulinX

• President: Marie Dunning (Fluid Process Equipment)
• Vice-President: Bryan Green (George E. Booth)
• Secretary: Kris Wagner (BMS Burns)
• PPAB member: Jim Asmus (G&H Distributing Inc.)
• PPAB member: Eric Bourg (Connector Specialists)
• PPAB member: Susan Curley (Integra Companies)
• PPAB member: Cyndie Fisher (Controls West)
• PPAB member: Jason Gonzales (Indiana Fluid Power)
• PPAB member: Jeff LaFleur (L.J. Star)
• PPAB member: Brian Pesick (HyQuip Inc.)
• PPAB member: Walt Rodgers (Cline Hose)

In the Tribute business meeting, there was discussion of terminating the TSUG Corporation. Dissolving this entity would save anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 currently spent on taxes, financial statement preparation and bank fees each year, freeing up that money for other uses. A proxy will be sent out to members to vote on this issue in the upcoming months.

In other new business, outgoing PRC president, Michael Goldstein of Goldstein-Schwartz, suggested a table or meeting place for companies to leave their line cards or business cards and open to members to discuss their products with other members. The plan would be to publicize what companies are selling so that if company A is looking for a specific product or type of product they may find another TSUG/TruNet member in that business or product line. This idea will be considered for next year's meeting.

After the PPAB and Program Review Committee wrapped up their work Tuesday, about 25 people participated in a golf scramble at the Devlin course at the Quail Hollow Country Club. Lee Helfer (Specialty Hose Corp.) and Eric Jensen (HyQuip, Inc.) brought their secret weapons - their wives, Carol and Judy - to win the Tribute Golf Scramble. Later on Tuesday evening, Tribute and TrulinX customers were welcomed with a reception in the hotel lobby as they arrived for the meeting.

We officially began the User's Group meeting on Wednesday with a welcome and "State of Tribute" address from Tim Reynolds and a short "Day in the Life of Tribute" movie filmed at our offices. Next we enjoyed a presentation on the Lean Process from Kurt Greissinger of Bosch Rexroth Corporation. Kurt also presented some followup sessions on Lean manufacturing later on Wednesday.

As always we enjoyed some informative breakout sessions. TrulinX and Tribute had some separate breakouts, while others were combined and relevant to all users. These included presentations on emailing from TrulinX/Tribute, importing data, working with BOMs, using Microsoft Excel, new features, and "tips and tricks". Users also participated in roundtable discussions on subjects such as going "green", management of territories and sales reps, and "go live" preparation. Also popular were the vendor meetings for Parker Hannifin, Eaton, and Bosch Rexroth distributors.  The sessions were well attended and hopefully everyone left with new knowledge about Tribute and TrulinX to take home to their businesses.

We also send a big "thank you" to Rubber Tree Systems, Enlighten.net and MRH Technologies (Tour de Force) for sponsorship of breakout sessions during the meeting, plus WarehouseTWO, Qantel Technologies, and Harland Technology Services who also attended the meeting. All of these vendors provide very important products and services and we hope to see them at the 2011 meeting.

Of course, our meeting was not all work with no play! On Wednesday evening about 50 attendees traveled to downtown Cleveland to watch a Cleveland Indians baseball game. Although the Indians lost to the New York Mets, it was still a fun night. On Thursday evening everyone enjoyed the President's Dinner, which was a luau held at the resort. We feasted on roast pig and other tasty treats and competed at cornhole and limbo dancing. Greg Bowman from Premier Pump was the "lucky" winner of our Ugly Hawaiian Shirt contest. The DJ was spinning party music all night and many folks were showing their stuff on the dance floor! It was a great opportunity to have fun and network as a big combined group.  

Next year's meeting date and location are yet to be determined, but hotels in Nashville, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, and New Orleans were presented to the group. TrulinX and Tribute users should be receiving a survey in the next few months to vote on their favorite cities. We look forward to another great meeting in 2011!