Topic: User Group

[jonesy]

Dont know whether I am posting in the right area (if not can someone move it please!)

Being a newbee Cad Manager I have just implemented our Cad Manual etc,

How many of you have "company Cad User Groups" which are dedicated to solving any problems with new standards, identifying training issues etc, if so how often do you have them, who is included, and what else do you discuss.

Many thanks for any advice.

[SPDCad]

A my former company we had Cad Standards meetings about once ever three months to go over the one or all of the following issues;
-Suggestions to improve standards
-Suggestions for new Autolisp routines
-Identify areas where the user need training,
-Solve bugs and or error with AutoCAD
-Discuss new or needed software (Next version of AutoCAD, 3d Max, etc)

Most of the time we spent arguing over the standards and what needed to be or, may not be needed to be, changed.  We would spend about an afternoon in the cad standards meeting.  If training was required we may have more meeting to prepare the training issues and then train the appropriate staff.

Good luck with your meetings!.....
 

[Keith™]

At my previous employer, we had weekly meetings on drawing standards, design standards, industry standards or just about any other standards you could think of that related to our business..... this was a pretty good way of doing things...every employee was required to give a 1 hour "class" on something that they either felt the other employees needed to know or on a subject that they personally had issues with and needed to discuss. At the end of each "class" changes were immediately implemented.
We had 14 people, so everyone had to give a class about every 3 months. The "instructor" was required to research the topic of their choosing, provide documentation to all participants, explain the material as best could be explained, and answer questions about the topic... your personal research would make you understand that topic much better and everyone benefitted as a result.

In my 15 years there I gave many classes, I must say that while I did learn from the hour or so of "class time" that others gave, I learned a whole lot more researching the standards and creating documentation for "my" class than I ever did sitting in on one.

It might be worth looking into, especially if you have a small group that can hold informal meetings once a week for an hour or so. The employees, while they may be negative at first, will soon realize that they have a vital role in the implementation of policy and standards since their personal research may actually turn up information that is ambiguous and those issues can then be resolved.

[Mark]

Keith that sounds like a darn good idea. Was that yours or someone else's? Also what about "deadlines"? Did they get put on the back burner when it was class time or did class time work around them?

[jonesy]

The employees, while they may be negative at first, will soon realize that they have a vital role in the implementation of policy and standards since their personal research may actually turn up information that is ambiguous and those issues can then be resolved.

The main reason I was thinking of these sessions was for that reason. I have been appointed as a manager, yet other caddies have been here longer, and I want them to be on my side rather than working against me.

I have approached the lead caddie from each section, they will attend these sessions with, I hope, suggestions, and problems from their teams, and they will then feed-back any information to their teams. Empowering them with some responsibilities will, I hope make them work alongside me comfortably.

Do you think this way could work?

Thanks for your thoughts

[CADaver]

How many of you have "company Cad User Groups" which are dedicated to solving any problems with new standards, identifying training issues etc, if so how often do you have them, who is included, and what else do you discuss.

For us this is two very different groups.  

Yes, we have a user's group.  This is a training tool for the users, that is controlled by the users.  We discuss what they want to discuss (with a little nudging from me), and we teach what they want to learn.  These meetings are held weekly at lunch.  If there is nothing on the agenda from the users, I take the opportunity to throw out a new command or two, or turn it over to QnA.

We also have a CAD Management team (a rep from each discipline) that is "dedicated to solving any problems with new standards, identifying training issues etc".  We often poll the user's group for their input, and provide several different avenues for the users to provide input for the developement of standards and implementation.

[Artisan]

I really like Keith's idea. I could see that as being really helpful. We only have 3 cad people here, including me. One of the others is leaving next week, so we are down to two with a boss who considers himself the cad manager, even though he didn't start using AutoCad until last Feb. Anyway, maybe in the future I could try to promote that here for our cad staff. It would really help out since we are using ADT 2005 for the first time ever. I know I have a lot of questions about the stuff.