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President's Update - 2008 Encompass Canada Continues to Represent Dear Members of EnCompass Canada and HP Users, Partners and Customers; Although more than a year has gone by with relative membership inactivity, a lot has been happening behind the scenes that will impact the future of HP user communities worldwide. Those who have been keeping abreast of the restructuring of the global organization of HP users into what is now ‘Connect’ will realize that the operating relationships between independent user groups, such as Encompass Canada, and the new global organization and HP will be altered. But regardless of the eventual outcome, Encompass Canada plans to continue representing the interest of its membership and HP users, partners and customer in Canada as it has been doing so in the past. The formation of a unified global HP user group was conceived under the lead of the Encompass organization in the U.S. almost 2 years ago when I was invited to participate in the early planning stages as a representative of the HP user communities in Canada. Representing Encompass Canada, and as a supporter of a global user group that would represent a world-wide user community, my contribution to the discussions was to participate in the Governance committee which created the bylaws (constitution) of the new organization. My paramount goal was to create a Global Council structure that represents the interests of our Canadian user communities as well as the other international Chapters such as Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific, with whom we were formerly aligned as far back as the DECUS days. The Encompass Canada Board has in place an agreement in principle to support this new organization where it is in the best interests of the Canadian HP users, partners and customers that we represent. Although we participated in good faith to discuss the formation of a Global Council structure that could represent all HP user communities, the centralized organization that resulted did not seem to be appropriate for the way that Encompass Canada, and some of the other sister user groups (local and country based groups), relate to our members. Through negotiations since the spring, the international groups have resolved one of the key issues that was blocking affiliation, namely membership fees. . To that end, our plans and goals for Encompass Canada will remain the same. We will continue to develop our user group as a national organization that represents the interests of HP users as outlined in our mission statement and road map. We will work with our principal sponsor, HP Canada, to be a voice of our users and a communications channel between HP users, partners and customers in Canada. We will also monitor closely the development of Connect and will consult with you, our members, and HP Canada in considering if an Affiliation Agreement should exist with Connect. I will be communicating with you shortly regarding our discussions on Encompass Canada’s affiliation with Connect. David J. Wilson
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