Reporting user group attendance

[joerg.hampel]

Hello all,

I've been a tiny bit confused as to where reports about user group attendance should go. 

I was under the impression that I have to report through the User Group Meeting Validation form as an organizer, and our attendees need to report back via the same form as well. 

Recently, I learned that we should use the Recertification by points request form for all kinds of point requests, for organizers as well as presenters and attendees.

In fact, emails from services@ni.com have this in the signature/footer:

"Please send all Certification and Recertification by Points inquiries to services@ni.com or submit your request here."

Can somebody clarify the process/workflow for reporting UGMs back to NI? Who needs to report what, and when? Do I still need to fill in the User Group Meeting Validation form, or is it completely obsolete now?

Thanks,
Joerg

[Elijah_K]

Great question Joerg.

There is probably an opportunity for us to simplify and streamline, but I'll try to explain how it's working now.

The Validation Form is meant to be how the organizer submits the list of attendees who are qualified for the recertification points. The second form, the request form, is how those individuals apply to have those points applied to their certification. I believe the request kicks off a manual process to review the validation forms that were submitted and ensure that person did, in fact, attend the event.

To make matters worse, my team actually doesn't get these forms and we are under pressure to start tracking the number of attendees at all events globally, so we have yet another form for our own purposes: https://forms.office.com/r/6uh7unBNuj (I think we get a prize for having the simplest form). Nikita is program managing all our user groups and should be reaching out for this information after every event.

All of this can/should be integrated into a single, simpler form. Let me sync with the certification team and see what we can do to improve this process.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention!

[MegaHertz]

I've been emailing attendee rosters to certificationrewards@ni.com, and always get a "thanks for providing these" response.

However, when those who attend have tried to claim their points and recertify, their request has been rejected (even though their names are on the rosters I've submitted).

So yeah, sounds like NI is already aware of the complaint, but just to emphasize it: the process for usergroup attendees and presenters to claim their recertification points is confusing and (at least in my circle) poorly understood. I run a company-internal usergroup, so the majority of attendees are there for the points. Please make this easier for everyone!

[Elijah_K]

The certification team and I met today and aligned on a single, standard way to report user group metrics.

Ignore everything else and bookmark this link: https://survey.ni.com/jfe/form/SV_3gdoOJB2cWK1rme

This is the SAME link for user group organizers and attendees. As you'll see, the questions change based on whether you indicate you are an organizer or self-reporting attendance for recertification credits.

Some other things to know:

• Event organizers must still submit the registration list before attendees can apply for credit.
• We are going to enforce that user groups must be an official regional or account-based event.
• Regional events must have a community page.
• Private account-specific events also need to be tracked by NI. Contact me if you want to ensure a private account-only event is qualified.

Hope this is simpler. Again, you can ignore the older forms and emails, which we are actively trying to remove from the system.

Let us know if you have thoughts or questions

[IlluminatedG]

Why are there still two steps? Why don't points get awarded solely off attendance sheets?

This was also a question I had for Summer of LabVIEW, if I'm submitting the info already why does the participant need to separately request?

[IlluminatedG]

Can we just track their desire to get recert points with attendance and that be one submission step?

[Elijah_K]

Could we further simplify? Yes

Are we able to make any changes right now? No

Part of the reason is that this is more complex that many people have multiple certifications and we need to know which certification they want to apply it to. We all agree that it could be simpler, but we just aren't able to prioritize changes at this time.

[IlluminatedG]

Be still my beating heart, a clear response that doesn't leave me curious if someone is actually looking into it or not or if I need to ask differently.

Thanks Elijah

[Elijah_K]

Hah. Good to celebrate the small victories. I'll take it. 

Happy Friday.