My apologies for last night's Seattle FMPug meeting

My Dearest Seattle Puggers:

I want to extend my humblest apologies to those of you who attended last night's Seattle FMPug meeting!

Due to cut backs in staff and our current WaMu contact being out ill, the list of registered attendees did not make it to the security desk in order for us to get admission to the room. The room was scheduled and available for our meeting, as was graciously set up for us by Dan Wilton (formerly at WaMu, now at Entellic) a few months back.


I would like to thank our presenter, Richard Carlton (Richard Carlton Consulting), and William for their patience and understanding in our search for a new meeting space! And for their presentation and open Q & A discussion around all things FileMaker and ESS. A terrific bunch of folks at Richard Carlton Consulting.

I'd also like to thank those that came to the rescue with positive, problem solving suggestions: Ruth Johnson (Teague), for pointing us in the direction of the Benyroya Hall for some ad-hoc meeting space; The man at Benyroya (sorry, name unknown) for letting us stay past their closing, Dan Wilton for trying to locate someone at WaMu that could arrange entry to their meeting room for us; Mike Ross (Digital Designs) for trying to get us a room at the Apple Store (currently being remodeled...), and Angelo Luchi (SolutionMakers) for making a last minute accessory run for a power strip. And, of course, to the other attendees for putting up with the chaos of the room change. This group is awesome!

We have made some checkpoints and guidelines to assure that this does not happen again.

I invite your feedback and input on how we can make the Seattle FMPug a more rewarding and enriching group! Do we need to look at changing venues, dates, days of the week, geographic locations, topic format or anything else? This is your group - let's make it GREAT!

Please email or call me with your ideas or suggestions. And I look forward to seeing more of you at our September meeting when Vincenzo Menanno (FMNexus) presents!

Best regards,

Laura Bowyer

Richard Carlton to speak on ESS at August meeting

We are proud to announce that Richard Carlton, President of Richard Carlton Consulting, Inc., will be our speaker for the August 2008 Seattle Chapter FileMaker Professional User Group (FMPUG) meeting. Carlton’s topic, “Essential Setup Skills Using FileMaker ESS”, discusses how FileMaker ESS has opened a new door into the world of integrating with external data sources. Beyond the basics, he will provide some important information to help users make the most of this new technology. The meeting will cover tools needed to leverage ESS. He’ll also examine how users can use SASE in conjunction with ESS to manage, manipulate, and move data around without user intervention. He’ll also discuss best practices for ESS to ensure maximum integration.

Highlights of the session include how to integrate external SQL data into FileMaker Pro solutions, how to use SASE to automate SQL data management, how to deal with synchronization and refresh issues, and ESS best practices and performance optimization.

The meeting will be held on Monday, August 25, 2008 from 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM and is open to all current FMPUG members. Not yet a member? Want to see what FMPUG is all about? Feel free to attend your first meeting at no charge. The meeting will take place at the Washington Mutual Center, 1301 2nd Avenue, 42nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101. Attendees will need to register online at http://www.fmpug.com to obtain access to the building.

For the monthly Seattle Chapter FMPUG raffle give-away, Peachpit Press has kindly donated a copy of “Web Publishing with PHP and FileMaker 9” and FileMaker's Phil Smith has graciously donated a copy of FileMaker 9. Event organizers, SolutionMakers, Inc., will provide some light snacks and beverages and Washington Mutual has once again donated the beautiful meeting space, the White Oak Room on the 42nd floor of the Washington Mutual Center in downtown Seattle.

Additional information: Jody Bossert - Marketing and Project Coordinator, 1-800-237-3975 x103, jodybossert@solutionmakers.com, or visit our web site at http://www.SolutionMakers.com. For information specific to FMPUG, visit their web site at http://www.fmpug.com.