John Sindelar to Speak at April 2008 Seattle Chapter FMPug Meeting

John Sindelar to Speak at April 2008 Seattle Chapter FMPug Meeting

Seattle, Washington, 3/29/2008 – We are proud to announce that John Sindelar, President of SeedCode LLC, will be our speaker for the April 2008 Seattle Chapter FMPug Meeting. The session, Building with Modification in Mind, discusses the importance of keeping solutions flexible in order to make changes with ease. It seems that once solutions mature, the "cost" of making major changes goes up, and the pace of change, naturally, slows down. John will be demonstrating some techniques he uses to keep solutions nimble, making future major changes less expensive. The session will also look at case studies from several recent projects where he needed to undertake major changes to the way a solution was structured, such as introducing new tables and switching from one-to-many into many-to-many relationships. John will also be trying some development practices which can make these changes easier and less disruptive.
The session will be digging into these solutions to see the scripts and relationships that help, or hinder, our ability to be truly responsive to our clients' requests for changes.

The meeting will be held on Monday, April 28, 2008 from 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM. The meeting will be at the Washington Mutual Center, 1301 2nd Avenue, 42nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101. Be sure to visit www.fmpug.com to register for the meeting (that way you can get past the security desk.)

For the monthly Seattle Chapter FMPug raffle give-away, John is offering a site license to SeedCode Calendar Pro, their new, simpler resource scheduling template. http://www.seedcode.com/cp-app/ste_cat/sccalpro. Laura Bowyer of SolutionMakers will provide snacks & coffee for the evening. Washington Mutual has once again donated the beautiful meeting space, the White Oak Room on the 42nd floor at the Washington Mutual Center in Seattle, Washington.

Not a Member Yet? Join Us for Free! For those interested in becoming a member of the Seattle Chapter Pug or just want to find out what the fuss is all about, you are invited to attend a meeting for free. Simply register for the meeting at www.fmpug.com and you are all set to experience the Seattle Chapter FMPug.

katiestrock@solutionmakers.com
www.solutionmakers.com

SolutionMakers' Training Sets Sail on the Columbia River

3/19/2008 - Seattle, Washington - SolutionMakers, Inc. invites you to get your FileMaker skills in ship-shape with this one-of-a-kind FileMaker Training Series cruise! This four day spring event pushes off April 29 to May 2, 2008 the ship, MV Island Spirit will cruise leisurely up and down the Columbia River, bordering Washington and Oregon. Scheduled stops on this Pacific Northwest cruise include; Washougal, WA, St. Helens, OR, Astoria, OR and Portland, OR. This cruise offers students a truly unique opportunity and experience, not found in any other FileMaker Training Series course.

“This cruise provides students not only opportunity learn in an effective, fun and relaxing environment, they also have the ample time for discussion, questions and networking about FileMaker development in multiple settings. Peers and instructors will interact over superb cuisine and evening cocktails, all the while taking in the sights and sounds of the majestic Columbia River.”, said Laura Bowyer, SolutionMakers, Inc. President.

The FileMaker Training Series is the official training curriculum from FileMaker, Inc. It offers a series of 12 training modules that cover a comprehensive set of topics designed to help you master the essentials of FileMaker solution development. This new series incorporates the many new features of the FileMaker 9 product line throughout the modules. Below is a list of the modules that will be covered:

2. Working with Fields
3. Data Modeling
4. Working with Layouts
5. Calculation Functions
6. Scripts
7. Reporting
8. Security
9. Intermediate & Advanced Techniques

Consider this Course if You Are:

· Familiar with the basics, but want a solid grounding in key FileMaker development principles.

· Comfortable with FileMaker Pro and want to advance your development skills.

· An expert developer and want to fill in any gaps in your knowledge.

· Planning to become a FileMaker Certified Developer.

The FileMaker Training Series Columbia River Cruise features two of the nations leading FileMaker instructors for this event. Jason Young and Alexei Folger. Jason is a FileMaker Authorized Trainer, Developer and Project Manager for SolutionMakers, Inc. Alexei is a Senior Systems Engineer for FileMaker, Inc., a very experienced FileMaker trainer and has presented many sessions at DevCon and FMPug groups.

The MV Island Spirit

The MV Island Spirit is a 130-foot vessel featuring two double staterooms on the Upper Deck, and 14 double staterooms on the Main Deck. Onboard, you can expect to be thoroughly pampered by the Captain, the chef, and the crew, while enjoying both scenic vistas and the comforts of home. “It’s as close to having your own yacht as you can, except the food and the maintenance is provided for you,” says Captain Jeff Behrens.

While on this cruise attendees will have the opportunity to take off-shore excursions to places like Mount St. Helens Visitor Center, the Columbia River Maritime Museum, the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center and much, much more!

If you are interested in finding out more about this and other training opportunities that SolutionMakers offers, please visit http://www.solutionmakers.com. There you will find a cruise itinerary, registration information and other detailed information.

Headquartered in Seattle, WA, SolutionMakers, Inc. SolutionMakers IS integrated business management solutions. Our outstanding team of certified developers and authorized trainers are ready to assist with you!

Jeff Hough to Speak at March 2008 Seattle Chapter FMPug Meeting

Woodinville, Washington, 3/12/2008 – We are proud to announce that Jeff Hough, Director of Development for Pre1 Software LLC will be our speaker for the March 2008 Seattle Chapter FMPug Meeting. The session is called Build Better Solutions by Tracking User Activity. This session will discuss methods of collecting and reporting user activity information. Tracking user-entered data is limited to record counts and UserIDs, (used for technical support and training) and no user-specific data is collected. This data is retrieved and analyzed by the development staff, which uses this data to plan future enhancements and identify areas not yet utilized.


Jeff is the Director of Development for Pre1 Software LLC makers of SmartPublisher. Jeff has more than 16 years' experience in managing software projects and programming teams. Jeff is a Certified FileMaker 7/8/9 developer and has been an Associated Member of the FileMaker Solution Alliance for more than nine years.


The meeting will be held on Monday, March 24, 2008 from 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM. The meeting will be at the Washington Mutual Center, 1301 2nd Avenue, 42nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101. Be sure to visit www.fmpug.com to register for the meeting (that way you can get past the security desk.)


For the monthly Seattle Chapter FMPug raffle give-away, Phil Smith from FileMaker has donated a copy of FileMaker Pro 9. Chapter Coordinator, Laura Bowyer of SolutionMakers will provide snacks & coffee for the evening. Washington Mutual has once again donated the beautiful meeting space, the White Oak Room on the 42nd floor at the Washington Mutual Center in Seattle, Washington.


Not a Member Yet? Join Us for Free! For those interested in becoming a member of the Seattle Chapter Pug or just want to find out what the fuss is all about, you are invited to attend a meeting for free. Simply register for the meeting at www.fmpug.com and you are all set to experience the Seattle Chapter FMPug.

Alexei Folger to Speak at February 2008 Seattle Chapter FMPug Meeting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Alexei Folger to Speak at February 2008 Seattle Chapter FMPug Meeting

Woodinville, Washington, 2/12/2008 – We are proud to announce that Alexei Folger, Senior Systems Engineer of FileMaker will be our speaker for the February 2008 Seattle Chapter FMPug Meeting. This session will be an in-depth discussion of the best practices in FileMaker file maintenance and recovery. It will cover the differences between file recovery, the various "Save As" options, compressing and optimizing files; and when to use them. Learn to prepare for the worst and what to do if the unfortunate happens.

The meeting will be held on Monday, February 25, 2008 from 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM. The meeting will be at the Washington Mutual Center, 1301 2nd Avenue, 42nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101. Be sure to visit www.fmpug.com to register for the meeting (that way you can get past the security desk.)

For the monthly Seattle Chapter FMPug raffle give-away, Alexei Folger & Phil Smith from FileMaker has donated a copy of FileMaker Pro 9 to give-away. Chapter Coordinator, Laura Bowyer of SolutionMakers will provide snacks & coffee for the evening. Washington Mutual has once again donated the beautiful meeting space, the White Oak Room on the 42nd floor at the Washington Mutual Center in Seattle, Washington.

Not a Member Yet? Join Us for Free! For those interested in becoming a member of the Seattle Chapter Pug or just want to find out what the fuss is all about, you are invited to attend a meeting for free. Simply register for the meeting at www.fmpug.com and you are all set to experience the Seattle Chapter FMPug.

Dealing with Disasters By Molly Connolly

Our last FMPug meeting was with Molly Connolly, owner of Thorsen Consulting, a Chicago-based technology consultant. Her background is in management consulting and over the last 10 years she has focused on delivering customized FileMaker Pro database solutions. As a former partner at Soliant Consulting, she managed a team of developers working in a variety of industries including advertising, education, and manufacturing. Molly is currently providing advisory and training services to consulting companies on a variety of issues including client management, training, recruiting and sales.

Being an expert problem solver is important for all businesses and with Molly’s interactive presentation, the group really learned a lot about how we instinctively respond and how we should respond to business disasters! Whether it was dealing with trouble shooting a bug, resolving a change order conflict, or dealing head on with crashing files and deleted data, in addition to your technical skills, the lesson of the day was that you need great communication skills to get the information you need.

You also need to be able to effectively communicate with your users so you can help them to understand the downtime and/or find workarounds while you solve the problem. This interactive session has armed the attendees with problem-solving and communication techniques to address a variety of difficult situations.

Here are a few of the highlights!

1. Learn initial response techniques to determine what issues really are “urgent” and address them effectively.

2. Practice how to ask the right questions in order to pinpoint the problem.

3. Learn communication techniques for high-stress conversations regarding change orders and bugs.

4. Expand your support network and have a team of problem-solvers at your disposal.

We look forward to Seeing all of you on February 25, 2008 when Alexei Folger, Systems Engineer from FileMaker will be speaking along with Phil Smith, Business Account Manager from FileMaker.

To sign up for the meeting visit www.fmpug.com.

September Seattle FileMaker Pug Meeting Pictures

Thank you to Angelo Luchi for taking these pictures with his iPhone! Check out the view from our 42nd floor meeting room in Seattle!

Here is Jesse of 360Works in front of the class!

Here you can see the attentive stare of Tim Trimble, Dwayne Wright and Laura Bowyer

An impressive view from the Seattle PUG meeting room window and equally impressive it came from an iPhone.

Another window shot from earlier in the meeting.

Seattle Chapter FMPug October 2007 Meeting

SolutionMakers Presents Seattle Chapter FMPug October 2007 Meeting
The Session Model with John Howell & Scott Newton from DataExperience
Come and join us as we learn about the session model from our presenters John Howell and Scott Newton from DataExperience.

Visit www.fmpug.com to register.

The session model allows for a layer of separation between data tables and the user experience required by business rules. A session instantiated set of variables, global fields and interface record(s) can provide the developer with much of the abstraction used in the separation model, and yet it can also be developed quite well in a single file system. Multiple window environments can be modeled elegantly. A single point of reference allows the developer to always perceive the database system from a consistent perspective. The demand for context awareness is radically reduced, and a development template can be used to build robust systems much faster. Merging portals and related data onto one view becomes a snap, as does task oriented design! Record-locking can be handled smoothly. Adding modules to an existing session-based system is easy and clear. Multiple developers can work on a system with greater clarity. Techniques like audit trail and transactional entry lend them selves well to this approach, and can be modified and implemented much more easily!

We will also discussion relative subjects in this presentation as time permits.

These subjects include development conventions, build management and versioning, as well as window management.

We will have snacks and goodies there for all attendees and as always a beautiful view of the Seattle waterfront from the 42nd level of the Washington Mutual Center! (1301 2nd Avenue, 42nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98101) Register at www.fmpug.com to attend the meeting.



Speaker Bio:
Jonn Howell is the president of DataExperience, Inc., and has been developing solutions in FileMaker Pro since 1992. His personal goal is to provide the most intuitive user experience in the world. His clients include: Apple Computer, Amgen, Genentech, Electronic Arts, Nortel Networks, Novell Corporation, Stanford University, The University of California, and Air Support. He holds annual training classes on database design, relational modeling, business requirements, development conventions, documentation, client management, and interface design at his office north of Los Angeles. Jonn leads a team of 6 developers, building data systems, e-commerce systems and web design. He has a solid reputation in the bio-technical industry as a database system programmer, business analyst and project manager. Formally trained as a robotics engineer, Jonn is also an accomplished graphic designer and professional sales trainer. Jonn received a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from San Jose State University. He is currently an Associate Level FBA member, and has spoken at four previous FileMaker Developer Conferences.

Katie Strock

Project Coordinator

SolutionMakers Inc.

(360) 668-4903 ext. 101

Toll Free (800) 237-3975