by Lauren Oh, Citrix
Meet CUGC Member, Bill Vetter! To some he is known as a Systems Engineer at New Directions Behavioral Health (NDBH), but to others he is known as the videogame-repairing “Darth Vetter.” As one of our first local user group leaders, we wanted to get to know both sides of Bill and what inspired him to join the new Citrix User Group Community.
CUGC: First of all, what a great nickname! That must mean you are team Star Wars! We know there tends to be a rivalry between Star Wars and Star Trek, but they’re both awesome in our opinion. Enough about science fiction though, let’s talk about CUGC! How did you discover CUGC and what inspired you to become a member and Local User Group Leader?
Vetter: I have had great experiences from user groups, and I always learn a great deal from them. One example is the Linux User Group where I actually met my best friend. Right after Synergy, I was looking for documentation and found a blog post. I wanted to join a Citrix local User Group to gain these benefits and be able to contribute at a different level. When I saw that a leadership role was available I thought it would be a good idea to sign up.
“I wanted the experience of being a little fish in a big pond, to be around some of these “giants” in the community and learn. Anything I could contribute even if it was just helping to organize the meeting or picking up catering, I wanted to give back to the community and help it grow.”
CUGC: The community really is growing thanks to great members and leaders like you. What skills and knowledge have you gained from connecting with other Citrix experts within the community?
Vetter: The CUGC forums are very valuable. When I post something about Lync, it is helpful to see the results that others are having working with the same environment. We are a smaller company, so hearing from members at the local meetings who are operating on a grand scale and learning how they are scaling out is very important. It is all about getting to reach out while others are doing things with Citrix technology, seeing what they have, being able to ask questions, and generating a dialogue.
Focus and Forward Thinking
CUGC: How has your role changed since you became a CUGC member?
Vetter: Sometimes when you get involved in a deployment that you have never done before, you can get this feeling of loneliness and isolation. I leverage the community for retrospective analysis and ask, “What’s working, what isn’t” at regular intervals. Asking these questions gives me an opportunity to reflect on parts I can improve as I look forward.
“The community has helped my morale because I see other people deploying Lync on VDI with hard-phones which is something we have done. This has helped my focus, morale and expectations.”
The Kansas City Metro Local User Group is Unique
Vetter: The group has considerable diversity, different sectors of industry, and a broad spectrum of organizations. Members are from healthcare, communications, government, utilities, education and other markets.
For the Users, By the Users
Vetter: This is not just the three leaders group, but the users group. After the meeting, we received communication from members providing topics they would like to talk about, requesting more casual meetings, and there have been a lot of discussions in the forum.
CUGC: What is happening in future meetings?
Vetter: I am looking forward to members presenting on their current Citrix environments to make the members aware of what others are doing with Citrix technology. I will be giving a presentation about how our team put Lync together with Citrix.
CUGC: How large can your user group get?
Vetter: The group can get into the hundreds. We now have 117 members.
CUGC: Wonderful, that would be great to see! Do you have any advice for upcoming group leaders?
Vetter: Size your venue right, provide food, look for content, sponsors, people to present, ask a lot of questions, and there are people out there willing to give you an answer.
If you would like to connect with Bill, you can find him at myCUGC.
