RUGS - Oldest Revit User Group in the World?

Having joined the RUGS committee in 2008 as treasurer I finally got a promotion:
This year I took over as chairman of RUGS from Steve Fiorio - a post he had held since 2012.

We believe that RUGS is the oldest formal Revit User Group in the world.  This has been confirmed by Autodesk, and no other group has yet claimed the title.

Initiated by Wesley Benn, the first meeting was held in May 2003 in North Sydney, in the offices of Benn Design & AEC Systems.

The RUGS Website was set up in August 2005 - with much ongoing hard work by Bo Zhen

Go to the link for our 100th meeting in August 2012 to see more about the history of RUGS

Our original logo tells a story:

I am not sure if we are still Australia's largest user network, but the reference to "CAD Software" shows its age - this logo obviously predates the common usage of the acronym "BIM".  Time for an update, if I can only track down the original graphics.

RUGS meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month (except January when everyone is at the beach enjoying the Sydney sunshine). 
The venue is very kindly provided for us by Ultimo TAFE -
Room W3-06,
Level 3 Marcus Clarke Building,
827-837 George Street,
Ultimo
[in Sydney, Australia, just in case any overseas readers are thinking of attending]


This year we are experimenting with a new approach of getting the 3 Sydney based Autodesk Resellers more closely involved - they will take turns in helping to organise speakers for the meetings.  We hope to get a wider audience as Revit users see this as "reseller neutral"  - RUGS is organised by Revit users for the users.

Proposed Schedule of RUGS meetings for 2014:
11 Feb

• Ceilidh Higgins (Daryl Jackson Robin Dyke) - "BIMnomics"
• Frank Crisp (PTW) - "Pattern based families for creating facades"

11 March - Cadgroup

• Deepak Maini (Cadgroup) - Navisworks
• Michael Sandel (Plansource) - Shadows on adjacent buildings

8 April

• Greig Bannister (Panzura) - Revit file storage/sharing solution
• Anthony Bowden (PVN) - Revit family templates
• Tim Waldock (PTW) - Whats New in Revit Architecture 2015

13 May - A2K –

• Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for architects and engineers
• Whats new in Revit MEP 2015

10 June – Redstack –

• Surveying and Scan to BIM, Recap

19 July ?  (TAFE Closed on 8th July).

• Friday annual social event. Jointly sponsored by all 3 resellers. Venue TBA

12 Aug -
9 Sept -
14 Oct - 
11 Nov – 
9 Dec -