Rachel York and I headed out to Albuquerque last week to help the New Mexico SOLIDWORKS User Group celebrate their 10 year anniversary. It was a great meeting complete with 3D Printing, Rachel’s “The Certification Game” session, students, and three of the four leaders of the group from the past ten years.

10 year ago, Nestor Montano put together the first NMSUG meeting, and I was there along with one of the company founders.  We did a Tips and Tricks session in trivia format and had a lot of fun with it.  The attendance at that first meeting is still in doubt, but consensus puts it at about thirty.

I don’t know when Randy Lynn officially assumed leadership of the group, but he did a great job keeping things going and steadily increasing attendance.  Sometime after that, Brandon Roby took over, and then in late 2013, William Radigan became the new group leader.

William has done a terrific job with the group; increased membership, a steady schedule, interesting venues, and great speakers.  That, and the fact that he is now the leader of record, means William “gets the glass”.

I want to thank Nestor, Randy, Brandon, and William for dedicating ten years to NMSUG.  SOLIDWORKS User Groups are created and managed by users like them, and I’m glad we have the most passionate users in the world to make the SOLIDWORKS User Group Network  the best in the industry.

PS – this is Dereck Sanchez, a student who came in to talk to the group about robotics summer camps.  You’ll be hearing more about Dereck soon, Rachel has him on her radar and can’t wait to tell his story.

Richard Doyle

My official title is Senior User Advocacy & SolidWorks User Groups - but most people just call me "The User Group Guy". I've been a SolidWorks user since 1997, and was one of the founding members of the SWUGN Committee. Since starting the Central Texas SolidWorks User Group in 1999, my career path has led me to DS SolidWorks and a dream job supporting the SolidWorks User Group Network worldwide.