Peter Hess

Peter Hess was elected to the APCUG Board of Directors in December, 2000 and since then has performed as chairman of its Marketing Committee and later of its Development, Marketing and Publicity Committee. At the APCUG / Intergalactic PC Expo Spring '99 conference in NYC and, at APCUG's 15th Annual Fall (2000) Conference in Las Vegas, Peter facilitated roundtables on computer recycling programs. He also facilitated roundtables entitled "How to Market your User Group" at both APCUG's 16th annual Fall Conference (2001) and also at the Heartland Regional User Group Conference @ Computerfest® in March, 2002, which he coordinated.

Before joining APCUG's Board of Directors, he served as president of the Dayton, Ohio-based Dayton Microcomputer Association, Inc. and then later as an active member of the DMA® Board of Trustees. During his final two years on the DMA® Board, Peter also served the DMA® as Director of the Ohio Technology Access Project. OTAP is a computer-recycling program which distributes computers to people with disabilities, challenges and special needs and to schools and institutions which serve these individuals. As well as serving as OTAP Director, Peter has also helped generate publicity for Computerfest®, the DMA®'s semi-annual fundraiser.

During the four years Peter was on the DMA® Board, the DMA® initiated many programs designed to improve service to its membership, as well as the community including: Moving the organization into its first office/meeting facility. This is also where OTAP has its office, warehouse, and workshop. The DMA® increased visibility by becoming listed in the phone book and its leadership began participating in seminars designed to teach community board members how to become better at running non-profit organizations. The DMA® also established a Strategic Planning Committee to plan for the DMA®'s future; greatly improved its monthly presentations; The DataBus, the DMA®'s newsletter, won numerous awards and the organization began to encourage proper use of its registered trademarks: DMA® and Computerfest®. The DMA® also created its own Internet Service Provider. The DMA® is reportedly one of only four non-profit computer users groups in the world, which owns its own commercial ISP. DMA® members receive a generous discount when connecting to the Internet via the DMA®'s ISP, GEMAIR(tm).