Dear Quest Members,   Fall is one of my favorite seasons – it represents the official kickoff of college football, and in some ways it represents the beginning of a new year for Quest. Every late summer/early fall, Quest begins to develop the service plans for the upcoming year that we will execute in support of the Quest Board of Directors’ strategic objectives.   At Quest’s September Board of Directors’ meeting, where the upcoming year’s service plans begin to take their shape, the Quest board remained focused on evolving to better serve our current and future members. Through the challenging economic environment, the altering Oracle landscape and a never-ending supply of new, self-proclaimed reliable sources of opinions and information on the internet, I think that Quest has begun to feel a renewed sense of purpose… to find creative ways to facilitate networking within our community under a new set of rules and to help members cut through the clutter and facilitate the process of finding reliable sources of information.   The economy certainly has had its effects on our entire community. In a year most organizations are cutting back, delivering less than promised, Quest is pushing to add value to membership and your experience associated with the user community. Already in 2009, we have made some adjustments to better serve the needs of our customers:   • Even though travel budgets were being cut, we decided to go forward with the majority of our face to face conferences in 2009. We did this in an effort to keep the community connected, to facilitate the networking, education and the business partner solution/service assistance that is critical to helping members gain the maximum value from their Oracle investments.   • Because many of our members’ travel budgets were reduced and in some cases eliminated, Quest launched online educational offerings that include reduced member pricing to ensure our members have affordable education options.   • In an effort to help our members cut through the clutter and avoid information overload, we have overhauled our communications approach. We have placed a greater focus on delivering quality and relevant information by reducing the number of communications to our community and increasing the relevant content within them, making it easier for members to find what they need.   • Because many of our volunteers have less time to dedicate to organizing user group related activities, we have begun offering user group meeting management services to lighten the load that many of our volunteers are carrying at a time that their jobs are requiring more and more of them.   • Finally, while the community has not yet enjoyed the benefit of this effort, Quest has placed a tremendous amount of time and money towards improving our on-line tools and technology. We know that we need to take the fabulous conference experience and deliver a similar experience online. In 2010, Quest members will experience a new set of on-line tools and technology that will attempt to do just that.   While Quest has continued to invest in the community and membership benefits, the new programs I mentioned above remain, in many ways, just that – investments – until the economy completely recovers. Therefore, as an organization, we are forced to evaluate our services to ensure that they are relevant and sustainable. The community is an ecosystem that only endures when members put in as much as they are receiving. Therefore, I ask all of our members and subscribers to do the following:   1. If you were a Quest paying member in 2009, please renew your membership. And consider an upgrade from an individual membership to a corporate membership so that your coworkers can enjoy the benefits of Quest as well.   2. Encourage others that you know in the community to join and to give back. The community thrives when we have members that are engaged. A tremendous value of the Quest community is the unfiltered information that customers share with customers.   3. Ensure that you set aside some money in your budget to take full advantage of your membership by attending COLLABORATE, a regional conference and/or on-line educational sessions in 2010.   4. Provide us with your feedback and let us know how we might better serve the community.   Thank you for your support of Quest. I look forward to seeing you at a Quest event in 2010!   Kind regards, Jon Jonathan Vaughn Executive Director Quest International Users Group