The world of software is evolving at a very fast pace, especially with respect to user interface. What was ‘state of the art’ only a couple of years ago now not only looks dated and old-fashioned but often fails to deliver the functionality that is taken for granted in modern applications. The underlying software development technology is also evolving at a furious pace with the ever greater importance of Web technologies and the emergence of Microsoft’s new (.NET) programming paradigm. The development platforms are also in a state of flux, with new operating systems being added regularly and the new 64-bit processors coming into use. Keeping up with all these changes can be quite a daunting task.

The year 2000 was marked by the home coming of the Users’ Group Meeting (UGM) held in June 2000. As many CDEGS users know, the annual UGM is held in a different city every year. It all started back in 1991 with the very first meeting hosted by SES in its home town of Montreal. The following nine UGM’s were held in nine different North American cities, from Juno Beach, Florida in 1992 to Portland, Oregon in 1999. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the June 2000 UGM returned to Montreal. Our thanks to Mr. Albert E. Parsons from Santee Cooper in South Carolina and Carmen Barsu from Lyncole XIT Grounding in California for helping organize and run this successful meeting. Mr. Parsons chaired the meeting and Ms. Barsu was the secretary.

This year's meeting scheduled for June 4 to 7, 2001 will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.