The Mac Admins Community Groups Map

Did you know that the global community of Apple IT administrators run over thirty (30!!!) grassroots organized, planned, and maintained user groups?

During some of the truly wonderful "hallway track" conversations that happened during last month's MacAdmins Conference at Penn State I got the sense that folks across the country (and world) are craving more than just once-a-year gatherings to share information, commiserate, and build camaraderie with their peers. Some folks in areas without an active user group meetup—or simply new to the community—were unsure of how to find a group or how to start one. I thought one way to make it easier to find those groups would be to pull together an actual map of where (at least somewhat) active user groups are located and how to get in touch with them.

Enter: the Mac Admins Community map.

When I started pulling the map together I dug through as many meetup posts and prompts as I could from the Mac Admins Slack, from Jamf Nation, and from resources that were shared with me by the community.

Clicking on a pin from the map will pull up the name, general location, and where to get in touch with the group or learn about upcoming events.

Example pin information for the Austin Apple Admins group based in Austin, TX.

Once I figure out the best way to get this and other user group info pulled together in a meaningful and helpful way it will likely live in the macadmins.org website. For now you can find more information about user groups in the community by joining the #meetups channel on the Mac Admins Slack.

For anyone looking to start up a new user group I highly recommend looking for a regional channel in the Mac Admins Slack around where you're located to open some discussions and generate interest. The #meetups channel is also a hub of user group activity worth joining, and make sure to check the #meetups Canvas in the channel see what resources have been pulled together.

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