Picture it - a gigantic black tour bus pulls up in front of your NTEN summer block party. Darkened windows, no visible activity... Who the heck is this and why are they crashing our party??

The "who" is us - the Blackbaud User Society. Our snazzy black bus gets us to where we need to go in our ongoing quest to change the world. We are doing this in two ways:

1. Ensure that clients of Blackbaud are getting the best value possible out of the software they've purchased.

2. Maintain close communication with Blackbaud product developers so they know what we our priorities are as users.

Why would we want to do that? The same reason NTEN exists at all. We have people and families to serve, and we all believe that by exploiting new and innovative technology we can get that work done more effectively. It is for these common goals that we are partnering with NTEN as an Affinity Group.

Our community has been around in various incarnations for several years, but the Blackbaud User Society was created in May 2006 under the banner of the "Raiser's Edge User Forum". Since that time we have grown and evolved into less of a passive community and a much more proactive force for our members. Partnering with NTEN is the latest proactive effort we have started in accomplishing our own mission and those of our members. We are not officially endorsed by Blackbaud or affiliated with them in any way. That being said, they are aware of who we are, and particpate regularly.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join our community, though we are primarily focused on those people who work at organizations that use Blackbaud products. Our biggest audience within that group is the fine folks who administer Raiser's Ege and other Blackbaud products for their organizations. Those of us who interact with the techology on the most fundamental levels, and ideally have the influence to change business processes in our organizations to exploit the technology as much as possible.

Come take a tour of the bus. It's comfy. Have a drink, and chat with us. We're here to join the party, not to crash it.

http://www.blackbus.org and Peter Gulka