Software Shootout Software Discounts

Thank you all for coming to the Software Shootout yesterday. We were so happy you could join us for our first program of the new year - it was great to see you.

We just wanted to point your attention to some software offers the you may be interested in. For those of you who picked up a discount sheet for CADtools there is a code for 50% off the regular price for this Adobe Illustrator plugin which is good until March 15th, 2006.

Also if you contact Nick La Forest or Pablo Lora at Nemetschek and mention that you attended The Underground Software Shootout, they will be offering a discount on the purchase of VectorWorks Landmark.

Congratulations to our software winners yesterday - Mary, Ferris, Ted and Rolf.

For more information please contact us.

Software Shootout

Held at the Wellesley College Science Center, the first "Software Shootout" program explored cutting edge techniques to creating landscape plans and documents. The software presented ranged in price, capability and complexity.

Our guest presenters included:
Monica Fairbairn, Gardening by Design, Watertown MA
Mary Coyne, Coyne Landscape Design, Wellesley, MA
Bridget McManus, Lepidoptera Landscape Design, Framingham, MA
Andrew Buck, Not Yet Landscape, Jamaica Plain, MA

The software presented included MSPublisher, Autosketch, Adobe Illustrator, and VectorWorks Landmark.

Attendees learned the secrets to creating high quality, graphically rich landscape plans using your computer. Designers showed examples of their projects as well as described the step-by-step process for their implementation. They discussed their software products’ learning curve and the strengths and weaknesses from their personal perspective. Handouts provided additional information including tips and tricks, equipment requirements, costs and other special considerations and comparisons. The presentations were followed by a breakout session in which presenters demonstrated their software in
small informal groups.

Whether a novice or a seasoned landscape professional, this program gave you the information you needed to find the software that would work for you in your landscape business. It helped you to make an informed decision by giving you a real-world perspective of the products’ capabilities.

Welcome All Our New Members

We would just like to welcome all our new members to our group. Since our participation at NE Grows we have recruited 28 new members which brings our current total membership to 126 with more memberships coming in daily.

The following information may be helpful to our new members.

Our group operates via a Yahoo group and members connect via this group by email. All email messages posted to the_undergrnd@yahoogroups.com get sent to the entire group of 126 members. If you wish to respond to only the person who originally posted a message (and not the entire group) then please be sure to use their personal email address which will be found in the From field of the message.

The Underground has a number of nifty web features available for those of you who have set up their Yahoo ID's and password. To gain access to these features you must go to our Yahoo site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_undergrnd/ and sign in.

Once you have signed in you will have access to all the great features that are available. These features include:
Scheduling online chats with members
Sharing Files - upload and download them to the Yahoo file section
Sharing Photos - upload and download them to the photos section
Sharing links to great websites - we have 78 links so far in the links section
Sharing your contact info in our online database (member list and collaboration list) - listing is optional
Taking member polls about various topics
Adding your event to our Calendar and sending out automatic reminders to members

We encourage you to utilize all these features and participate.

Welcome to The Underground!

Thanks to Our NE Grows Volunteers

We would like to acknowledge the following people for so graciously volunteering their time to helping us staff our booth at New England Grows. All your hard work was so very much appreciated! You made our first show a success!

Thank you all so much!

Justin Kelleher
Susan Tuttle
Priscilla Williams
Erin McNeill
Susan Quateman
Seija Halva
Tom Ryan
Dori Smith
Mary Coyne
Katie Haried
Karen Fountain-Lantelme
Sally Naish
Denise Pegrum
Jennifer Campbell
Kathy Tunsley
Liz Evans
Ed Council
Melanie Neuman

Thank you.
The Underground Steering Committee