History of PABUG

1999

The Pennsylvania Banner Users Group (PABUG) was formed as the result of a meeting conducted at Villanova University on Oct. 6, 1999. Villanova’s Cathy Connor initiated the process by contacting Pennsylvania Banner schools during the summer of 1999 about forming a Pennsylvania Local Users Group.

Representatives from 15 schools met at that initial gathering and voted unanimously to create a formal users group with officers, a board of directors and by-laws. Cathy Connor (Villanova) was elected the group’s first president, with Fran DiSanti (Saint Joseph's) serving as vice-president, Andy Lawlor (Edinboro) as treasurer and Cindy Bilger (Bucknell) as secretary.

One representative from each of the 17 Pennsylvania Banner schools in existence at the end of 1999 was appointed to the board of directors.

2000

The first official gathering of PABUG members occurred at the March, 2000 SCT Summit Conference in San Francisco, where more than 70 users from various member schools learned about the organization.

The PABUG web site (www.pabug.org) and a group listserv were initiated.

The first PABUG Conference took place at Harrisburg Area Community College in Nov., 2000. The two-day event attracted nearly 200 attendees each day.

2001

PABUG members gathered at the April, 2001 SCT Summit Conference in Toronto and the group conducted its second PABUG Conference in Oct., 2001 with expanded session offerings producing a larger turnout of members.

The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and York College joined the PABUG, bringing group membership to 19 schools.

2002

Fran DiSanti became the second PABUG president and Bill Balint (IUP) became vice-president, with Cathy Connor moving to the position of past president. More than 80 members attended the PABUG luncheon at the March, 2002 SCT Summit in Anaheim.

The board of directors was expanded to include all conference track leaders.

A number of PABUG member registrars attended a day-long information sharing session at Malvern with SCT personnel and more than 50 technical staff representing 17 schools attended a Pennsylvania Banner Technology Day at Harrisburg Area Community College in May, 2002.

The third PABUG users conference in Oct. set a third consecutive attendance record with more than 400 attendees from two dozen schools. Jack Kramer, SCT’s VP for Banner Solutions, reported that the PABUG was the second most-attended user group conference.

The Community College of Philadelphia became the 20th member of the PABUG.

2003

The fourth PABUG Summit luncheon took place in March at New Orleans with well over 100 members in attendance – the fourth consecutive year that the turnout has eclipsed the previous year. Numerous SCT employees, executives and a number of curious observers from other states were also in attendance. Bill Balint (IUP) became the group’s third president, with Fran DiSanti (Saint Joseph's) moving into the Past President role and Cindy Bilger (Bucknell) becoming the President-Elect.

A day-long forum was conducted for finance users at Harrisburg in May and the second Pennsylvania Banner Technology Day took place in June at State College.

The fourth PABUG users conference at the Wildwood Conference Center featured was a partial sell out, with a fourth-consecutive record for attendance at nearly 450. A record of 10 tracks was available and the conference committee expanded to 24 members.

2004

The first PABUG Executive Steering retreat was conducted in February at Gettysburg. The first amendments to the group’s charter were proposed and later approved, establishing the creation of an advisory council of former officers and permitting committee members to become officers.

PABUG membership increased to 24 schools as Messiah College, Cabrini College, Immaculata University and Dickinson College joined. Cindy Bilger (Bucknell) took over as group’s fourth president and Rose Ann Jubinski (University of Scranton) became President-Elect at the fifth PABUG Summit luncheon at Philadelphia in March.

Finance and Technology Days were conducted once again. The PABUG Conference moved to the Holiday Inn in Grantville to accommodate more attendees and the event enjoyed record attendance for a fifth consecutive year. Combined attendance for the two days topped 575 including vendor representatives, with 44 schools represented. The agenda was expanded to 12 tracks overseen by some 30 committee members.

2008

The PABUG Conference remained at the Holiday Inn in Grantville and enjoyed continued record attendance.  Participants in this year's conference represented 55 institutions from 10 states across the country. Additionally, this year's conference saw its first international client in attendance all the way from the American University of Sharjah in the United Emirates. Several changes were made to enhance the conference experience including Sunday evening registration and moving the vendors and refreshments out of the hallways and into their own space!

Two successful one day events were held in 2008.  Technology Day, which focused on Banner 8 upgrades, was held in Malvern, PA and included representatives and presentations by SunGard Higher Education. Disaster Recovery Day was held at Lehigh Carbon Community College and included presentations from Villanova and Dickinson.

We welcomed Temple University as our newest member to PABUG, bringing the total number of members to 26 and the organization had its first Community College President.