UUGI-CODI Merger Blog

First and foremost, we want to assure our respective memberships that no action will be taken to complete a merger of the two user’s groups without an affirmative vote from each group.  This blog will be our primary means for communicating with the memberships and asking you for comments as the process moves forward.

Next, a little history might be in order.  CODI and UUGI have been entertaining the idea of merging since Sirsi acquired Dynix in 2006.  In October of 2006, the UUGI chair and the CODI president, with approval of their respective boards, signed a memo of understanding that the two groups would hold their first joint conference in the Fall of 2009.  When SirsiDynix announced that the company would cease development of the Horizon ILS, the CODI board felt that holding one last independent conference for CODI members in the Fall of 2008 would not be feasible.  CODI and UUGI agreed to renegotiate the contract with the venue CODI had selected for their 2008 conference, and the end result was that the first ever joint conference will be held in the Spring of 2009 (Dallas, April 6-8 at the Sheraton) insted of the Fall.

Now that Symphony is the migration path for Horizon users, the enhancements process has been focused on the Symphony ILS.

Given that the company intends to develop only one ILS in the future, the enhancements process now reflects the development of just one ILS product, and the next users’ conference will be planned and executed jointly, it appears that this is right time to merge into a unified group.

The two groups have formed a joint committee to determine how best to accomplish the merger.  The committee is considering retaining CODI’s incorporation in Utah as the basis for the new organization.  Now that the main corporate offices of the company are located in Provo, Utah, it seems a logical choice to keep the users’ group incorporated in Utah as well.  Each group has consulted with its own attorney, and both attorneys recommended keeping one group’s incorporation because it will save considerable time and effort as opposed to creating a whole new organization and completing all of the necessary steps to be accepted as a new nonprofit corporation.

The plan is for the new group to have a new name, new bylaws, and a new executive committee structure.  The articles of incorporation will be updated to reflect the new group’s name, mission, and the structure of the group.  The merger committee is currently investigating issues such as how the new board members will be elected, and what legal issues will be involved with dissolving one group and contributing assets to the new group.

1. Both organizations have the same mission, goals, and objectives in terms of interaction with the company.

2. The two organizations have signed joint contracts for the conference venues and for the services of ICM for the 2009 and 2010 conferences.

3. We must eliminate the redundancy of the dual user’s group structure if we expect the company to focus on effective interaction with their customers. The company would strongly prefer to work with only one organization, one set of RUGs, one set of SIGs, etc. The longer this two-group structure lasts, the longer the company has to juggle us.

4. The current arrangement interjects needless complexity into joint ventures like next year’s conference, current conversations about the enhancements process, company support for regional conferences, etc.

5. SirsiDynix customers should be able to speak in a single unified voice should SirsiDynix take a course that proves problematic to the majority of its customers.

6. The merger is already taking place on the enhancements level.

7. Some of the other international user’s groups affiliated with SirsiDynix have already merged or are in the process of doing so. 

8. This is the perfect opportunity to get everything right, particularly in terms of bylaws which are outdated and do not fully address the needs of such a large customer base in an era when possibilities for virtual meetings and electronic voting seem limitless.

Welcome to the UUGI-CODI Merger Blog.  We will use the blog to communicate with you all regarding our merger progress.

The Joint Merger Committee met on June 18, 2008.  We were able to accomplish the following:

• Brief outline of our timeline with the understanding that the merger would be completed by the 2009 Joint Conference in Dallas (April 2009)
• Establishment of various sub-committees, including a bylaws, new board elections, and regional/special interest group sub-committees
• Familiarizing ourselves with the merger committee’s wiki for easy communication and archiving of our work

If you have any questions or comments, you can post them to the blog.