HUG History
The Helix User Group was set up towards the end of 1989 to provide support throughout the UK for users of what was then Double Helix. Later it became (for legal reasons) a limited company run by a small committee of Helix professionals, and gained members in several European countries. It offered three major benefits to its members:- A regular 16-20 page technical newsletter -- called Abacus -- with additional material and sample collections on disk.
- Weekend seminars in the spring and autumn where members could meet other Helix users and learn more about the program.
- Free telephone technical support on a user-to-user basis from a panel of volunteers.
But Helix sales in the UK were falling, for reasons we won't analyse here. The result, of course, was fewer new members joining HUG. In the end the membership fell to a level at which we couldn't support the creation and publication of the newsletter, and at the end of 1994 we reluctantly decided to fold the formal limited company and cease publication of Abacus.
However there was a strong feeling that the Helix community in the UK should 'stick together' to continue to support each other and to liaise with Helix Technologies in the US to ensure that items on our own wish-list were high on their priority list.
So HUG is still alive and well, albeit as a somewhat quieter animal, with the main focus of formal activities being the seminars.
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