Yesterday I was invited by my long-time friend and Apple employee Paul “Pash” Pashibin to a meeting of the Apple Consultants Network that was hosted by Apple retail. Pash used to support the national sales channel and now is a business manager for the four Minnesota Apple Stores (Mall of America, Rosedale, Ridgedale and Southdale). Managers from all of the stores were on hand to introduce themselves and hear ten-minute presentations from local ACN members.

I went with the intent of doing a “test-drive” of ACN to see if 7 Minute Miles, LLC should apply for membership. In order to become a member, I need to pass at least one Apple certification test, obtain business insurance and pay the membership fee ($60 application fee and $395 annually).

Apple currently offers three primary levels of OS X certification:

• Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) 10.6
• Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC) 10.6
• Apple Certified System Administrator (ACSA) 10.6

There are all new classes, training materials and exams for Snow Leopard and currently only the first test is available (the others should be available next month). I think I can pass the first two tests without taking any classes, but I do need to study before plunking down $150 per exam.

I met a number of talented consultants at the meeting, but I was especially pleased to finally meet Charles Edge in person. Charles is the Director of Technology for 318, Inc., author of multiple books, prolific technology blogger at krypted.com and a prominent speaker. Charles had asked to be my friend on Facebook a while back, but I was pretty sure I hadn’t met him before (although we share a number of friends). He recently moved from Los Angeles to Minnesota and we had a very nice conversation after the meeting.

Here are some of the other ACN members who attended:

• Rashan Moore of Digital Coordination
• Clinton Little of Clintron X
• Brian Reichow of Escape Systems Corporation
• Bruce Greenberg of Northbrain
• Jason Hawke of Core Computer Consulting
• Kevin Kourajian from TechCheck LLC in Sartell
• Joe Skelley of Joe’s Tech Support
• Patrick Rhone of Machine Methods Consulting
• Chris Raymond of MacWorks
• Steve and Terri Zeh Jacobson of TechSource IT (and RSB)
• Tim Nyberg of The Mac Guys +
• Chuck Hauge of CPH Solutions

I was impressed by the Apple Store staff who spoke, as well as the ACN members. If I apply for the program, the local Apple Stores would stock my business cards and sell sheets, which I think would be very beneficial for future growth. I could also use the stores for client demos and other presentations. All of this means more business for Apple, so it seems like a win-win to me…

Yesterday I played in the Spare Key Golf Benefit at Willingers Golf Club in Northfield. Spare Key is a Bloomington-based non-profit organization that “provides assistance to Minnesota homeowners with critically ill or seriously injured children by making a mortgage payment on the family’s behalf, allowing them to spend time with their child.”

The driving range and silent auction for the event opened at 10:30AM, with a shotgun start at 1PM. The club was selling food for lunch before and a buffet dinner was included afterwards (that I had to skip out on). The silent auction has some nice items, including rounds at Hazeltine and Legends Club, a signed Y.E. Yang flag from the PGA and a diamond pendant from Tiffany & Co.

After nine years of working with the Tapemark Charity Pro-Am, I always find it interesting to see how other charity golf events are run. This event was a more traditional, one-day golf scramble with a shotgun start, so it’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison.

I’m not a big fan of scrambles for several reasons: 1) I like to play my own ball, 2) play is always so slow and 3) we never score well when handicaps aren’t used. Our round took a little more than five hours and we played terrible, finishing with a tournament-worst 73 (+1). That included bogeys on six, eight and sixteen and birdies on nine and thirteen. Not all the scores were in when I left, but 58 was leading (-14).

The volunteers were all very nice and the organizers did a great job with the sold out event. I took a peek at the silent auction table before I left and it appeared Spare Key raised a lot amount of money for the cause.

Special thanks to Jeff Miller and his wife Deb for the invitation.