All agencies that received grants or applied for grants were required to attend this meeting. Each grantee gave a brief description of the status of their projects and common problems were discussed. Those present included both technical personnel and users of justice information. The attendees were reimbursed for their travel expenses through a special grant that had been established for the purpose of information exchange and standardization. Special committees were also a part of the early meetings. There was a committee to gather information about all the various criminal justice reports throughout the state and the data elements involved in the reports. The early meetings proved valuable for several reasons. First of all, representatives from Dallas, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, and other cities got to know each other. They began to communicate with one another and to share ideas outside the meeting. Second, the representatives learned from each other's mistakes. There were no national or state standards or goals for criminal justice information systems at that time. It was all trial and error. The CJC staff also learned from the early meetings. Prior to the meetings, the staff tried diligently to force the grantees to standardize not just elements, but hardware and software. The staff also learned that it was not always feasible to transfer applications from one agency to another. The CJC staff also benefited from the help of the representatives from the grantee agencies in gathering information about manual criminal justice systems in Texas. The current meeting format was established in September 1972 at a meeting held outside Austin and the first sponsored by a grantee. At that time, Bexar County and San Antonio were working together on a CJC grant to develop a comprehensive criminal justice information system. The San Antonio City Water Board was contracted to do computer services. Bexar County/San Antonio had developed a strong local users group and by then the Austin meetings had stopped. The Bexar County/San Antonio users group wanted a switcher. Therefore, they invited Peter Kleck, who at that time was the CJC Project Director for Science and Technology, to one of their weekly meetings. They received a switcher and Mr. Kleck asked them to host a meeting of representatives from other agencies throughout the state that had similar grants. The first meet was held September 22, 1972, at the City Water Building Representatives from LEAA, CJC, Harris, Travis, Dallas, El Paso, and Bexar Counties gave status reports regarding their system. The San Antonio Police Department demonstrated their on-line law enforcement system. A vendor gave a presentation on the recently announced mobile terminals. It was agreed by those attending, that the information exchanged between the various agencies would tend to bring the projects closer together. Standardization of data elements codes and sizes were discussed. By holding meetings at different sites, attendees would be able to evaluate first hand the feasibility of various approaches to solving similar problems. It was decided that future meetings would be held bi-monthly and Dallas County volunteered to host the next meeting. The second meeting was held in Dallas on December 1, 1972. Something new happened at this meeting. For some reason, more actual users attended. At the previous meeting the majority of attendees were data processing specialists. At the El Paso meeting there were judges, assistant district attorneys, district clerks, court administrators, etc. Some people felt that due to the ideal location of El Paso, many criminal justice officials decided to make the trip themselves rather than send their technical representatives. For whatever reason, this turn of events was quite beneficial to the development of TCJIUG. The next meeting held in Houston, on May 24 - 25, 1973, was the first for the new CJC Project Director for Science and Technology, Jerry Clay. By this time several standing committees had evolved. For example, there was a Standards Committee that had been quite active and had held meetings at various times to discuss the standardization of data elements and code tables. Also, an Evaluation Committee had been established. At the Houston meeting, Jerry Clay suggested that it was time for the users to take charge and formalize the organization. So far, all meetings had been under the control of CJC. Clay suggested that the future meetings be held under the control of the group selected as host. He also suggested that the State Users Group (as it was called then) select a chairman and establish a formal organization. The Standards Committee was asked to prepare a proposal for such an organization.

On June 28 - 29, 1973, the Standards Committee, chaired by Charlie Collier of Dallas County, met to discuss plans for formalizing the State Users Group. Bill Roberts (Tarrant County), and Ray Zitur (El Paso County), were appointed to draft a proposal for the formalization.

The objectives of the Texas Criminal Justices Information Users Group shall be to:

1. Coordinate criminal justice information systems development and data processing, particularly at intergovernmental interface level.

2. Exchange and distribute the information on development and the improvement of criminal justice information systems.

3. Consolidate the approach and matters concerning several offices and agencies, but not to include lobbyingor political activities.

1. Board of Directors:
Consist of 5 members elected by and from the voting membership. The officers will include Chairman, Vice Chairman, and Secretary elected by and among the members of the Board of Directors.
2. Board Responsibilities:
Call general membership meetings as needed. Appoint subcommittees. Bring Subcommittee recommendations before the voting membership for decision.
3. Voting Membership:
May consist of one member from each city, county, and governmental agencies of the State of Texas that are directly involved with computerized criminal justice information systems.
4. Non-Voting Members
Those attending meetings or working on subcommittees other than voting members will be considered non-members.
5. The Board of Directors shall propose for adoption by the voting membership suitable set of by-laws for the orderly operation of this group.

Jim Lewis - Bexar County

Bobby Moore - Dallas County Sid Frost - Harris County Bill Roberts - Tarrant County

Joel Tisdale - Texas Department of Public Safety

The next meeting was sponsored by the Department of Public safety and held at the DPS Training Academy in January 17 - 18, 1974. At this meeting Charlie Collier was elected to the Board to replace Bobby Moore who had resigned. The by-laws were presented and then approved after some modification. TCJIUG was finally a formal organization. The format remained fairly constant through 1974. Meetings were held in Wichita Falls in May and San Antonio in November. In 1975, two formats were established for meetings. The regular meeting followed by a special meeting for committee work. The first meeting in the regular format was held in April in El Paso. The committee meetings were held in Austin with the first scheduled for May. The next regular meeting was held in Houston in August, 1975. At the Austin meeting simultaneous presentations were given in three categories: Courts, Law Enforcement, and Data Processing. These formats were followed for the next two years, and in 1978 it was the decision of the membership to return to having all general meetings rather than periodic committee-type. The by-laws were amended in 1977 to allow for incorporation of the group, and the articles of incorporation were filed in December 1977. Non-profit corporation status was also filed for with the Internal Revenue Service.

Due to technological advancements, funding changes and membership diversification, the general focus of the meeting has changed somewhat over the years. However, the basic objectives of the organization have not.