Also it would be amusing to consider 2600 meetings a "user's group for Ma Bell". I did not participate until post-divestiture (84 or so)

I was there back in the day and the article missed the important meeting reasons of generally unofficial mass software piracy and games and especially the combination of both.

We gamed together a LONG time before lan parties.

Also the most important feature of corporate marketing department contact was a nice food budget for meetings. Attendance always increases with pizza and donuts.

The Toronto Pet Users Group (TPUG) is still going. Famous enough to have a wikipedia page.

https://www.tpug.ca/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_PET_Users_Group

Sadly, most of the user groups I was part of disbanded in the pandemic and never thought to take things up again afterwards.