Regional .Net User Group Leadership Meetings

Two weeks ago Bill hosted a Philly.Net Leadership meeting at his house.  He also invited the leadership of PSSUG (Philadelphia SQL Server User Group).  We tossed around a bunch of ideas for how we may better serve the community.  In addition, yesterday was the monthly regional Community Leadership conference call hosted by our D.E (Microsoft Developer Evangelist), Dani Diaz.  Again, we discussed ways to best server the community.  Dani's conference call continues the tradition started by Peter Laudati (who filled in when we had no D.E.).  This call typically includes community leaders from Philly.Net, Central Penn .Net (Harrisburg area),  Lehigh Valley .Net, .Net Valley (Scranton area), the new Delaware .Net, and others.  I'll give you the gist of these meetings, mostly from the Philly.Net perspective.

In both of these meetings, there seemed to be two main topics:  Meetings and Communications.  Regarding meetings, we discussed various ideas for different types of Philly.Net meetings including the following:

• Monthly Meetings:  Our monthly meetings are well attended and very successful.  Still, we want to include a variety of topics and make sure we cover a wide variety of material from beginner to expert.
• South Jersey and Center City:  These meetings started off strong but we have don't have venues to host these meetings.  If you have any ideas, please contact me or Travis (for NJ) or of course, Bill.
• Study Groups:  In the past, Rob Keiser lead a certification study group.  We are looking to restart that group.
• Code Camp:  Our Code Camps continue to be very successful.  We want to host even more of them!  In addition, there are some other ideas going around such as hosting similar types of meetings focusing on Interop, Gaming, and more!  I'll keep you posted.

In the area of Communication, we are trying to figure out the best way to get the information out to our members.  As we grow, there will be a lot of information.  How would you want to get it?  Some people read blogs daily, others want to get monthly newsletters.  And others don't want any more email at all!  I like the idea of using a blog to get out information as it comes in, in short to medium sized posts, like this one.  People that read the blog get the up to date information.  Then, once a month, we could repeat the information in a newsletter, possibly included in our typical monthly meeting announcement.  We'll certainly want feedback from the community on this topic.  Let me know or speak up at a meeting with your ideas and suggestions.

Upcoming Events: 

I'll try to keep everyone alert regarding user group meetings in our area.  I'll include all the meetings I know about including various Pennsylvania .Net groups, PSSUG, and The Philadelphia Area Sharepoint User Group

Philly.Net South Jersey meeting:  In August Philly.Net plan to team up with PSSUG (Philadelphia SQL Server User Group) to host a meeting in South Jersey.  We figure that most .Net developer's need to work with SQL Server so why not team up with these guys!   Keep an eye on the Philly.Net site and the PSSUG site for more details.

Delaware Meeting:  Doug White is trying to get the Delaware .Net community going strong.  Did you know he's already had a bunch of meetings?  Stay tuned for more information regarding Delaware meetings in the Newark/Willmington area.