Twice a year the INETA Community Champions Selection Committee has one of the hardest decisions to make. They have to sift through the pile of nominations and select one person to receive this prestigious award. This time it was no different and, with so many outstanding nominations, they could only select one. It is our distinct pleasure to thank Chris Pels for everything he has done and announce him as the recipient of the 2009 INETA Community Champions Excellence Award.

Chris served on the INETA North America Board of Directors as President and Secretary from 2004 to 2009. He was extremely instrumental in growing and sustaining INETA during those years. Chris is also President of the Boston .NET User Group. Chris is an vital member of the team that organized the Birds of a Feather events at the past two Tech·Ed conferences as well as the PDC held last November in Los Angeles. Chris is currently working with the team on the BOF sessions for the upcoming Tech·Ed in New Orleans.

Chris has been influential in the architecture, development, and implementation of a wide variety of business systems and databases as a technology consultant since 1986. He has extensive experience in business analysis, technical specifications, database design, several programming languages including C# and VB.NET, and statistical analysis. He holds a Ph.D. from The University of Michigan and has been a speaker at Microsoft Tech·Ed, Microsoft DevDays, VSLive, and numerous events in New England. Additionally Chris has been recognized by Microsoft as a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 2005.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in this process along with all the nominees for doing such a great job in their community and making our job so difficult. We would also like to thank all those who nominated someone from their community. Keep those nominations coming as the least we can do is say "Thank You" after all the great work that these individuals have done. Don't forget that the Q1 2010 award cycle ends on March 31, so get your contributions in at the INETA Community Champs website ASAP.

INETA Community Champions Team
noram.champs@ineta.org

The INETA NorAm Board of Directors is now accepting nominations for the following positions. General commitment is around 15-20 hours/month including regular bi-weekly Board conference calls and up to two expense-paid in-person weekend Board meetings per year.

DIRECTORS

There are six (6) Director positions which have a one (1) year term. Directors are responsible for overseeing the operation of various projects undertaken by INETA.

Nominations must be submitted by any user group leader of a user group that is a member of INETA or a current Board member. Nominations should include the individual's name, email address, phone number, description of why the individual is qualified for the position, as well as any supporting materials. Candidates are then interviewed by and voted on by the current Board members. Send nominations to noram.secretary@ineta.org no later than Sunday 2/14/2010. Voting will take place on 3/1/2010.

Please direct any questions to noram.secretary@ineta.org.

April 12-14, 2010, developers from around the world will gather at the world famous Bellagio for the Microsoft Visual Studio Launch Conference & Expo, ASP.NET & Silverlight Conference & Expo and SQL Server Conference & Expo. You can be a part of this exciting event while you enjoy one of the most stunning hotels on the Las Vegas Strip at a great conference rate! INETA members receive a $200 discount off the registration fee by entering the code INETA10 during the online registration process. Register today!

Mark your Calendars: INETA Community Leadership Summit at Tech·Ed North America in New Orleans

We are still working on details, but wanted to get the word out in time for people to make the appropriate travel arrangements. Based on popular demand we’re coordinating a community summit at Tech·Ed. We’re targeting for Sunday, June 6, 2010. Watch for your invitation and more information to be released soon on this great opportunity to network with other members of our community, learn, and share best practices.

User Group Leader Discount Code for Tech·Ed

In appreciation for all you do as a member of the Microsoft community, Tech·Ed North America 2010 is offering INETA User Group Leaders a $500 discount off your full-conference registration price. This special price of $1,695 is good through February 28, 2010. Please visit the User Group Leader Special Offers page under Resources on the INETA website for the discount code.

<rant>Ok. Let me start by saying this article went through a couple of revisions to actually tone things down because it was truly a “rant” in the Dennis Miller/Lewis Black style. So, in advance, let me absolve my company, my managers, my clients and my co-workers from any and all implications that they might have anything to do with anything. Let’s just say that my rant really is to those whiners who I don’t know at all who complain about lost training budgets and opportunities. Rats, I think I still offended people! Oh well … flame on then!

It is true I run into many people complaining that they do not know about the latest advances or even the best-est practices in .NET from the 3.5 stuff through MVC through the Cloud or Silverlight or even SharePoint. Name something new and there is a whiner whining about not getting a chance to learn about it at a conference or trade show in Vegas or Orlando. Awwww. Yes, I was once addicted to Tech·Ed and their exotic locations (I missed Boston!) and really felt that I, too, was missing out on keeping up with things by suddenly not going due to budgets and busy client work. But I got over it …

Why, because, believe it or not, just about anything you can get from a trade show you can get from just going to your local user group! And if that is not enough, you there, user group leader, make it possible for yourself AND your people! Down on the Cloud, request a speaker! Silverlight out of sight, go to some other user group in the area that might be covering it or, for heaven sakes, do a webinar which are so popular and way better technology-wise than they have been in the past. Can’t get your user group venue going because of budget then go to FREECONFERENCECALL.COM, get a number then download SharedView from Microsoft and do small 15-person meetings at a time with live demonstrations that your audience can “touch” if you want (you can turn off the annoying mice images if your people are precocious but if they are like that then they must have energy to really get into it, right?)

In short no more whining especially if you are running your own user group … and if you are not, JOIN ONE (assuming someone who would like you to join them probably forwarded this to you somehow … hey, they are only trying to help you, ok?) With training and travel budgets down, we really should be seeing busier and more frequent User Group meetings, right?

Right! </ rant>

All that said, if you are able to take advantage of any of the conference discounts or other events included in this newsletter or the training offers on the User Group Members Offers page, take advantage of those as well as all your local groups have to offer.

Ralph Rivas Founder, DOTNET Basement Club INETA NorAm Assistant Director of Marketing  bigpix2000

Between hurricanes, earthquakes and the financial downturn, charities need our help more than ever, and I don't know about you but if I have to do any more painting I am going to pull my hair out. Well, three years back, Toi Wright (founder and president of the Dallas ASP.NET UG) and Chris Koenig (Microsoft Developer Evangelist for the South Central District) had a great idea — "Why don't we help charities with their development needs?" This allowed us to use our skills, doing something we love, to help out those in need, and, best of all, required no painting, and We Are Microsoft Charity Challenge Weekend (http://www.wearemicrosoft.com) was born. With the success of that first event, Chris has taken the "GiveCamp" brand national (http://givecamp.org) and now there are 12 of these events held all around the US.

I had the distinct pleasure to work both as an "analyst" and "team lead" for a charity last weekend during the 3rd Annual "We Are Microsoft" Event here in Dallas, TX, and what a rewarding experience!  Not only did we get a chance to help out a great charity, but the opportunity to work with a team of folks I had never worked with in the past was very rewarding. It was well worth the sleepless night and hours of programming. Big thanks to Toi and all the other volunteers and sponsors that made this event another huge success.

If you would like to find out more information about an event happening in your area, check out the websites for the regional events.  If there is no event in your area, take a few minutes to visit the wiki on http://givecamp.org for loads of great information on starting one or you can email Chris at chris.koenig@microsoft.com.

GiveCamp Regional Sites

Ann Arbor GiveCamp	Arizona GiveCamp
Cleveland GiveCamp	Coders4Charities (Kansas City)
Columbus GiveCamp	Grand Rapids GiveCamp
Lansing GiveCamp	Seattle GiveCamp
Southern Maryland GiveCamp	St. Louis GiveCamp
Twin Cities GiveCamp	We Are Microsoft (Dallas)

Shawn Weisfeld President, Developer Round Table Users Group INETA NorAm Director of Community Activities  shawnweisfeld

If you have an interesting community event report to share, contact us at noram.marketing@ineta.org.

Upcoming Cloud Computing and Windows Azure with MSDN Events

Explore cloud computing and Windows Azure. Free admission and USB drive filled with resources. We’re taking MSDN Events to new heights with a developer-focused overview of cloud computing and the Windows Azure platform. Learn to build amazing new applications, explore data storage, SQL Azure, and deployment basics with Windows Azure. Sign up now for these free, live sessions in your local area. Visit www.msdnevents.com.

Recording of Azure Training from December now available

If you are interested in the web cast on Azure from December, that recording is now available on INETA Live here.

Take a look at Iron Ruby and add another versatile and flexible tool to your tool belt. Jimmy Schementi is the Program Manager for Iron Ruby at Microsoft and has put together these links to some recent presentations. And, he's willing to lend some help to anyone who wants to put together a user group or code camp presentation. You can catch up with him at jimmy.schementi.com

• RubyConf
  http://blog.jimmy.schementi.com/2009/12/ironruby-rubyconf-2009-part-1-summary.html
  
  
• OSCON
  http://blog.jimmy.schementi.com/2009/07/ironruby-at-oscon-2009-mono-moonlight.html
  
  
• RailsConf
  http://blog.jimmy.schementi.com/2009/05/ironruby-at-railsconf-2009.html
  
  
• dnrTv
  http://www.dnrtv.com/default.aspx?showNum=156
  
  
• Channel 9
  http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles/Jimmy-Schementi-Inside-IronRuby/
  
  
• CodeCast
  http://www.code-magazine.com/codecast/index.aspx?messageid=b561124e-ac39-4109-ad0a-0da509fe49b3

Looking for a little free publicity for your free community event? Email Chris Williams with your event details (including: name of event, website, date, city & state) and he'll add it to the event listing at the bottom of his new, ongoing Embracing Community column in CoDe Magazine.  Just remember, this is a bimonthly publication and print media lead time is about 2 months.  Event submissions for Jan/Feb 2010 are already closed.  If you are planning something for the April, May, June 2010 timeframe, you have until late February to submit your info. A sample of Chris' CoDe Magazine column can be seen at http://www.code-magazine.com/Article.aspx?quickid=1001041.

Upcoming Conferences

Code Camps and Other Events