It's taken a while to get to this point but I'm glad we finally made it. If your reading this, I'm hoping you've also taken some time to check out the AZ SharePoint Professional Group's web site and the upcoming meeting agenda. It's a work in progress so be patient as we ramp-up the site and the group.
A Little History
We've been planning the launch of this group for some time. As part of my role with Microsoft, I spend a lot of time in front of customers and partners. The more customers I spoke with and the more projects I worked on, it became clear that having a local group dedicated to exchanging ideas about MOSS and it's related technologies would fill a key gap in helping people be successful on the platform. However, being the slacker I am, going this alone was not going to get it done. I started poking around to find out if there were others in the community who also had the same idea (why take on something yourself when a division of labor could work so much more effectively). Low and behold there were many SharePoint enthusiasts chomping to get something going. Long story short, after one late night of embellishing in the finer things in life (sushi and sake at Wasabi Bistro during TechReady 2007) the idea was hatched and a plan was set to napkin!!! As they say, the rest is history...
What's Coming
We've got a great meeting planned for January. Tom Wisnowski and Doug Perkes are currently heading up the roster with some great topics. Tom and Doug are both seasoned SharePoint developers and have been involved in some of the largest SharePoint projects in Phoenix and the US. Tom and Doug have also been key players in helping this group get underway so I'm super excited to see them present.
Please register so we know how many of you will be attending and we can order the right amount of snacks and drinks. February and March meetings are already in the planning phase. We will be updating the calendar early next week.
Volunteering
We do need volunteers to help with a bunch of tasks. The Microsoft team (Tom, Doug, Jim, Jessica, Marie, Amy, Nick & Tim H.) have been a great help in planning the inaugural meeting, but the rest is up to the community. If you have a passion around SharePoint and have some spare time to help out, send an email to info@azsharepointpros.com.
I hope to see many of you at the January 31st meeting.