Are You Giving Enough To Your Community? We Need Your Help Running Community Technology User Groups And Events

Do you have a New Years Resolution?  If not, or you would just like one you can keep, I would love to help you help your community.  There are literally thousands of community groups all over the country and all over the world.  These are groups that get together sometimes face to face, sometimes on the phone or online and sometimes in person to help the community.  They do a myriad of things for the community but the biggest one of all is free training.  If when you are doing your taxes this year and you are embarrassed about how much you did NOT give to charity, this is a great opportunity to GIVE without impacting your pocket book.  If you would rather spend money instead of time, these community groups can use that as well. If you know of a company that might be interested in “leveraging” a relationship with technology user groups, I can help them as well. 

Seeking Help!

I am currently seeking people to help with several of the technology user groups that I am involved with.  I am looking for people that can serve on the board of one or more user groups.  There are a few  user groups in the New England Area with the largest need right now are:

• Virtualization Group – Boston  – They need people and donations of products and services which are outlined on their home page
• Boston User Groups
• Boston Area Windows Server User Group

There are also many other opportunities to serve your community.  If you go to www.bostonusergroups.org and check out all the local user groups any number of them could likely use some help.  If you would like to get involved with the community (even if you community is not represented by these groups) please let me know so I can plug you in with the community leaders in your area.  I have personal relationships with people all over the United States that are just as passionate about community service as I am and they are just as willing to help you as I am.

Even if you are not available to serve on a board but you want to help, there are always “projects” going on where your time would be much appreciated.

What’s In It For You?

Well that depends on you…

Business:

• Want to become known as a leader and supporter in the community?
• Simply want the self satisfaction to help others?
• Do you want the PR advantages of contributing to the community?
• Want to get your name in front of thousands or even 10’s of thousands of IT Pro’s or Developers?
• Does your company have an interest in helping the community? 
• You know opportunities often present themselves based on WHO you know or WHAT you know. By supporting the technology, you increase both WHO you know and WHAT you know so you WIN either way!  (Though the WHO is far more important)
• Want to develop relationships with other community leaders / Other Community Business Leaders?
• Want to learn the SECRETS of leveraging the community – Grass Roots Efforts can achieve AMAZING results!
• Your business looking for leads, prospects, customers?
• Does your business need to learn how to “attract” or “find” the top minds in the technology field?
• What could an MVP on staff do for your organization? 
• The list goes on and on…

Individual:

• Want to become known as a leader in the community?
• Simply want the self satisfaction to help others?
• Do you want personal satisfaction that you are contributing to the community?
• Does your company have an interest in helping the community? 
• Do you have interest in networking or leaning how to network?
• You know opportunities often present themselves based on WHO you know or WHAT you know. By supporting the technology, you increase both WHO you know and WHAT you know so you when either way!  (Though the WHO is far more important)
• One night a month out of the house?  – I started my first user group as “Guys Night Out”  … We have come a long way since then! (YES gals are welcome)
• Want to develop relationships with other community leaders
• Are you an MVP?  If so, if you want to stay that way, you have to put in your community service, we can help you.
• Are you interested in becoming an MVP?  You have to help the community… We need your help and can help you along your path to do what it takes to obtain the highly respected MVP (Most Valuable Professional) Award from Microsoft.
• There are more benefits than I can possibly write about here… I could write a book about that… Humm, maybe I will.

One Final VERY IMPORTANT Note…

If you have already contacted me about this and I have not responded; please contact me again.  The best method of contacting me is by sending me an email through my blog http://blogs.technet.com/danstolts/contact.aspx.  I had a couple people volunteer in the last month or so and I somehow lost their contact information so this post is for them and for anyone else out there that wants to give a little of their precious time to the community.  So I am sending this to all of you to act.  If you have been wanting to help but “have not had the time” (or some other reason), just send me a note and get started.  I will make it very easy for you.  You will be amazed at the personal satisfaction you will get out of helping others that have like interests. Participating in things that you care about is such an awesome feeling.  I really hope you all have the pleasure of experiencing it for yourselves as well as your business.  So whether your favorite discipline is SQL, Windows, Server, File Systems, Storage, Security, Gaming, Exchange, Sharepoint, Linux, any number of programming languages, or other technology discipline, please, send me a note.  Now is the time to ACT! Do not put it off, we all know what happens when you put it off. 

Thank you very much for your support.  If you cannot personally or professionally help us, please forward a link to this blog to everyone and every business you have a relationship with.  I promise you, your community will appreciate it.

PS.  This is something I am very passionate about so I will owe you one if you do!

PSS. If you have a user group, send me a note letting me know about your group so I can send people to you if they come looking.

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User Groups, community, Dan Stolts