I was a bit shocked when I received the email announcing that I am one of ten Community Champions awarded.  A huge thank you to those that nominated me.  It’s always a good feeling of accomplishment when you’re recognized for your efforts.

While they haven’t posted the announcement on the website yet, you can read more about the award at http://www.ineta.org/Champions/CommunityChampionInfo.aspx

Below is the Newsletter announcement.

Community Champions Winners Announced

INETA Community Champion Award Winners

Please join us in congratulating the recipients of the Q4 2008 INETA Community Champion Award!

• Adam Machanic - New England SQL Server Users Group
• Chris Eargle - Columbia Enterprise Developers Guild
• Teresa Hennig - Pacific Northwest Access Developer Group and Seattle Access Group
• Supriyo ‘SB’ Chatterjee - Connecticut .NET Developers Group
• Chris Hammond - St. Louis DNN User Group
• Scott Cate - Arizona .NET User Group
• Greg Pugh - TRINUG (Triangle Net User Group)
• Randy Walker - Northwest Arkansas .NET User Group (NWADNUG)
• Art Villa - LA C# Developer’s Group and Southern California .Net Developers Group
• Toi Wright - Dallas ASP.NET User Group

The purpose of the INETA Community Champion Award program is to recognize individuals with the highest levels of contributions. Those exceptional leaders and volunteers who devote innumerable hours towards hosting user group meetings, organizing Code Camps and special events, mentoring and supporting their members, publishing newsletters, updating web sites, and the list goes on and on. The Community Champion program provides INETA with an opportunity to showcase the efforts of our user group communities as a whole as well as provide individual recognition. Recognition that we hope will open doors to networking opportunities, potential sponsors, future employers or partnerships.

Special thanks to everyone who took the time and energy to participate in this program. Keep contributing to your local developer community and submit your activities through the Champs program. This is your chance to show the world what community leadership is all about and to gain some of the recognition that you deserve! For additional information and to view past winners, please go to Community Champions Award section of the INETA web site.

INETA Community Champion Participant of the Month Spotlight

Here at INETA, we also realize that it is the small contributions that make a difference. Most groups have additional volunteers who assist with updating the web site, greeting new members, picking up pizza, etc. No matter how small or great the effort, it’s important to us to recognize those who participate in the Community Champions program. Each month we pick a contributor at random to win a $50 gift certificate. The December 2008 Champs Participant of the Month goes to Michael Stokesbary. Michael has been actively involved with Mark Michaelis in running the Spokane .NET USer Group. Congratulations Michael and thanks for supporting the developers in your community!

INETA Community Excellence Award Nominations

The Community Excellence Awards are given to those who have made a significant and prolonged impact within the developer community. These lifetime awards are presented semi-annually and use a nomination process to select the key individuals who represent the true spirit of community leadership and vision that INETA strives to represent and support. The selection community is in the final process of reviewing the nominations for the second 2008 Community Excellence Award. Log in to view past recipients and learn more by going to the Community Excellence Award section of the INETA web site.

Please contact us with any comments and feedback.
INETA Community Champions Team
noram.champs@ineta.org