I tried all day to find the link to apply for a new user group. no luck. i finally got a call from one of the community relations liaison folks saying that they too cannot find the link. it was probably due to the site be repaved with new features (like forums..). anyway, the situation is still the same. guess i'll have to wait a day with the whole thing.
Anyway, this whole forced pause got me thinking. perhaps the current groups existing today in israel (all 4 of them) already cover all the bases for a user group on .NET? are we out of topics to concentrate on? And what if i wanted to start a user group just because i wanted to create one ,even if it already overlaps some of the issues. isn't this the kind of thing where "the more the marrier" is a rule?
I am trying to think about the pros and cons of creating a User group in this case :
cons :
* You might sweep away some people from other user groups (fix: use a non-overlapping meeting time thus actually allowing people to be in more the one user group at a time thus learning more..)
* You might not sweep enough people since they already have their source for learning what you teach (fix : Don;t overlap everything , and what you do overlap with - teach more hardcore and advanced material of)
* Other user groups managers would possibly be offended or thing i am invading their own space..? (not sure if this is possible since we are all here to learn arn't we? fix: talk to the other user groups founders before setting this whole thing up)
pros:
* You spread the word of .NET even more
* You might teach materials and expand on others thus being productive, not recycled..
* I get to run the show and get the lecturers i want to see (not enough foreign lectures in IMHO)
What do you think? what am i missing here?