Rie Merritt (blog|twitter) is our host this month for T-SQL Tuesday! She’d like us to give advice on running a user group. But, well, I’ve never run a user group. I never been in any type of position of authority in a user group. So that makes it hard. So I’m going to give a piece of advice to speakers and members of users groups.
Covid changed the world. One of those changes, and one of the rare positive ones, is an increase in telecommunications. In order to keep meeting, people and groups (even the SQL Server user groups) had to switch to remote meetings. Things have loosed up quite a bit over the last few months but a lot of users groups still have remote options these days! In fact I’ve attended at least one remote user group meeting in the recent past, and I’ll be speaking remotely at another next year.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I’d much rather go to a meeting in person. That said, the opportunity to listen to Erin Stellato (blog|twitter), Andy Mallon (blog|twitter), or any number of other speakers who don’t live near me is pretty phenomenal.
So here is my recommendation/call to action. Attend some remote sessions. Find some speakers you’ve never gotten to hear before. And, if you are a speaker submit to speak at a couple of remote locations this year. I don’t know how long this opportunity will last, so I recommend taking advantage of it.