VBUG Chair and Vice Chair Elections 2007/2009

VBUG Chair and Vice Chair Elections

As you saw in the recent Members Newsletter we are in the process of electing a new VBUG Chair and Vice Chair. We now have our candidates so it is over to you to decide. To refresh your memories the following candidates are standing:

Andy Westgarth - Chairman
George Gallagher - Chairman
Phil Pursglove - Vice Chair
Tim Leung - Vice Chair

Please take time to study each manifesto then use this to help make your mind up as to which candidate you want to vote for. Each VBUG member is entitled to vote for 1 chair and 1 vice chair. Please email me your preferences - christian@vbug.com and make sure that your votes are cast by 17.00 on Tuesday 31st July 2007.

Remember you are voting for the candidates you feel will best serve the interests of the group; those who you feel will promote VBUG and its members within industry and those who will help to guide the group over the next 2 years.

With very best regards

Christian Mitchell
VBUG Team
01753 649 683
www.vbug.net

VBUG; Developing the Developer

Andy Westgarth

A Northern Code Monkey!

I am an Analyst Programmer with International Paint Ltd, based in the North East of England. I work predominantly in ASP.Net and am currently involved in a large project working with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. I work with both Visual Basic and C# and have done for a number of years. I originally started with VB5 whilst studying at the University of Sunderland where I successfully graduated with a 2:1 BA (Hons) in Business Computing. I have experienced life both in the public and private sectors, having decided now that my career path most definitely lies in the private sector. I believe this experience will help me to appreciate the needs of members from both sectors, and the individual issues that they face. I also have some exposure to the needs of independent developers and contractors, with a number of friends and fellow community members I have contact with.

I am the North East Regional Coordinator, and if elected would look to combine that role with other duties. Over the course of the last two and a half years we have seen consistent growth, thanks to the work by my predecessor, Jonathan Farmer, and the feedback from members in the North East, which I have taken on board to help shape the topics and direction in which their group and needs are moving. This year I have stepped onto the speaking circuit and have delivered EVO (Exchange, Vista & Office) Launch events in both Newcastle and Edinburgh, and have recently been delivering the session - "IIS7 for ASP.Net Developers" - at VBUG Newcastle, Leeds, NxtGenUG Birmingham and most recently Developer Developer Developer Day 5 and on the 18th July I will be visiting VBUG Birmingham to deliver the session for the Midlands based members, this has been an experience I have both enjoyed and learned from. I look forward to may more speaking opportunities in the future. I would also based on my experience encourage VBUG Members to talk about their interests and experience with technologies, be it the form of short ten minute Grok Talks or full 60 to 90 minute presentations, at VBUG we are always looking for and encouraging new speakers.

VBUG NOW + NOW+i

The last couple of years have been a very exciting time for Microsoft Developers and I have no doubt at all that the forthcoming years are going to be any different, we are in the fortunate position whereby by our industry is changing and developing rapidly. The quality of developer platforms and tools is increasing immensely and times ahead are indeed very, very exciting. Alone within the next 12 months we are scheduled to have three major product releases from Microsoft which will impact upon the development community, those being Visual Studio 'Orcas', SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008. This indeed presents developers and organisations with a massive challenge in adapting to, adopting and learning about the implications and benefits of new developments in the toolset which is available to us, but it also important not to lose focus on existing versions and tools, i.e. VB6 which a lot of our members still work with; and to support members with maintaining and developing existing skills and covering best practices.

This is where VBUG is in a very strong position as the country's largest Microsoft Technology based User Group, through this standing I would like to see us continue to deliver the high quality of technical content through continued Regional Support Meetings, hopefully increasing frequency where resources and demand permit. I would be looking at utilising the forthcoming redeveloped Website as major vehicle in delivering content to VBUG Members regularly and in one central location in order to support the Regional Meetings. I believe we need to increase the offering to our members and would like to use the website as the initial port of call for member content, in the past the site content has gone stale and would take this element as a key action point during my term.

Some of the ways in which I would propose we utilise elements of the website would be:

Articles from both coordinators, third parties and most importantly members. This could be utilised in such a way that a selection of articles are available to non members and members would be able to gain access to the full content and archive of articles. Plus we could have member only articles available.
I would like to introduce a VBUG National Podcast, with a cut down version available to non members as a teaser, but the full length podcast being available to all members. Through this mechanism we could deliver content from around the regions, interviews with prominent people in the development community, live content from conferences and events. I would like this element to also take a spotlight on issues and regions of the country and work that is done in that area. Also this could include interviews with members at events. This would most likely be implemented on a monthly basis as an addition to the offering to VBUG Members.
A searchable archive of Presentation Slides and accompanying demo code (where applicable) for Members, enabling them to search for slides and content from past events and not limited to regions. Non members would still have access to slides from the individual session they attended however only Members would have a comprehensive archive.
The ability to access recordings of all Online Meetings, this would be a feature only available to Members.
Maintain the content on the site and work with the office to inform Member of important events and information which would be of benefit, I want to make the VBUG Website a first port of call for developers and the VBUG RSS feeds a compelling resource to subscribe to!

VBUG has rich history and the visibility of the group appears to have dulled. I would look to make VBUG more prominent and visible nationwide. This would be through the use of the strong branding which VBUG has. I'd like to continue and see, where their availability permits, our Regional Coordinators visible at National, International and Regional Events, through the use of branded pods, where available and through the use of new Polo Shirts, which make VBUG Coordinators visible and identifiable. I am told developer events are very different in IT Forum events in that we talk to each other, and I would like to facilitate that even further by issuing every member with a VBUG pin badge (very stylish in the form of the logo) which is easily noticeable but still subtle. Members could then use this as a starting topic of conversation at National and International Events whereby they see other members wearing their badge.

Not only would I like to make VBUG and the Regional Coordinators visible at a national and international level, I would also like to see the visibility and awareness of the Vice Chairman and Chairman increase. If elected I would work with the Chairman/Vice Chairman and the office to ensure that the Chairman and Vice Chairman visit all of the Regional Groups throughout the term. I would also like to see regular columns from the Chairman and Vice Chairman on the web site.

I would like to see links develop between the Product Teams within Microsoft, increasing the technical content we can gleam from these groups such as regular interviews/updates from the Visual Basic and C# teams for example, therefore getting important and accurate information to our developers regularly.

Where possible I would also like to see VBUG create an offering for the academic level in our country. As was highlighted by the UK Representatives in the Imagine Cup recently, there is a down turn in people entering Computer Science related jobs and degrees. The young students and students who are re-entering education are a very important group of people for the Software Industry and VBUG Members, these are potentially new community members and future employees and I would like to see VBUG offer a link between members and students in order to share our knowledge and guidance to these fine people who are looking to move into the industry.

Whilst I talk about all of the things I would like put in place with VBUG for our members, I think it is also very important to reflect on the very hard work that the Office Staff - Christian, Emma and Cheryl; Geoff Hirst, our Technical Support Specialist and his work with the Property Bag (Something I would dearly like to see continue); the Regional Coordinators Ian Finlayson, Phil Pursglove, John Nunn, Gary Rowntree, Andy Marshall, Phil Winstanley, Gary Rogers, Steve Hallam, Tim Leung, Phil Yalden, Sarah Britton; and current Chairman and Vice Chairman - Mark Anderson and George Gallagher; have done and continue to do in organising events and membership offerings nationwide for all of our Members. Through their efforts and contributions VBUG is in such a strong position in the Microsoft UK Community. I would like to see continued support for the work that these wonderful people do.

With regards to the Regional Coordinators and Regions, I'd like to see each Coordinator have a public profile on the VBUG website which introduces them and members and potential members to the region and the coordinator. This would be updateable by the coordinators and a place to communicate details of events, both VBUG and non VBUG, but of relevance to the local area. We are also supporting our regional coordinators with regular teleconferences between coordinators and lots of other forms of regular communication to collate information and listen to the needs of the coordinators and develop action plans for the future.

The work that our Office Staff put in to ensuring that Speakers are in the right place at the right time, venues are sourced, members are catered for is immense and as Chairman/Vice Chairman I would look to further support their efforts in both maintaining the offering, adding to the services VBUG offer - i.e. links to Training Companies, Accountants, Career Development Opportunities and other services associated in "Developing the Developer!". I would look to offer guidance on technical direction taking into account the meetings with and guidance from Microsoft UK, and indeed from the needs of the members we deal with on a regular basis.

I currently participate, along with other the current Chairman and Vice Chairman, and other Coordinators, in regular contact with Microsoft UK and the rest of the UK Community User Groups. I would continue to develop these links and work together with Microsoft and other User Groups to have a positive influence within the UK Community. I would also like to see more cooperation with other User Groups in combining our efforts for the benefits of VBUG Members and the UK Community as a whole.

These are my thoughts and aspirations for VBUG. I have many more ideas and indeed I welcome and am very receptive to all the ideas and thoughts of our members. I have greatly enjoyed in the past discussing issues with you all at the VBUG conference, at National and International events, and at Regional Meetings around the country and look forward to continuing to do so. I will continue to support Members, the Chairman and Vice Chairman, the Office Staff and the UK Community as a whole for many more years to come in what is a very exciting and fast paced environment.

George Gallagher

In my role as VBUG Vice Chairman the last 2 years has flown past, working with the Mark Anderson, VBUG staff and the other User groups. I have to say it’s been a productive role and Mark and I has establish/ reinforced VBUG as the mainstay community group within the UK.

Mark and myself have worked with Graham & Caroline Parker and Christian Mitchell to improve VBUG from the inside out, reviewing the services and practices we offer to you the membership. I also tried to inject some new ideas into the conference with my idea of the codeoff in 2005/ 6 conferences to highlight the technologies and add a fun factor…. Rob McDonald ran with the idea and produced a great show.

Also in 2005 I developed a VBUG column within International Developer magazine this was used to showcase VBUG members, where each month a member would write an article and this worked very well. We still publish articles each month and have been well received in the 2 years we have ran the column. Authors have been Geoff Hirst, Chris Myhill, Richard Costall, David McMahon, Martin Lixenfield, Brian Squibb, Tim Leung and myself. This relationship was also extended to ASP.net where for 7 months we ran VBUG member articles.

A little history about my own computing career, am a self employed contractor at the moment working since 2003 with Scottish Power based in Glasgow. My first role was in Glasgow City Council in their Finance Department in 1990, working my way through financial systems converting manual over to Computer based systems (Dbase III+) where I could. Then moved on to the IT dept taking on the role of IT Professional Officer, started designing and building multi-user systems for there many Departments. This was a great time in my life working for anyone that wanted a computer system (HR, Collections, Pensions etc). The applications varied wildly developing for such a range of users and application functions. Programming in a range of development environments; Visual Basic, Access, SQL Server, Oracle.

I then ventured into the private sector, moving into a Call centre, which used a SQL database with 16million rows of data. And was known for calling every household in the UK twice. After this I moved onto Contracting and off I went working for a host of Clients; Glasgow Housing Association, McCallum Water Heating, Scottish Property Network, The Weir Group, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Scottish Enterprise, Speck Analytical, Chivas Regal, Scottish Power. Visual Basic User Group/ Access User Group When working for Council in 1994 a chap called Rod Gordon phoned and asked if I would be interested in attending the first Access User Group meeting in Edinburgh. It was good being able to meet people with same mindset, the same problems and with same darn bosses!! After meeting, my good friend Colin Thompson (the meeting Host) and myself flipped a coin.... and I became the Scottish Coordinator.

And thus the Edinburgh meeting were established, shortly after in January 1995 Graham Parker phoned and discussed the possibility of combined meetings with VBUG members... this seemed sensible and practical, I became the VBUG Scottish Coordinator.

For the future the 2 years as chairman is short, therefore I would propose the following Agenda for VBUG to actively promote and put in place within the timeframe;

A New VBUG Website- As the leading Community in the UK I feel its only right we have a decent website using the latest technology, this should be used for VBUG Events and others community events. As we already work with the other communities and share event meetings information (RSS feed) this would be easy to support. Then I would suggest an online forum for members to discuss topics, to talk about regional meetings and Annual Conference. I would also propose a blogging feature where members can describe their latest project and problems faced and resolved. VBUG has masses of online content from online meetings, Int Developer articles, ASP.net and other content that we can put on the website. Most of these features would be VBUG community only and would be an area for us to share our experiences and problems.
Buddy Program- Where VBUG members have started to learn a new skill (ASP/C#/VB9/Sharepoint) and would like to pair up with another VBUG member that is willing to share knowledge. This way both the helper and the learner gain from experience. This would be voluntary and a VBUG member could be a Helper or wanting to learn. This would highlight what the VBUG community is all about helping out other members, learning and growing.
VBUG Training Certification- A training standard that members can take/ achieve and be tested on whereby they are certified at a certain skill to a certain level. Ideally this would be proven to employers that you are capable of x, y, z in a chosen skill i.e. VB.net 1.1
VBUG Shares: Release of VBUG shares to allow VBUG to fund items that are required but unable to acquire with the current funding i.e. the new VBUG website. I would like to see ownership of the group..... with the members. So that we can collectively set the groups future. And I would push to make that happen within my term as Chairman.
Code Camp: Where we take ourselves off to learn about technology, spread the news about what technologies are available and how best to use them. In the USA these are very popular however hey are not being done in the UK and I think we should change that.

Phil Pursglove

For those who don't know me, I've been involved with VBUG in some way for nearly ten years. I was involved with setting up regional groups in Ipswich and Cambridge, and I am currently Regional Co-ordinator for East Anglia. My VB experience goes back to VB3, and I am currently a Senior Software Developer for WSP Group, based in Cambridge.

My priorities for the Vice-Chairman role are:

to re-develop the website.
to, with the Chairman, regional co-ordinators and VBUG staff, produce a strategy for the Group for the next five years.
to visit each regional group at least once in each year I am in the role.
to be more involved with the website forum and certification study groups.
to ensure that the Group is represented at every major developer event in the UK.

Tim Leung

About Me

For the past 7 years, I have been working as a software developer and work almost exclusively with Microsoft products on a day to day basis. I am passionate about the work that I do and enjoy keeping up to date with technology. My main areas of expertise are VB.Net and SQL Server.

In addition to holding a Computer science degree, I am MCDBA certified and became an early achiever of the MCSD.Net qualification in 2003.

I have been actively involved with VBUG since 2001. I took over the role of Reading Regional Co-ordinator when Mark Anderson was elected Chair in 2005. In addition to running the Reading group, I am also responsible for setting up and putting together the processes that enable us to hold online meetings today. I am still actively involved in organising these events right now.

My other community contributions include working on the 'Ask the Experts' stand at TechEd and authoring some of the Microsoft WeFly247 training tutorials. More recently, I have helped out at DDD events and during the MSDN Office/Vista launch event, I volunteered as a 'training proctor'. From time to time, I occasionally speak at user group events. In March, I was the key speaker at a BCS event on Vista. In May, I co-presented a session on .Net and PowerShell with Thomas Lee MVP.

I live close to Microsoft HQ and have some excellent contacts inside the company. Recently, this has enabled me to secure Tim Sneath (a top US Microsoft speaker) for my user group meeting.

What I will do

I am standing for the role of Vice Chair because I want to grow the group further and be in a position that will enable me to make a greater contribution. If elected, I will do the following:

I will fully support the work of the Chairman. At present, northern co-ordinators Andy Westgarth and George Gallagher are nominated for Chair. Both candidates are good friends of mine and I will work with whoever is elected to move the group forward. Our geographic locations will also ensure that members both North and South will be equally represented.
The VBUG website desperately needs updating. I am committed to making this happen and will play an active role in developing this side of VBUG. I want to build a better online experience through forums and improved online content.
I will do more to help ‘Develop the Developer’. In the realm of personal development, I want to do more to help members achieve Microsoft certifications and to enhance their career prospects.
I feel that we can gain a great deal from working with other user communities. I am well known to several of the user groups in the Thames Valley and will work towards fostering better relationships and sharing.
Each and every member has a valuable contribution that they can make. I want to encourage and motivate members to become more actively involved and to make a difference.
I will make an effort to visit all regional groups. I will speak to members and ensure that we are meeting your expectations. Where improvements can be made, I will push for change where possible.

Irrespective of the election outcome, I am committed to making VBUG a better community. I am happy to answer all questions and comments sent to (tim at vbug.co.uk). Finally, I want to thank all regional co-ordinators and the current leadership for the hard work that they have put into the group.