Last Wednesday (2nd) we had the August User Group Meeting. This time it was a different location. Previous month we decided to have it at a different location just for a change. So August meeting was held @ Microsoft Sri Lanka office. Thanks to Alan for helping to set this up. Also for the next couple of months until we inform a change of the location we'll be having the meeting @ the Microsoft Sri Lanka office. Yeah! we are in the process of arranging a new venue for the user group meeting which can have a bigger crowd. More details will be provided later.

However enthusiasm was well demonstrated this month because we had a house full registration count even without sending the monthly newsletter. We planned the meeting only for 40, but within a day registrations went up to 54. Even though the confirmation mail was sent to all of them about 15 - 20 didn't show up for the meeting. Two of them were generous enough to inform me through an email about they wont be able to make it. A big thanks to you guys. Few who called me and requested for a seat also attended. So guys, next time if you register for any event we expect that you will attend or at least will inform us early so then we can allocate the slot to another .NETter.

Anyways for the next meeting there wont be any registration page. We really want more guys to attend, but if you come late you might have to stand :)    demand for the user group meeting grows every single day.

At this meeting Rajah and Dinesh did two presentations. Raja's presentation was on New Features in Windows Forms 2.0 and Dinesh's presentation was focused on SQL Server.

Also we (MVP Team) finally managed to have that meeting we have been planning for quite some time now. My self, Merill, Manoj, Jinath, and Dinesh from the MVP team and Alan from Microsoft participated the meeting. We discussed about the list of activities scheduled for the next couple of months. Guys! there are some cool stuff in the list for you. So stay tuned.

Also we finally selected the list of board members for the user group. List is as follows for the next year.

• President & Membership Director - Wela
• Vice President & Program Director - Manzi
• Secretary - Merill
• Director Online Services - Jinath
• Treasurer - Dinesh

Thanks for the team for selecting me as the head. I know it is a big responsibility. I'm ready for the challenges.