2008 will be a good year for the Geeks

Yesterday morning I took part in a leadership meeting for GeekSouth. A small group of volunteers came together to keep the group alive and well for the foreseeable future. It is still a bit hard to believe that the group born out of a lunch meeting nearly two years ago is still going strong.

More details will trickle out in the near future, but we have set tentative plans for all the monthly meetings this year (sneak peek: "Old School vs. New School", "Will It Float?", "No Tech"). Also be on the lookout for a retooled www.geeksouth.com. The separate blog, forum, and wiki idea didn't exactly pan out so we are taking a step back to rethink it.

I've always been a glass-half-empty sort of guy. When Jose got Jeff, Tim, and myself together for lunch that day to discuss starting monthly Geek Dinners here in the Tri-Cities I was excited about the idea. But I also thought that it would be something that would run a few months and then die out. Instead it has taken on a life of its own. Jose (even though he probably wouldn't admit it) has sort of been the de facto leader of the group, but really there never has been a clear sense of anyone running or owning it. And even though Jose could have easily maintained a tight grip on control of the group, he has worked hard and gone out of his way to pass that control over to the group as a whole. No one person dictates what happens and when which helps give the meetings a relaxed feel.

The other thing about GeekSouth that makes it great is the fact that it hasn't turned into a big advertisement. Sure connections are made at our meetings, and people are there to network. However, I don't walk away from the meetings feeling like I was in a room with nothing but people trying to sell me on their companies. This is the #1 feature of our meetings that I think we have to give 100% to protect.
Sadly, most of the time my pessimism is proven correct. But when it comes to GeekSouth I'm glad my pessimism was proven wrong.