I currently hold a board member position with www.ASPInsiders.com. I would like to address several commonly asked question, and give my opinion/answer to them, and what better place, then in my weblogs?

Who are ASPInsiders?
ASPInsiders are members of the community that have been nominated by their peers. Once a single nominee received a certain number of nominations, they are then voted into general membership by the ASPInsiders Board - the board is elected by the members. No one person has the ability to grant membership.

How was ASPInsiders Started?
In 2003 Q1, approximately 15 of us got together with the Microsoft ASP.NET team and created the group. We wanted to create a world wide membership of peer nominated individuals who specialized in or are advanced ASP.NET developers. This will make sense when you read below "What's all this for?". The last thing we wanted was a membership simply picked of our friends, where we may alienate others. On the contrary, we (Board Members) don't have control over who gets nominated, we only have final approval. Obviously we have this control in the beginning, because we were the only members. Nominations are not weighted; so a nomination from a board member holds no more weight than a nomination from the newest member of ASPInsiders.

How can I become an ASPInsider?
To become a member of ASPInsiders, you must first be nominated by another ASPInsider. Once you have achieved enough nominations the board is then asked to vote on your final approval. The board votes quarterly on membership.

What can I do to get nominated?
This criterion is not set in stone, but because you have to have so many nominations, it makes sense that the more visible you are, the easier it will be to get your nominations. Visibility can be found in any number of fashions, including but not limited to Book Authors, Tech Article Authors, ASP.NET Forums Posting, Email Support Postings, User Group Leaders, or any other way that you may be known for helping the community at large, specific to ASP.NET.

What's all this for?
What do ASPInsiders do?
Why does ASPInsiders exist?
ASPInsiders was an original brain child of the ASP.NET team. They wanted a group of advanced ASP.NET developers that they could solicit early feedback for Whidbey and they also wanted the group to be self-sustaining. So to accomplish this, they asked a group of people (the 15 mentioned above) to create a board, and start the group. Some declined, and we now have twelve board members + one Microsoft representative making thirteen seats on the board. The primary focus is to give early feedback to the ASP.NET team on new features, which we've been doing over the last 6 months on private lists and forums.

What do I personally (Scott Cate) do with ASPInsiders?
Well the first thing I think of here, is the most time consuming and that is attend the board meeting. We follow parliamentary procedure as close as we can. We hold meetings every two weeks, something more, sometimes less, but always (to date anyway) at least two meetings a month. In these meetings we address issues like membership, bylaws, our website, upcoming events, and whatever else needs to be talked about. I'm also on the Public Relations committee so I help with things like wording press releases, newsletters, and I'm the front man when asking people/companies for help/volunteers/work or whatever. This is not solely my job; there are others that do the same thing. Most everything we do is by getting the opinions of other board members, and then when we agree, we go forward with execution. This may sound like a bad plan, but I think it's a lot easier to execute after a few people have had a chance to give their opinion. We're very small, we operate mostly by email list servers, and we try to operate fast.

If I become and ASPInsider, do I get anything?
Yes, ASPInsiders have many benefits not available to the public. Benefits for ASPInsiders are not disclosed publicly (at least I don't think they are) but I will say that the benefits range from informative to substantive. We've got no budget, collect no dues, and none of our personal expenses are covered, mainly because we don't have any/many. The main contributions we receive are services (people's time and hosting) and alphas. And then a few perks once people get their NDAs in. So while the contributions do affect someone's budget, they aren't financial in nature. Discounts on many items are available to us, as well as freebies that are offered, both by Microsoft and other companies.

What's on your www.ASPInsiders.com Website?
The above mentioned meetings are recorded and made available to the general membership on our website. We are in our infancy, and we know our website needs work. The web team has actually done an amazing job on the web site so far - there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes of the site that is not public. We have voting tools, newsletters, documents, and a ton of other things on the site for authenticated users. It's built on top of the Community Starter Kit, so we're "eating our own dog food" because the team members building this CSK are also ASPInsiders. Please don't fault us for the design. Personally I like the design, but I agree it still needs some work. We have the same problem most developers have; we're programmers, not graphic designers.

Thanks for listening,

Scott Cate
-- ASPInsiders Board Member