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FAQ
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| Membership |
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Q. What's the point of the Victoria .NET Developers Association?
We provide a meeting place for local .NET developers to get together and network with each other, and hopefully learn something at the same time.
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Q. How do I join, and how much does it cost?
Membership in the group is free. There are two basic steps to joining:- Join the mailing list to receive group announcements, and
- Come to our regular monthly meetings
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Q. What benefits do I get from joining?
It helps us to know exactly how many people are "members" of the group so we can receive support from INETA, MSDN, and other vendor sponsors. Currently we keep track of membership via mailing list subscribers.
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Q. What is INETA, and am I a member of INETA if i join the Developers Association?
INETA is the International Association of .NET User Groups (website here). You must join INETA seperately from the Developer's Association. Members of INETA are privy to a number of discounts and benefits, see a full list here.
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Q. How many members are currently in the group?
We currently have about 260+ members on our mailing list (Sept 2006) and are growing by about 10-20 members per month.
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Q. How do I find out more information or ask a question?
Your best bet is to come to a monthly meeting and ask around. Aside from that, please take a look at our contact page to contact us directly via email.
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| Meetings |
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Q. When and where are the meetings? How many people usually attend?
Meetings are usually at Uvic, 7-9pm on the first Tuesday of every month (except for January, July, August, and September).
Sometimes we have to veer away from that schedule to accommodate a specific speaker. It's best to just keep an eye on the Monthly Meeting page to make sure you have the most current info on any upcoming meetings, or better yet subscribe to the Monthly Meetings RSS Feed.
Our average attendance so far has been about 30-40 people, depending on the presentation topic and the weather. Who knew developers would rather spend time in the sun than sit in a dark University lecture hall and learn about .NET?
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Q. What's the point of coming to the meetings? Is it just a bunch of geeks who managed to crawl out of their parents' basement for an evening?
The monthly meetings are a great way to informally get to know your local developer community, make new local contacts, find a job, fill a job, and generally learn about a specific topic. PLUS we sometimes have pizza and usually have some great give-aways like software and T-shirts.
We usually have a wide cross-section of people coming to the meetings. Students, senior developers, managers, etc. from all sectors and all companies across town. During breaks a lot of development talk can be heard: Development tools, techniques, advice and general development banter.
In the past we've had speakers that have demonstrated new technologies, shown tips and tricks for existing technologies, and done presentations that are normally given for a fee at training events and developer conferences like TechEd. Take a look at the Monthly Meeting page (or the Monthly Meetings page prior to June 2006) for an idea of what previous topics have been, and keep an eye out for any upcoming topics that you might be interested in.
You'll get out of the meetings what you put in. Come by, mingle a little, spark up some conversation with other developers. Maybe even meet a new friend.
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Q. Are monthly meetings really a good place to help me find a job?
Yes. We've had companies come in and solicit resumes at meetings.
During the meeting break, before, and after the meeting are a great way to network. We've seen lots of interested parties getting together for interviews based on user group introductions.
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Q. How formal are the meetings? Do I need to wear a suit and tie and be on my best behaviour?
No! Meetings are very casual. We normally eat (if there's food), drink, and be happy before anything remotely serious happens.
Speakers are always good to take questions and we normally have decent yapping sessions where anyone can make a comment or ask questions that totally make a fool of themselves.
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Q. I am interested in doing a presentation on a .NET related topic for one of the monthly meetings, can I do that?
Yes definitely! We would be happy to have anyone from the local developer community present at one of our meetings. You could present on any number of topics:- A .NET technology
- A tool or project you've built
- A tool you are an expert with
- A 3rd party control you really like
- etc etc
Email us at info@vicdotnet.org to introduce yourself and let us know what you are interested in presenting!
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| Job Postings |
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Q. Can my company post job ads on your website and/or have job postings emailed to your members?
Yes. We accept job postings. You just have to go to the job postings forum and post the job there. Please note that (free) registration on the site is required to post a job.
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Q. Is there a cost to post jobs?
No, but we would appreciate it if you considered sponsoring us for the year. Sponsorships are inexpensive, typically less than you would pay for a single job posting on a larger site. See our sponsorship page for more details.
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Q. How many people will see a job posting if I post a job with your group?
We can't answer this accurately, but probably in the hundreds. Our members can subscribe to job postings and see them as they appear. We can also send out job postings as part of our newsletters, just contact us if you want to do that.
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