Scott Seely on Lake County .net User Group (lcnug) | UGtastic Archive
Hi, it's Mike with UGtastic. In this conversation recorded on-site at UGtastic Archive, I sit down with Scott Seely to discuss Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG). Meet Scott Seely, the founder and Microsoft Regional Director of the Lake County .NET User Group. Learn about the challenges and rewards of building a community for .NET developers in the northern suburbs of Chicago.
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
The Guest
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Hi, I'm Mike Hall. I'm sitting down here with Scott Seely, who runs the Lake County .NET user group, and he's a Microsoft Regional Director. So he's very involved with the community in the Midwest region. So Scott, can you tell me a little bit about Lake County .NET user group, why you founded it, and as Regional Director, what have you kind of experienced with the user group community in and around Chicago, or actually, what region do you cover?
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
Okay, so first off, Lake County .NET user group was founded by myself and another gentleman named Tim Stahl. Tim and I both saw the need to have a user group in the northern burbs just because of the fact that the Chicago area, due to the traffic and the way that everybody's kind of spread out, people don't like driving more than 40 minutes from home.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Right.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
Because of that, you wind up with user groups, some in Chicago, some in the north, some out in the western burbs. I don't know of any down in the southern burbs, obviously, but that's what wound up happening, so Tim and I both live north of Chicago and wanted something closer to home than going to Downers Grove for our .NET user group meetings. So that's why we founded the group, was pretty much, we didn't like driving.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Right.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
And we wanted to, and we like going to user group meetings. Right now, Lake County, we've got a, we have attendees, so our mailing list, I guess, is the best way to measure that, and about 500 different people have shown interest at one point or another, so that's about how many people we notify every time that we have a meeting. On average, we get about 20 to 40 people, typically closer to the 20 side, for when folks show up.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
And typically, the same people coming back, or do you get new blood coming in, how is that?
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
It seems that we have, like, you'll go on streaks where you'll have five or six people who will be there several months in a row, and then it just kind of turns over. We have some folks who've been going pretty regularly for the past several years, and that makeup just changes. You have people who, that's part of the regular schedule for a while, then they get a new contract somewhere else, they go elsewhere, and then when that contract ends, they're closer to home, they also start showing up again.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Oh, okay. So, they're regulars, but just life, sometimes.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
Life happens, yeah. As far as the Regional Director thing goes, that's just an honorary title, which means, for Microsoft, saying, "Hi, you've been very active in the community." So, my Regional Director's kind of a weird name. I don't actually have a region I'm responsible for.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Yeah, it sounds like a real title.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
Oh yeah, it sounds real.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
It is a real title, it's just that it's not paid.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
It's not a descriptive title.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Yeah, yeah, it's like--
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
I'm neither a director at Microsoft, nor do I have a region. Typically, what they do is they say that, for a given population center, they'll decide to fund a Regional Director, and the funding happens at Microsoft, where they have, there's a person that's actually paid at corporate to make sure that we're getting the right information. There are people at corporate who spend time with us, on internal stuff, telling us what's happening, so we can better articulate it to the community, and drive events so that folks know what's going on.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
So, it's kind of like a spokesperson.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
Yeah.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
For, like, you're so well known in the community in Chicago, that you're a great person to talk to you to be like a pivot for getting all that information.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
Right, or I'm at least well enough known to Microsoft that I have the ambition to get stuff done, and eventually then the fame comes as a result of the program. Someone who's willing to do the work that's required.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Yeah.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
And it's a karma-based system. Microsoft doesn't pay you, but the opportunities themselves, that's where you get your benefits.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Okay, and when they say region, you're talking Chicagoland region. It isn't Midwest or anything.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
Well, so there's another, there are several RDs nearby. We have, there's, I believe it's Dan Wahlin, I hope I'm not mistaken where Dan is actually located. We have a few folks over at Michigan. We've got Rocky Lhotka up in Minnesota. There's me, and then if you start heading south, you can't get to anybody until you get to Markus Egger in Texas, and Todd Fine sitting in Georgia. But between Illinois, so you have Missouri, so what's the state between Missouri and--
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
No geography.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
Yeah, because of my geography, horrible. Louisiana, nothing. And it doesn't reflect on the IT community, it just reflects on people who have stood up in the community, and Microsoft just decided to move them up to that level.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Okay.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
But yeah, they're scattered throughout. And then when you get to the south again, all of a sudden, you get concentrations, like there's a guy named Todd Fine and Mark Dunn, they're both fairly close to each other. So until Rocky and I being close to each other between Chicago and Minneapolis.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Okay, all right, well, thank you very much for sitting down with me, Scott, appreciate it.
Scott Seely
Lake County .NET User Group (LCNUG)
▶ Speaking
Yep.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, UGtastic
▶ Speaking
Scott Seely, Lake County .NET User Group.
Critical Insights
durable
"The user group attracts a consistent core of attendees with regular turnover driven by consulting contracts and commute dynamics."
durable
"The Microsoft Regional Director title is an honorary, unpaid position acting as an informational bridge between corporate Microsoft and grassroots developer communities."
durable
"Developer community clusters in the Midwest reflect active local champions rather than uniform geographic coverage by corporate programs."