Sorry this followup is so late in coming.  With Dreamforce right after the last meeting and Thanksgiving close after that I have been extremely busy and have been putting this off and putting this off.  I am thinking having a co-leader (hint hint) would help keep me accountable as well as provide some backup.  Anyway, please consider if you might be able to help.  You don't have to be an expert just someone who excited to learn about Salesforce and can help with organization and communication.  A number of you at the last meeting said you were willing to help I just need one or two of you to affirm that to me directly.

The first meeting went well and we had about a dozen in attendance.  I think we had a great discussion and got a good idea of where everyone was at and what the group could provide for each one of us.  The most valuable part of the group is going to be sharing information with each other.  It is a great way to share ideas that we have and pick up good ideas from others.  Judging from the last meeting I think we need to extend the time a little bit as well.  We had about an hour and half and we used it all and a little more.  I think we should plan on at least 2 hours and then if you want to hang around and talk after you are free to do that.  Some other things that came out of the meeting are that lunchtime probably works the best so we will stick to the 11-1 time frame.

For the next meeting I am thinking sometime in the middle of January.  I know the weather can be all over the board but hopefully it will work out.  Another note from the last meeting is that we vary widely in terms of what our Salesforce responsibilities are.  Due to this I think we should break out into area specific groups for a good portion of the meeting.  After this the groups can report back about what was discussed so everyone can learn.  As a result please encourage other people at your company to sign up for the group.  I think we can provide great insight to people that are "power" users not just administrators.  I have put a rough outline below.

Lunch and Intro

Breakout Groups with Questions/Problems/Solutions (Sales, Marketing, Support, Administrators, Reporting, etc.)

Report Back

Training (Mini Admin? Whatever ideas anyone else has)

Please complete the following survey about meeting logistics, breakout group interests, and training ideas.  Also something that may help you in the meantime and that would be a good thing to review before the meeting would Dreamforce presentations.  If you go to the bottom of the page you can get to every presentation from Dreamforce.  So, if you weren't able to attend or missed a session while you were there check it out.

Once again, sorry for the tardiness of this post and I look forward to seeing some of you again and meeting others at the next meeting.

Josh Van Heukelom (joshv@fostergrp.com)