My friend Shawn Weiseld posted a note about the new INETA Champs Program. Looks interesting and is a nice step in the right direction for growing local communities. The part I'm not thrilled with is the self-nomination. It's probably a fatal character flaw, but I'm just not a huge fan of self promotion though I get that a certain amount of it is required to succeed. I'd like to see them survey the groups, audit the meetings in light weight way, reward those that create new groups that last at least a year, have regular meetings, grow attendance and the mailing list, and that satisfy the members.

I think those things are important because otherwise it runs the risk of becoming one more cred everyone is chasing, soon we'll have Solitaire user groups!

Seriously, I hope they'll publish some guidelines. It should certainly be subjective to a degree, but at least setting a minimum level will in turn drive more effort back into the local communities. I'd also like to see this become an award where if you win one year, you're ineligible for the next 1-2 years.

Keep growing INETA!