Event Tomorrow Night, Meet The Troops and More for 12/14/2011

Well, it’s almost here.

Our year-ending Anti-Politically Correct Happy Merry ChrismaKwanziKah event with a nice “support the troops” tie-in for local Michigan military personnel and their families.

I have to say…I’m pretty stunned.  This doesn’t happen very often, but you’ve actually rendered me speechless a few times over these past two weeks…

…the outpouring of support, the volunteering to be pickup or dropoff points to help people make a donation, the emails that I’ve gotten from people out of state that read this stuff and want to help…

Seriously people…thank you.  All of you.  When I get a note like this:

The owners of JDM Systems Consultants just handed me a bag with 5 new iPod Shuffles and 5 iTunes cards to be donated to the Troops.

…I’m…well, I don’t even really know how to respond properly to that.

You know us…we try not to take ourselves too seriously.  We haven’t really come to grips with what this group is these days, to be honest.  And so for something like this to have come together as well as it has, and strongly as it has, and as well supported as it has…it means a lot.  When I was first discussing this with Russ, I told him – we may get a lot of traffic, but it may not amount to much…we never know.  We may get a lot of good discussion about it…but we never know.

Well…now we know.  You really do give a damn.  This really is the awesome group of people that we’ve always hoped it would be.  We really do help make good things happen as a group.

So thank you for that little confirmation of our belief that we’re doing the right things with the group.  It means a lot.  I guess that means we followed our own advice in How Not To Suck At Starting A Networking Group out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2748/how-not-to-suck-at-starting-a-networking-group/ …which is about the only site-related thing we’ve done while we were getting ready for this event tomorrow night.

Now…as to the event itself.

You’ve read the primer on why we’re doing this.

You know we’re helping local Michigan people in the military stationed overseas.

You’ve got the event booked in your calendar and you’ll be there.

You read the Frequently Asked Questions about the event and you’re ready.

You met Dawn on Friday, and then Mike on Saturday, then Jon and Morgan and Tim through the weekend and this week…and then Aaron earlier this morning.  I encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, to read through all of the mini-bios that we’ve made available out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/category/meet-the-troops/ …but if you’re only going to make time to read one, or only have time to read one, or haven’t done so yet…you really do need to go read about Aaron out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2819/meet-the-troops-day-6/

And then, if you have the time or can make the time, make your way through to meet Dawn out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2765/meet-the-troops-part-1/

…and then Mike out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2776/meet-the-troops-part-2/

…and then Jon over at  http://www.ITinTheD.com/2779/meet-the-troops-part-3/

…and Morgan can be found at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2786/meet-the-troops-part-4/

…and Tim’s out at http://www.ITinTheD.com/2799/meet-the-troops-part-5/

Those aren’t the only people we’ll be helping with this event…but they are some of the people we’ll be helping with this event.

shirtsI think it’s going to be pretty damned cool when they get these t-shirts and we can get a few photos back of the folks over there in them.

That’s going to be solid.

Everyone say “thank you” to the crystal wearing hippie vegan Natasha, who keeps forgetting to pay her hosting providers and so she doesn’t have a website that I can link to in order to help say “thank you” by providing traffic for her.  She was cool enough to do the shirts for us.   She’s also cool enough to not crank me upside the head for calling her a crystal wearing hippie vegan.  So far…

…wait, breaking news: Apparently, she is not “a hippie”.  She is “an artist”.  And allegedly those terms are not interchangeable, at least according to her.  So, “thank you” to Natasha, the crystal wearing vegan artist.

And yes, you can absolutely expect that invitations have been extended to have them show up in person at future events as they’re able to do so.

And yes, I’m still recommending the Final Absolution for tomorrow night.

So, the details.

The event: http://www.ITinTheD.com/meet/ or http://linkd.in/udhZAL …and if you could do us one last favor…Dragonmead isn’t all that big of a place.  I know we never really ask this of you, but if you could take a moment to RSVP on LinkedIn (or Facebook, or any of our various “presence” locations online) that you’re coming…just so that we can have some sort of idea how many people we’re looking at for the event…that would be great.  Not that we’re going to tell people not to show up or anything, but the more information we have walking into this, the better off we’ll be able to manage the situation and deal with things as they arise.

The FAQs, which were updated just a day ago: http://www.ITinTheD.com/2735/dec-15-faqs/

Blah de blah blah…you know there are jobs and discussions in our LinkedIn group.  I tell you that every week.  And yes, there will be people looking to hire at our event tomorrow night.  And people looking to be hired at our event tomorrow night.  And people just looking to hang out and chat.  And folks in uniform…oh, you didn’t know that?  Well, that’s because you didn’t read the FAQs, did you?  You should probably do that: http://www.ITinTheD.com/2735/dec-15-faqs/

We’ll probably have minor updates here and there between now and the event, so you’ll probably want to make sure you’ve got us on your radar via the site, Facebook, Twitter, the LinkedIn group…whatever works for you.  We’ll make sure that you’re as in the loop as we can make you heading in to the event itself.

…and again, thank you.  And see you at Dragonmead tomorrow night: http://www.ITinTheD.com/meet/

Regards,

Bob, Dave and Jeff

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