I’m happy to finally announce the launch of the ISPA. A lot of time and effort has been put into bringing this online and we hope as this grows we will have an abundance of offerings for the SharePoint Community. I first want to present the press release that we have put out, then I want to list and thank the individuals that helped to make this happen and also a very special group of men and women that have been and will continue to be a tremendous asset for the community worldwide.
"The International SharePoint Professionals Association, also known as ‘ISPA’, is an independent, not-for-profit, community-driven organization dedicated to support SharePoint professionals and groups all around the world. The primary mission of ISPA is to promote the global adoption of SharePoint Technologies by providing support and guidance to the SharePoint community as a whole – by establishing connections between SharePoint professionals, groups, resources, education and information. ISPA is led and supported by volunteers across the world, and will focus on bringing the entire SharePoint community closer together.
ISPA’s first offering to the community is support to user groups around the world through free WSS v3 web sites for any group that becomes ISPA-affiliated. In addition, one of the goals of ISPA is to facilitate an exchange of ideas between user group leaders that helps increase the likelihood of their group’s success. Therefore, ISPA is providing leaders of user groups with access to collaborative spaces where they can interact with other user group leaders, sharing ideas, resources, best practices, guidance, and most importantly – support for one another.
ISPA has also established Regional Evangelists – existing community leaders who have previously exhibited a strong commitment to the promotion of the SharePoint community, and who have pledged to carry the ISPA message throughout their particular region. These evangelists are key local contacts who are available to work with local SharePoint professionals and user groups throughout their region to help promote the community and SharePoint. If you are interested in starting a user group, have an existing one, or need guidance – the ISPA Regional Evangelists are great resources who are available immediately to assist you.
Finally, as everyone knows, no community is complete without a web site, and ISPA is proud to announce the launch of its official site, http://www.sharepointpros.org. While the web site is still in the early stages of development, plans for multilingual support and exciting functionality that will assist anyone involved with SharePoint are on the horizon.
If you have ideas for ISPA, would like to start a user group, or are looking for assistance, visit the new ISPA web site or contact ISPA at contactus@sharepointpros.org. Together, the community can achieve what was impossible as individuals - becomes a part of ISPA today!"
To be honest the ISPA is made up of everyone in the SharePoint community but there has to be some people that helped to get this started. I want to personally thank the following individuals who are part of the ISPA Board:
Darrin Bishop
Natalya Voskresenskaya
Christopher Regan
ISPA Regional Evangelists
I would also like to introduce a group of community leads that we reached out to early on to help us not only support and evangelize SharePoint User Groups worldwide but to also act as ambassadors for the product. These individuals are spread across the world and we have most sectors covered. This will grow as we grow this out.
US -Matt Passannante
US - Rob Foster MVP
US - Jeremy Sublett MVP
US - Matt Ranlett MVP
US - Dan Attis MVP
US- Brendon Schwartz MVP
US - Brad Smith
US - Dave Mann MVP
US - Cornelius J. van Dyk MVP
US - Paul Schaeflein
US - Jason Medero MVP
US - Paul Galvin MVP
US - Emer McKenna
US - Eugene Rosenfield MVP
US - Joel Oleson
US - Eric Shupps MVP
US - Dan Holme MVP
US - Todd Klindt MVP
United Kingdom - Spence Harbar MVP
United Kingdom - Nick Swan MVP
United Kingdom - Steve Smith MVP
Netherlands - Mart Muller
Netherlands - Daniel McPherson
South Africa - Arno Nel
Jordan - Muhanad Omar MVP
Egypt - Marwan Tarek MVP
Philippines - Lok Kit Kai MVP
New Zealand - Chandima Kulathilake MVP
Australia - Ed Richard MVP
Australia - Ivan Wilson MVP
Australia - Ivan Brebner
France - Philippe SENTENAC MVP
France - P. Erol GIRAUDY MVP
France - Christian Hougardy MVP
Spain - Carlos Segura Sanz MVP
Argentina - Alex Silva MVP
Canada - Reza Alirezaei MVP
Canada - Eli Robillard MVP
China - Qiangbing Wang MVP
China - LiuMark MVP
Belgium - Evren AYAN MVP
Belgium - Joris Poelmans MVP
Colombia - Maclau Gonzalez
Germany - Michael Greth MVP
Germany - Daniel Wessels MVP
Mexico - Julio Casal
Bolivia - Héctor Insua MVP
Sweden - Göran Husman MVP
As a final thank you I want to say thanks to Lawrence Liu who has been a pain in my side for many months over this and has been a great advisor throughout most of this project.