User Group Support Services – It’s All About You!
User Group Support Services exists for one reason and one reason alone – YOU!

Our mission is to support Developer and IT Professional User Groups worldwide in their success! User Group Support Services is not intended to be your final destination or your only destination. It is a site with a robust set of tools and information developed in close partnership with GITCA, INETA and PASS to help you manage your group, gain access to funding, speakers, sponsors and event content and connect you to user group communities worldwide.

User Group Support Services is dedicated and committed to serving technical user group communities worldwide. This site exists for YOU. If you choose to use the functionality on the site, Microsoft and the UGSS Team guarantee that your user group information and that of your members will not be shared or used for any purpose other than reporting and capturing site usage numbers. If you have any questions, please contact ugss@microsoft.com.

How Do I Register as a User Group Leader on UGSS?
Getting started is quick and simple! If you are a User Group Leader, tell us a little about your group — group contact information, meetings, etc. After a quick verification process, your group will become a member of the UGSS Experience. Your User Group will then be displayed on usergroupsupportservices.com for others in your area to find.

How Do My Members Register on UGSS?
After you register yourself and your user group on UGSS, you will also receive a unique password to distribute to your members so they can associate themselves with your group and gain access to valuable content. Your user group members will receive the user group password in an email which will allow them to register on the site and associate themselves to your user group.

Benefits Of Joining UGSS

• Get Help Managing Your Members! UGSS has built-in member management and communication tools to help you track your membership, record attendance and send out notifications regarding upcoming events or important news! Need a quick answer to a single question (for example: do you want pizza or Chinese at the next meeting)? Access our user group poll for quick, on the fly communiqués with your membership!
• Get Event Management & Reporting! UGSS offers a built in event management and reporting system to help User Group leaders manage their attendees, plus have better reporting of their event activities.
• Get Extra $ for Your Events! Microsoft, in partnership with GITCA, INETA and PASS now offers funding for your next community-led event! Whether it’s a monthly user group meeting, a product launch event, or a code camp – whatever the format invite UGSS! Event funding requests are located on the Add Event page on the User Group Tab. Event funding is limited and subject to Event Funding Terms and Conditions.
• Get a Speaker or Sponsor for Your Event! In partnership with GITCA, INETA and PASS we’ve completely redesigned our speaker and sponsor registries to better support the user group communities. These registries help support local and regional speakers. This allows UG Leaders to connect with speakers in their own areas so they can find great presenters to come present and/or attend their monthly meetings. These registries will soon be synchronized with registries on other community sites (such as GITCA, INETA and PASS) to ensure user group leaders worldwide have a rich selection of speakers and sponsors to choose from for their next event!
• Get People at Your Events! Add your events to our new robust global events calendar and gain publicity for your events worldwide. To help drive new members to User Groups, and extend the reach of User Groups everywhere, the UGSS Global Events Calendar is intended to be one of the primary repositories of UG events across the US. This calendar is synced with the Community Megaphone event calendar and will soon expose events listed on additional community calendars such as GITCA, INETA, PASS and perhaps even yours! Additionally, we will ensure that we promote these events in the MSDN Flash, on our new US Portal and also even in the external event site eventful.com.
• Get Great Stuff to Show! You are a very busy, dedicated community leader. You need content for your meetings and time is a premium commodity. Microsoft Product Teams have partnered with User Group Support Services to provide content for your event (demos, discussion presentations and other content). Take advantage of our services for your next meeting and we can provide the content! Our content library is growing… check in monthly to see what’s new!
• Help your members get certified and receive Learning Rewards! The User Group Learning Rewards program gives you access to resources on Microsoft training and certifications, so you can share with your members. As the User Group leader, you can also request Second Shot certification exam vouchers for your members. The Second Shot vouchers give your members a free retake when they fail their first attempt at a certification exam. In return for your evangelism effort, you will receive points when your members take the certification exams, which can be redeemed for various exciting rewards, such as DRM-free e-book, e-learning collection, free exam voucher, online library subscription.