What is a Give Camp? I get asked this question constantly in the SharePoint Community. About 3 years ago there was an event called "We Are Microsoft" in Dallas, TX. A lady named, Toi Wright, gathered up a bunch of charities and gathered up a bunch of IT Professionals in the community. They met for an entire weekend devising better ways to help these charities with 3 days projects. None of these charities had in house IT staff or they were lacking. The time these projects would save would help out other people in the long run. The first give camp was really popular that a couple guys from Kansas City decided to come up with a give camp in the Kansas City regiona. The event was called Coders 4 Charity. I read Jeff Julian's post on the "We Are Microsoft" event that it inspired me to get involved. i showed up to this event and we were split into teams. On that team I met a couple really awsome guys: Blake Theiss, Lee Brandt, Tim Wright, and Joe Loux. We created a SharePoint site for a boyscout troup. It was my first exposure to Silverlight 1.1. I had so much fun that I attended the event the next year and the St. Louis Coders 4 Charity. Last year in 2010 when I moved i searched high and low. Sure enough they had an event in Philadelphia. I helped out with two SharePoint Projects for a team of firefighters and another charity. This year there are a series of give camps around the U.S. They have consolidated most of the give camps. The first ever New York City Give Camp is on National Give Camp Day. If you guys are interested I see there is a give camp in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Northwest Arkansas, Seattle, Atlanta, Houston, and more...Here is a link to the site I would definitely encourage you to get involved: http://givecamp.org/national-givecamp/. Also, if you feel like it's only developer focused that's entirely wrong. They need DBAs, Project Leads, Architects, and many other roles fulfilled aside from development. It is a great experience to meet good people and help out a charity doing what we all love to do. I strongle encourage getting involved in a give camp. if you are coming to the NYC Give Camp I would love to meet you. i will be there on Saturday somewhere in the morning until around dinner time.
