Congratulations to Data Center Management MVP Dave Sanders and the Carolina IT Pro Group
(CITPG) on being awarded the CompTia National Award for Excellence. For 12 years, this
exemplary user group has contributed to helping countless people—within the technical
community and beyond.
“Our motto is Make a Difference,” explained Dave, the group’s founder and president. Their
formula is simple: offer valuable content and great door prizes and ask everyone who participates
to contribute an article of food or clothing at the door. And it’s working. Last year, CITPG’s
membership grew by nearly 750 and it contributed around 14 tons of food and clothing to the
homeless in their community.
User groups are a vital part of technical communities around the world. They provide a place
for those with an interest in technology to meet face-to-face and learn from each other. CITPG
is no different, established as a place welcoming to all—where everybody has the opportunity
to learn.
Dave tells the story of a woman who began coming to their group’s meetings, who sat in the
back and never participated. Eventually she confided to Dave that she knew nothing about
computers but would like to join the group—an idea he fully supported. As a door prize one
month, a company had contributed a full MCSE training package and, as luck would have it,
the woman who knew nothing about technology won it. “She asked me what she was going to
do with it,” Dave said. “I told her—you’re going to study and become an MCSE.” She failed the
exam twice but on her third attempt she passed. She began helping Dave out on a fairly large
contract he was working on at the time and, when her family moved to Texas, he introduced
her to some people in the local technical community. Now she’s a network administrator for a
large company.
Dave is hoping to expand CITPG’s reach by creating a recurring regional event. They’re off to
a good start. Last month they held an IT Pro Appreciation Day which attracted 200 attendees.
It boasted five other MVPs as speakers, as well as a keynote presentation by Scott Davidson,
General Manager of Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism, US East Region.
Congratulations again to Dave and the CITPG membership!
You can find out more about CITPG here: www.carolinait.org.