WELCOME
Hello, and welcome to our first ever issue of SharePoint Village News.
SharePoint Village News will be a weekly Blog to let you know what is happening at SharePoint Village. We will showcase some of the SharePoint Village Shop Owners and hopefully bring you some of their latest offers. We aim to give you the chance to learn a little more about the individual SharePoint companies and the people behind them.
If you haven't yet had the chance to look around the new and exciting SharePoint Village then why not grab a coffee and have a browse of the SharePoint shops there. The address you will need, which we hope is fairly easy to remember is http://www.sharepointvillage.com/. You can even miss out the www if you are feeling lazy. Actually, I will let you into a secret, but it even works on sharepointvillage.info or sharepointvillage.co.uk.
NOTICEBOARD OPENS
So what's new at SharePoint Village this week? Well, the first new addition is the Noticeboard section which can now be found under Info Point. This is similar to the advertising noticeboards at your local supermarket where you can find little postcards in clear packets. The idea is, for just £50, companies can be of one of eight adverts here for 30 days. One of the first advertisers on the Noticeboard are 'Solutions Developed' who are offering a great SharePoint Admin Training Boot Camp. They even include transport from any UK airport to the training centre.
VILLAGE PEOPLE
Each week we will focus on one of the people who is involved in SharePoint Village. This could be anyone; a Shop Keeper, our Web Designer, SharePoint User Group Leader or even a frequent SharePoint Village visitor. This week though we are going to start with me, Andy Dale, one of the co-founders of SharePoint Village. Yes, I will be the first of our Village People (no not the one in the builders safety helmet).
I work as Senior SharePoint Consultant at Birmingham based SharePoint Specialists Action SharePoint Limited (we trade as 'Office Talk'). Not quite sure how I ended up in IT as I started out training to be a Primary School Teacher, but finished up studying for a MCSE and becoming a Network Manager in the late 90's. I first took part in a SharePoint Project in 2003 and have had the SharePoint Bug ever since.
Away from work I probably have three main passions. If you read my weekly SharePoint blog http://aboutsharepoint.com/ you will know of my love for all things Aston Villa. I have had a season ticket at the Villa since 1981 (the year we last won the league and the year I turned 13 and my dad finally let me go to game at Villa Park on my own). My dad, and brother, are Wolves fans and although Wolves have not beaten the Villa since March 1980 I am still nervous about the two sides meeting on Sunday. Favourite all-time Villa player is Gordon Cowans who was interestingly yesterday appointed to the Villa first team coaching staff as one of Houllier's first appointments. I could talk about villa for days, but want to mention my other two passions.
Passion number two is writing. Yes, I quite like writing my various SharePoint Blogs but most of all I like writing 'hopefully' mildly amusing fictional comedy. If you ever get the chance you might want to read my fictional blog called 'Tell the Groom' about a poor 30 year old called Jon who is jilted on his wedding day and then his life is never quite the same. I have also written children's books and two other romantic comedies.
The third passion to mention (they weren't in order) is my work with children and young people in the Methodist Church. As a 'Son of a Preacher Man' I have always been very heavily involved at Bilston Methodist Church and took charge of the Sunday School there when I was only 23. In 2005 I founded a new organisation for children at Bilston Methodist called 'Spiritblazers' which now has other branches around the UK.
So that really is what makes Andy Dale. Hopefully in future weeks of SharePoint Village News we will find out more about the 'Village People'.
Happy SharePoint Shopping !!!!
