It was a hard year for me but I want to mention in retrospect just the good part:

  • Our group grew more than we expected and we hope that this is just the beginning.
  • We have a basketball team and though we lost every single game Pierre de Coubertin said that “the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well”. And we fought well.Then we tried streetball not as ROSQL (just 4 from the team). We had the name “White Men” from the “White men can’t jump” movie. We were surprised to win 2 games from 3 and to qualify for the next round in which we lost because I missed a free shot.
  • As a SQL Server group we had several meetings this year, a hands-on lab and reached 3000 posts on the forum.
  • This year I was glad to see new people answering on the forum,  leaving me more time to concentrate in organizing meetings and writing.
  • I have a list of most valuable forum contributors:
    • Remus Rusanu
    • Bogdan Crivat
    • Gheorghe Ciubuc
    • Razvan Socol
    • Diana Moldovan
    • Catalin Petrisor
    • Bogdan Sahlean
    • Catalin Gheorghiu
    • Marcel Soare
  • And also a list of people that helped me and the forum, most of them from Microsoft:
    • Microsoft Romania:
      • Zoli Herczeg
      • Sebastian Vijeu
      • Bogdan Musat
      • Ioan Nicut
      • Petru Jucovschi
      • Gabriel Nicolaescu
      • Loredana Calin
      • Elisabeta Ionita
      • Todi Pruteanu
      • Marian Brostean
      • Tudor Galos
      • Avi Rodica Guta
      • Vitalie Ciobanu
    • Microsoft Redmond:
      • Remus Rusanu
      • Bogdan Crivat
      • Laurentiu Cristofor
      • Jerome Halmans
      • Boris Baryshnikov
      • Edward Melomed
      • Steven Hemingray
      • Raul Garcia
      • Gopal Ashok
    • Non-Microsoft:
      • Ionut Boldizsar (Provision)
      • Georget Barbu (Provision)
      • Rafal Lukawiecki
      • Bob Beauchemin
      • Robert Ioan
      • Iulian Vasilovici
      • Adi Stoian
  • Last but not least I want to mention Narcis Ditiu that was always behind the forum, behind the camera and made things happen. Here's a picture with me, Rafal and Narcis, this time in front of the camera: 

 

  • I will end by sharing with you my Christmas present from Microsoft (thanks Lore):