LOPSA’s new local chapter drive is rolling right along. In the past month, LOPSA-LA became a full fledged chapter, and LOPSA-OC (Orange County) are working on starting a chapter. It’s time to start thinking about which chapters come next.

And LOPSA Board Member Evan Pettrey has been doing that! He’s got a new chapter that he’s working on in Washington, DC! He has teamed up with Greg Riedesel (of SysAdmin1138 and ServerFault renown) and they appear to be doing very well.

In the short term, they’re looking for people interested in attending and they really need some speakers. If either of these sound like you, just comment on this blog entry and I’ll get you in touch.

The second “new” chapter I wanted to let you know about is the Austin, TX chapter. It’s not exactly new, but it has been down for a while. All of this new activity is getting people interested in revitalizing Austin, though, and I think that’s perfect. Austin has an amazing culture, and there are more than enough IT admins in the area to support it.

I spoke with Travis Campbell, one of the Austin organizers, and he told me that the single most helpful thing someone in Austin could do would be to join the mailing list and let everyone know that we want do to meetings there again. I’m on the mailing list, too, so I can check out what’s going on. I’ve only spent a couple of weeks in Austin, but I loved it. I’ve got a lot of friends there, too, so I really want this one to succeed. I know they need people interested in attending meetings as well as speaking, so make sure to join the list and let Travis know!

Incidentally, speaking at one of these meetings is way easier than you think. It’s certainly a lot easier than speaking at a conference — you’re surrounded by friends, and it’s really just you talking about something you’re interested in. When I did my Infrastructure Migration talk, I literally just sat down for an hour or so and thought about what all of my moves had in common, and I made a list. That brain dump, after just a little massaging, turned into the slideshow. It really is easy, and you can do it. Consider it, at least.