Recently we've been approached by some sponsors that, while appropriate to our industry, want something I'm not entirely comfortable giving them without your consent: your email address.

Although I have access to the information: Over 300 people subscribe to this blog, and almost 50 people have registered for next week's meeting; I can't in good conscience hand over your email address without at least letting you know before you give it to me. I would feel differently if in the past I had said that subscriber or event registration email addresses could be shared with sponsors in exchange for their sponsorship (which is something I will consider for the signup page for future events). But in all likelihood I've already said the exact opposite; that I would never share it with anyone, for any reason. That sounds like something I would say.

I should be clear, I have no intention of working with any unrelated or creepy organizations. The sponsors in question are local, reputable organizations, with appropriate content and services for our audience. But that still doesn't take away the pit I get in my stomach when I think about giving them your email addresses. If I were in your shoes, I might get offended at that.

So I am asking you for a favor, now. Would you mind opting-in to potential sponsor contact? In exchange, we would have more sponsorship money that we can spend on better food and more, bigger raffle prizes.

If you would like to opt-in, please fill out this form. I promise to keep a safe guard over your information, and only give it to relevant, non-creepy sponsors.

We're always looking for meeting sponsors to buy pizza and sodas ($60 is usually plenty) for our members to munch on during meetings. In exchange, we're happy to give you a few minutes at the beginning of the meeting to pitch your product, pass out business cards, or recruit for open positions at your company.

If you're interested, email me: manager@phillycfug.org. (Comments are intentionally disabled for this entry.)

Leap Day Discount! Register for the March 12-14 or April 14-16 Flash CS3 training course and receive 30% off. You must register February 29th to qualify. Only 6 seats available per class! Previous registrations do not qualify for discount.

Enter Promotion Code: FlashCS3-LeapDay in the designated box during checkout to receive your discount.

Please visit: http://www.brookwood.com/training/FlashCS3Training/FlashCS3Training.cfm for more info or to register.

Happy Leap Day from Brookwood Media Arts!

Peachpit has been AWESOME with support of our user group. Many of the books that have been given away over the last 4 years have been from Peachpit. Not only have we been given a lot of books, but they're also very GOOD books! I used the heck out of several of their books including Object Oriented Programming in Action Script 2 and Eric Meyer on CSS.

To show your gratitude, please consider purchasing their books when you have an opportunity. It looks like the famous "Forta books" on CF8 will be coming out in a couple weeks on Peachpit.com and I KNOW you're all waiting to grab up all three(!) books. To sweeten the deal, Peachpit is offering all user group members a 30% discount on purchases made on their online store. Just enter coupon code UE-23AA-PEUF (case sensitive) when you checkout.

So we get free books, you get a discount, Peachpit gets customers. What's not to love about that arrangement?