Great post. I agree user groups are great. I was very sorry to learn to today that NESUG has canceled all future conferences, as a result of a decision by SAS to reduce funding for RUGs, as announced here:
http://www.nesug.org/2013/

Was wondering if a future blog post might explain some of the thinking behind the decision to reduce support for RUGs? The loss of NESUG feels like a tremendous blow to the SAS User Community.

Thanks!