How can I network with other small-business sysadmins? [closed]

I work for a small to mid-sized business (150 people across 6 locations). There are two of us in the IT department. How can I connect with the other small-business admins in my rural community?

There's a local AITP chapter that is mostly composed of developers or sysadmins from large businesses or county government agencies. Those conversations never seem very productive: each person is responsible for a single system, often in some form of mainframe technology. I'd love to discuss linux, Windows 2008, or open-source software, but I think I'm looking in the wrong place.

Solution 1:

User groups sound like what you are looking for, linux.org maintains a list of Linux based ones: http://www.linux.org/groups/usa/

Here's some info on Microsoft related user groups: http://www.microsoft.com/communities/usergroups/default.mspx

You can also try http://www.apcug.net for more user group info.

Solution 2:

You can always look for existing MeetUp groups or start a new one if none exist.

http://www.meetup.com/

Also, take a look at the Network Professional Association and see if they have anything to offer as far as local chapters go.

(It can be found easily enough using Google, I'm just not allowed to post more than one hyperlink since I don't have a reputation built up.)

Solution 3:

If you have communication with some of your community's technical colleagues, you could ask them if they'd all like to participate in a listserv where they can all network and discuss technical solutions.

In my work, we encourage school district technical admins to join our listserves where technical topics related to education are discussed.

Solution 4:

If you are in a smaller community (as you indicated), you might want to consider a more direct approach and build something. The likelihood of just a handful of people finding a MeetUp group is pretty small.

What I would do is make a list of companies that fit your profile (size of the business, proximity to you), then either send them an email through their website or call them to find out who their IT responsible is.

Something like: "Hey there,

I'm the sysadmin over at XYZ, Co. I'm trying to get together a small group of net admins that would meet up occaisionally to talk about sys admin issues like Linux, Windows 2008, etc. Would you be interested?"

I haven't tried this personally, but if someone called me with something like that I would respond positively.