Community Reality Check: Is INETA a concrete life raft?

I’m asking you, dear reader, is INETA still viable as an organization?

I don’t know about your local user groups, but here in Nashville, we don’t get nearly enough good speakers to fill our monthly timeslots.  Worst of all, the presentations all seem to be the same.  They are all basic introductions to whatever shiny new toy Microsoft has recently released.  Way too much Microsoft, way too little programming.

There are, of course, some very good exceptions to that status quo.  I personally really enjoyed seeing Scott Cate when he came through town, and we were lucky enough to snag Ted Neward for DevLink.  But over all, the quality seems to be falling further and further below what I would consider a high quality outreach organization–at least one whose goals aren’t completely in line with that of a single product vendor.

Another issue that came up recently was the organization’s refusal to work with corporate user groups.  While this might make sense for companies that might spin up something with only 2 or 3 people, it seems very silly when you work in an organization that employs 200+ .NET developers.  It also makes no sense when you look at other organizations of the same size (say: Fedex).

So, here’s the question I would like you, the community, to answer. 

Is INETA a concrete life-raft?

For the curious, I currently play a small local role in the organization.  As an attempt to continually improve my contributions to the community, I’m trying to determine the value I’m generating through the volunteering of my time.