>Ah, I statement I can really relate to. But before we get to the meat of your statement that caught my attention, I have to agree with John and Kevin on this. One thing that they didn't mention as far as covering costs, is the size of the .net market compared to vfp (even when vfp was riding high) attracts many to .net.

The .NET market will always be bigger than VFP. Cost comparisons are probably irrelevant, though facilities, meals just need to be scaled according to size.

>In the best of times, there were 3 VFP user groups in the LA area. Typically attended by 20-30 folks on good days. They all had similar topics.

I used to attend a Fox group in NJ for many years, even though I lived in PA. There just wasn't anything active that was closer (NJ meeting was 35 miles, PA meeting was 75).

>I went to the LA .net user group meeting 2 weeks ago. There were closer to 40 attendies. It was held in a lecture hall at UCLA. I believe one of the main organizers of the group is a professor there. At this meeting Robert Half was there to drum up business. I believe that means they paid for drinks and pizza.

We had around 200-300 at our peak in NJ (about the time FP2.0), dwindling to about the usual "hardcore" attendees of around a dozen. And this was when VFP 3 debuted. VFP3 may have done more harm than good at the time, between the bugs and the people that just couldn't fathom OOP.

>
>As far as your comments, I didn't find anything different about the tone of this group compared to VFP user groups. Also this meeting is a blip on the list of .net meeting in LA.
>
>A SQL Server sig has sprung from this group. Something I've never seen from VFP groups, but thought was a fantastic idea, is that a group meets one week after the user group meeting to review what was discussed and attempt to practice what was learned.

I've been to SQL Server, .NET, and other SIGs and have always found them to be sterile, even with average attendence larger than VFP meetings. There just wasn't the "willingness to pitch in". With Fox, it was always "what could I do to help" from day one with most attendees. In my experience, most of the other SIG attendees were there because they were required to be, not because they wanted to be.

>
>Now the big question, is what do you intend to move on to? I've had some similar thoughts. But I feel comfortable I can make some good money at .net at least for a few more years. But I'm always curious when someone is making a decision to leave IT.

I haven't decided yet what I want to be when I grow up. <bg>