About 10 days ago I did a post on Meetup.com expirations and trying to find out what was going on. I have to apologize that I didn't update since then while I contacted Meetup.com and we negotiated what was to happen. Yesterday we blogged about the future of our MySQL User Groups. Yes, if you hadn't heard, we're suggesting that those that wish to continue to have free MySQL User Group management, they should migrate to Facebook. My colleague Colin Charles has produced a guide.

Let me tell you frankly that this is not what we wanted to do. Ideally we would have remained with Meetup.com, however, sadly their new business model is not something we can currently support and frankly we were caught by surprise. This I cannot blame on anyone, just a mix up in communication by everyone involved, these things sadly do happen so we just have to move on.

Now, Meetup.com is honouring the last remaining month of our contract with them and will be sending out an email which will allow current groups on Meetup.com to have a month free (until June 10, 2009 or thereabouts) so that you can prepare your group to migrate if they so desire. Meetup has informed us that this email will go out today or tomorrow, if you are an organizer, please watch for it.

Thank you Meetup.com for four years or more of Meetup support. Now we must look to the future.

In all this we must look at the essence for which Meetup.com was sponsored: Facilitating MySQL users to meet each other in their local areas and a way for us to find you to send you stuff (or people and speakers). Meetup.com and Facebook are tools to help you accomplish that task, but ultimately the tool you use is immaterial.

We have a tutorial on how to create your user group on the Forge Wiki, please peruse and get to know your local MySQL'ers. Once you get your group organized, make sure you list it with us so we can find you!

I've heard different comments about how we handled this situation and I am always interested in hearing people's comments. When we are beholden to third-party support for anything and are trying to negotiate in the best interests of both our company, our team and you, our community, things are bound to get more complicated than any one of us would appreciate. What has not changed is our belief in the incredible power of what a user group can do for you professionally and for us as a community.

Now let's get a move on, use Facebook, Meetup.com or another tool and show everyone the power of MySQL user groups!