Guest blogger and new CRM MVP Dave Berry shares with us some of his excitement for receiving the Microsoft MVP award for the CRM team. Dave blogs regularly at CRM Entropy—a Microsoft CRM Blog.
If you had asked me a year ago if I thought I qualified for MVP material, I would have flatly said, "No." It’s with a thankful heart then, that I’m glad nobody asked me. Today, I received the much anticipated declaration that I have, in fact, been awarded the Microsoft 2010 MVP.
I’ve been a regular to the CRM Development Forum since I was first introduced to CRM 3.0. At first, I was simply an avid reader, following the tribulations of others and learning what I could from the masters (like David Jennaway, Michael Hoehne, Adi Katz, Daniel Cai, Andriy Butenko, and so many more). About 2 years ago, I really started to get involved with answering questions, and seeing if I could keep my technical edge sharp even if I hadn’t personally faced a situation being presented.
I’d like to issue a special "thank you" to Andriy Butenko. About a year ago, during this MVP period, we got into a silent battle with each other over holding the "Top Answerer" spot in the forum. Without this undeclared competition, I may not have had the sheer quantity of involvement necessary to qualify for an MVP award. Perhaps he never knew the battle ever existed, or what I had determined to do. However, we both certainly excelled at answering questions during that period, and I’m happy to say that I succeeded at holding the top spot for about a month.
It’s my hope that the coming year will see as much involvement from me as the previous year. I wholeheartedly thank and appreciate the CRM Community and Microsoft for this recognition. I will live up to its status and meaning as much as I possibly can.
Cheers,