Nice job!  You guys have been doing phenomenal work!

I've been using this module since it was called "AVCalendar", and I've been lurker on this forum since 2006.  During this time I've witnessed quite a transformation.  I don't know what's been going on behind the scenes, but here's my perception. 

Alan Vance, the original creator of this module, did a fantastic job.  He was also quite generous in donating his AVCalendar module to DNN to become a regular DNN project.  He put out a couple of calls for help to get others to join the Events module team.  Unfortunately, none of us (including myself) joined.  He was left doing all development and testing and was also providing the a lot of the support in this forum, too.  He also had a life outside with his work, family, and band.  He couldn't keep up with the load and probably got burned out, and the project started withering on the vine.  I want to recognize Alan for laying the foundation for this module, and putting in so many hours, especially in first couple of years.  Thanks, Alan!

In 2008, a new Events module team was constituted.  I don't know who picked the team (Maybe someone from the core team selected Ernst Peter Tamminga and then Ernst selected the rest of the team?), but this person did a fantastic job in recruiting a full team.  There is now ample help so the odds of someone getting "burned out" are greatly reduced.

Michael Kamp and Roger Selwyn have been relentlessly answering all questions, and taking great pains to do so.  In my mind, they've gone a bit above and beyond the call of duty on several occasions by actually logging into problem sites, examining code, etc.  Yes, some other members of the team occasionally "drop in" and answer questions, too, such as Fuji Nguyen and Enrst Peter Tamminga, and I don't want to forget them.  Having said that, Roger and Michael have been outstanding in this area, and are head and shoulders above anyone else that I've seen in any of the several DNN forums on which I lurk (Reporting, Media, Gallery, Blog, Text/HTML).  I rarely see a question go without a response for more than a few hours.  Additionally, I suspect that providing help in the forums is considered the "grunt work" in any team hierarchy, and it surely is a lot less glamorous than coding.    Heck, and let's be honest...it's a largely thankless job as is coding and testing.  I just wanted to give you two special kudos and let you know that your work is noticed and very appreciated.  You guys keep up the great work! 

I don't want to slight the rest of the team, though!  Arguably, coding frequently goes unappreciated, too, because nobody has any idea about how much time that the coders are putting into the project since since their work is all "behind the scenes".  Thanks for all of the work that each of you put into the coding!  This module has been due for an overhaul for a while, and you boys have really done it right and very quickly, too!

Somebody here really has the magic touch for team recruitment.  I suspect that this is one of the largest teams on any of the DNN module projects.  And while this team is very young, it gives the impression of being a well-oiled machine.  I can't believe how quickly you got the project out the door! 

The nice thing was that you made the release candidates available to the public, which helps you with testing, and helps us with getting bug fixes sooner.  The length of time required for the DNN Core Team to certify a new version is very long and understandably so.  So it's just really cool that the Events team had the new code available to public so early in the game so that if we deemed an issue to be critical, we were able to jump ahead and try out the new code without suffering the requisite lengthy wait time for certification.  There's a risk for the team to do this, so I really appreciate you laying it on the line and doing so.  Other modules (Gallery comes to mind) have yanked their pre-release code away from the public because they don't want to have to answer questions about problems about the new code.

The core team should really take notice of the performance of the Events team.  Whatever you are doing behind the scenes to make this all work so effectively, this model should be studied and emulated by the other project module teams, especially the Gallery module which has been in exactly the same boat as the Events module, but continues to languish.

I don't know what your motivation is to keep chugging away on this project.  It must be the great pay and benefits!  Not!  Whatever it is, please keep it coming!

See Ya!
Van Vangor

This author mentions several modules which could benefit from the approach taken by the Events team.

I'd like to add the Feedback module to this list. So far as I know it has not progressed either.

Now hopefully the team can figure out how to pace themselves so they don't get burned out, this is important to long-term sustainability.

Thank you, Tom

Tom and Van,

I highly appreciate your words of praise for the Events team. They simply delivered and I congratulate them as well. They even managed to help Gallery on a thing or two :). This simple post is enough reward for those of us that donate time to the project.

Just to be clear, I should make note of the uninformed criticism to Gallery. I don't like raising the volunteer flag, but it is something that ALWAYS influences projects. After all, as noted in the first post, a module is the result of the individual strengths of the team members and the collective team organization. But that is not the whole story, and as Van's post says, a few members cannot drive the results.

As the team lead, I have failed to enable others to be self-sufficient when I am not available. However, my team failed to rise to the occasion as well. These issues are being corrected as I write this and hopefully the results will be visible soon. In the future I am trying to ensure that we remain productive even when other obligations force some members to go into short pauses.