Having the Adobe Community Professional as a part of my email sig, bio etc. is something that people often wonder what it means. My whole entire signature is actually pretty funny with all the Adobe stuff I have in there. User Group Manager, Certified Instructor, Adobe Professional (we do demos for Adobe), and Community Professional. So what is it all about?
I have been a part of the program for several years now. What most people don’t know is that we have to reapply to be in the program every 6 months. Well that was the case at least in the beginning. You are judged by Product Managers and Evangelists inside Adobe on your past accomplishments. It has done a lot for me over the years to push myself and strive to do and be that much more than I would have otherwise. In what way you ask?
Being an Instructor has always been a huge part of who I am. I can’t tell you how much I love seeing the light bulb go off when someone finally gets how to do something that saves them time in their day. So, a natural extension of that was doing the videos for Total Training for instance. I was horrible at it in the beginning but really enjoy it now. One wouldn’t think it’d be that much different than actually training, but it is; lots different. It took up most of my time the first half of 2010. I got pretty familiar with New York in the process. 
I’ve written articles, and spoken at a ton of conferences. For the Professional program, I already do demos for CS4 and now CS5, so I love speaking. Spreading the workflow word when and wherever I can. Which lead to the D2W conference last year. We had a fantastic time, and are doing it again this year. Bigger and better of course with a bigger list of rock stars. Lots of great stuff going on for sure.
Each time I reapply I kind of hold my breath to see if I’ll get back in. The community means a lot to me. These are a lot of people I consider my extended family. People I can’t wait to see at the next conference. Funny, but I have hardly anyone in my town I hang out with. It is my fellow community members I’d rather talk to online. That is because these are the cream of the crop. I learn something new every day from these folks. People who are just as ambitious and driven, and most importantly, passionate as I am. You wouldn’t think so, but that is hard to find. I call it the 80/20 rule in motion. Maybe more like the 90/10 rule now. These are the top 10% in their field. Why *wouldn’t* I want to hang with these folks.
So I hope I am making it clearer why it means so much to me to be included in this Community program. I am just as honored today to be included as the day I was added to the program. I am sure I’d still do the majority of what I do without it. But, just like going to the gym at the same time every day where you get to know people, and know they’d notice if you weren’t there, being in the program makes me want to do more.
Thanks to the Community team, for allowing me in again, and congratulations to all the new folks. I am thrilled to be an Adobe Community Professional again for 2011. Lets see what we can accomplish this year.
