RE: Chapters now in open forum?
As Dave has explained, behind the scenes we had some discussion about bringing the Chapter sites into the open. As one of the people behind the idea to make the chapters more public, I hope that all chapters will benefit from this decision. Hopefully, it'll drive more people through the chapter forums and to the chapter sites themselves. One of the intentions is to raise awareness and hopefully, get more people out to some chapter events. From there, the members can demonstrate the value of being a contributing (as in dues paying) member.
When the idea was put forward, it was embraced very positively by the new board members. We considered it earlier, but had to hold off for a number of reasons. What we are trying to do, is make incremental improvements over time. Hopefully, they will be seen as such. I believe that these will become more visible shortly.
Look for some "tuning" of the organization of the conferences to make them more condensed, and hopefully, easier to navigate.
Feedback is always soliciated either in the forums, or by Private Message.