Rafael Dohms has a new post today promoting the benefits of local user groups (any of them, not just PHP) and talks about the "unsung heroes" of these groups that put the real effort in to make their groups better.

Its really a wonderful environment, especially for the members, who get to experience and benefit from various perks brought to them by the UG. In this whole scenario we have a few unsung heroes, the UG leaders. Fearless souls that sacrifice whatever free time they have to give back to the community and make our PHP world a better place.

He mentions the hard work of these local participants and talks a bit about some of the things they do to make their groups better - coordinating resources, a sacrifice of free time and being there to help when needed on whatever project might come around. Without these people, a lot of local PHP groups just wouldn't be what they are today.