Networking activities

Today a friend and I went to a Toastmasters meeting. They are always fun to go to (I've been to 2) because there's no pressure to be "correct" like when you give a presentation at work. I want to attend one more different meeting, and then need to choose which one I like the best and sign up. I'm trying to figure out what is important to me with these meetings. The first one was fairly large (30+ people) and had high energy. The meeting today was smaller so you could have a little more conversation, and while everyone was very nice, it didn't seem as energizing. So what do I want to give, and what do I want to get?

I am having a serious focus change in my activities for the rest of the year. If 80% of the jobs are gotton through networking, I need to increase the time allocated to that. For me that is difficult, but I'm going to do it! I am also going to increase the focus on getting the 2 Microsoft certifications that I've taken the training for. Those will be my 2 major focus's. Beyond that I will continue to apply to jobs, and to try to do a good job at that, but I don't know that I'll push beyond the UI requirements. So far applying for jobs hasn't gotton me anywhere.

It's 10:30am - on to the networking!!