I founded the SharePoint Users group  of Northern VA in 11/05 and would be
glad to share some of the tips  and tricks  of the trade. My current employer
is directly involved in the group, but I maintain an independent board of
directors that runs it.

It will provide a recognized group  of "Power Users" for other employees
to use as an expertise resource and aspire to join.

It also will encourage and empower an ongoing
learning/training/knowledge sharing environment.

It should be easier to start  than the Mid America User Group that I
started in Kansas City since:

- You have core already identified: Top Level Admins

- You have an email list to use in announcing the organization,
meetings, etc.

- Since it is supported by management, participation during
work hours should not be an issue.

- I do not know the size of your organization, but vendors
should be happy to have product presentations at least online, if not in
person.

I am very relieved that our local  group is now an non-profit
organization with it's own board of directors.

A guy I've met at an Atlanta-area SharePoint user's group  works for a company
here, which has a large SharePoint installed base. I believe he may have
mentioned at a recent user's group meeting that they have an internal user's
group. I don't have his contact  information, but I will mention it to him at our
next meeting, which is within the next two weeks.

I've seen two forms of Corporate user  Groups: Formal and Informal.

The formal flavor is used extensively and they even have "lunch and
learns" quarterly.

The informal flavor consists of a company  FAQ, schedule of SharePoint
specific events and has designated Portal Admins based on company
division, which act as "moderators" for their group.

It amazes me that despite the apparent number of users of this product,
collectively we aren't even scratching the surface of the pervasiveness
of this thing.

I too have seen this used to help drive adoption and communicate best
practices. I highly encourage the formation of such a group  within your
corporation.

We have multiple user  groups internally, one for each major app we use

They agree and resolve between them any issues they have with the solution, how
it should be developed etc

The business analyst for that app also attends meetings and the group  helps him
prioritise tasks

So, the upshot is the users can't complain as they decided what the solution
should do and what bits of development should be done first.

I to have heard of this as well. Check with your MS Sales Rep or the MS
Technology Evangelists... the good ones have lists of this stuff..