Exclusive Interview: Zach Wigal of Gamers Outreach Foundation, Microsoft MVP award winner

When I last spoke with Zach Wigal, founder of Gamers Outreach Foundation, he was just finishing up a Halo 3 tournament in January to raise funds for his community.

I caught up with Wigala few weeks ago and learned he has just earned the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award.

Wigal said he only became aware of the program a few months ago after doing an interview with Chris Erickson of 360StyleCast podcast and added that Erickson has been an MVP for a while, this year being Erickson’s third award.

“He was really the person who introduced me to the award,” Wigal said. “Prior to meeting Chris (Erickson) I hadn’t heard of it. Roughly 2 to 3 months ago, Chris told me he wanted to nominate me for the MVP award. I still only had a very basic understanding of the award, so I more or less went about my business without saying much to any of my friends. Sure enough, I got a few e-mails from Microsoft, and on October 1, (2008), they welcomed me to the MVP program. Now, I’m very familiar with what the award is.”

I contacted Michael Fosmire, MVP Lead, to find out more about this MVP award.

“The MVP Award is a worldwide program intended to express Microsoft’s appreciation for those who are leaders in the technical community as it relates to Microsoft products,” Fosmire explained. “We recognize individuals who voluntarily share their expertise with others – either in online communities such as forums, newsgroups and websites or in offline communities such as user group meetings or industry conferences. There are no hard and fast criteria about how an individual receives the award. It’s meant to express our appreciation for exceptional contributions over the past 12 month period.”

Fosmire said Microsoft’s goal is to recognize those few who really stand out as making significant positive impact in the community.

“We were thrilled to recognize Zach for his Xbox community participation and leadership,” Fosmire said and explained what happens after receiving the award. “He’ll have a number of benefits that are offered to all MVPs and he’ll have opportunities to provide feedback to Microsoft about our products and we’ll ensure that he’s enabled with information that he can use to serve the community.”

I asked Wigal what the awards meant to him personally and he said he was more than excited to receive it.

“It’s an honor to be a part of the MVP program. I’m very passionate about what I do, so to me, this award is like a form of encouragement. I’m very thankful that Chris nominated me in the first place, and I’m equally thankful to Microsoft for taking the time to consider me as an award recipient,” Wigal said. “To me, receiving this award is like Microsoft’s little ‘wink of approval.’ So, from that perspective, I suppose Microsoft felt like I was qualified because of Gamers Outreach Foundation, to become a part of the MVP program.”

Wigal said earning the award would not change his role within Gamers Outreach Foundation, instead the award will help provide potential opportunities for GOF and Microsoft to work together on future projects.

“Only time will tell. At the end of the day, I’m just the guy that happens to provide direction for our foundation’s activities,” he said. “There’s a whole group of guys I work with who are the ones that really make everything possible.As far as Gamers Outreach Foundation is concerned, this is something I believe in. Gamers Outreach Foundation has gone from a few high school kids wanting to host their own Halo tournament, to a vision of helping others through the use of video games. It’s come a long way in a very short period of time, but it still has much further to go. Interview me again in 5 years, I’ll fill you in on our progress.”

The MVP Award Program has been in existence for about 15 years, having grown from 30 MVPs to over 4,000 today Fosmire said. “Originally, we recognized those individuals who were leaders in English speaking technical newsgroups. But we’ve grown to recognize MVPs from over 90 countries and 30 languages who are active in online and offline communities spanning almost 90 Microsoft products and technologies.”

Read [Gamertell] Site [Microsoft MVP] Site [Gamers Outreach Foundation] Site [360style.net]