I've been holding off on replying to this thread, but I'm going to take part now. Honestly, the name of the group is not the problem. If cute, or even stupid names doomed products, the "iPad" wouldn't have created the market impact that it did.
As I see it, the problems that LOPSA has are: 1) Lack of membership 2) Lack of purpose 3) Lack of focus 4) Lack of direction The first, lack of membership, is a critical problem, because without members, we're completely ineffective. The last three sound the same at first glance, but are very different. Addressing our purpose: This is the direct quote from the LOPSA bylaws, online at http://governance.lopsa.org/LOPSA_Bylaws#Purpose Article 1, Section 2: The Association is dedicated to the furtherance of all aspects of system administration as a profession. Through: education; development, contribution to and/or promotion of standards of practice and education; recognition; and published media, the organization furthers the scope of system administration and promotes activities that advance the state of the art and the community. So we are "dedicated to the furtherance of all aspects of system administration as a profession", and our various activities are geared to the promotion of standards of practice and education, recognition, and we're supposed to "further the scope of system administration" (what does that mean?) and "promote activities that advance the state of the art and the community", which has _nothing_ to do with the *profession* of system administration. According to our bylaws, our purpose is vague (point 2), and without a single focus (point 3). We, as an organization, have declared ourselves broadly enough that the few active volunteers we have are multitasking to the point that we don't get anything done. To correct the problem, I think we should tackle things in stages. Stage 1: Be an association OF system administrators, not FOR system administrators. Keep the name (league is fine), and keep the benefits that we have, and dedicate ourselves to growing the group. Advocacy at this stage will get us no where, because we don't have the political or financial clout necessary to make a difference, and our membership is too small to hold any sway. Don't spend resources on things that would be awesome but are unrealistic at this stage. We need more system administrators, and the best advantage that we can offer is that we build communities of system administrators under the LOPSA group name. Stage 2: After membership hits critical mass (I've heard the number 1,000 tossed around, but I don't know what it is in reality), develop two specific goals of the organization, the first of which is achievable within 2-3 years. Devote teams to that goal, and achieve it. Everyone who's not actively working toward that goal should be busy continuing the original plan, which is building new LOPSA communities, and getting new members. Stage 3: Leverage the first goal to achieve the second goal, and in addition to working on the second goal, assign a team to advise the leadership on what the next goal should be. Repeat ad infinitum. We're not only doing Stage 1 (moderately), we're doing Stage 2 (poorly) and Stage 3 (which doesn't work without stage 2 already being done). By focusing on one problem at a time and throwing our efforts into that, we stand a much better chance of achieving all of our goals over time. We just need patience, dedicated leadership, and a body of membership that understands that progress is made through cooperation, not an insistence on being right. What I'd like to see is the leadership of LOPSA discuss our purpose (since that was the original point addressed by this thread), and decide if clarification is needed in our bylaws. Then discuss with the rest of the membership through this mailing list (point 4). Transparency makes everyone feel better, and knowing that the leadership of LOPSA is aware of, discussing, and taking concerns seriously goes a long way to easing worries, and when discussion with the membership is held in the open, I think we have an opportunity to learn from each other and progress as a group. I'm interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on this email. --Matt On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 12:31 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Stephen Potter made the following keystrokes: > >On 1/6/2011 7:27 PM, Robert Hajime Lanning wrote: > >> Yes, but... > >> For most people, the first thing that comes to mind is "bowling league". > >> So, we have an up hill battle, just because of our name choice. > > > >So, the League of Women Voters, the League of Nations, the National > >Football League, the Animal Welfare League, Major League Baseball, > >League of Voters, and others have an uphill battle, just because of > >their name choice? > > > >-spp > > I don't tie the League part to being the problem, but the acronym. > These other organizations didn't appear to spend time/effort on > coming up with an acronym to create their organization name. > You don't say neffel or emelbee, it's "N F L" or "M L B". > The League of Voters isn't called LOVE. > > I'm somewhat amused by this thread and how there is now a consideration > of how the name LOPSA may be impacting the "Professional" image that > is desired. > > When I hear LOPSA, the first thing that comes to mind is Lhasa Apso. > You'll find people with Lopsa Apso Puppies for sale.. > As you start typing Lopsa into the google search, at lops you get > things like lopsided, lops, and lopsa opsa, not this group. > Yes just lopsa gets to this groups pages, but that's not a click choice. > > The Lhasa Apso falls into the catagory of "Toy Dog". While not > of the totally yippy dog variety, it's main purpose was to be a > sentinal that just made noise to alert the bigger dogs (mastif) and > monks of an intruder. It really couldn't do much on it's own. > It's only about a foot tall and 15lbs in size. While the dog > can be trained, it's also of the size and energy to be always > underfoot. Personally I find toy dogs more an annoyance than > service a useful purpose. > > Now if I start drawing some similarities here... (insert tongue in cheek) > Much like the dog, the name LOPSA was chosen because it was "cute". > If you watched "Big Bang" last night, note that Sheldon spent time > coming up with a name for their app that resulted in the acronym > being Sheldon. While others were putting effort into doing things > useful to the project, Sheldon was spinning his wheels on less > productive fronts. > > LOPSA is a small group. It's growing, but it's not a big dog in > the market. Many more people have heard of Usenix, SAGE, or even > UniForum than have heard of LOPSA. Granted they have been around > for much longer, but the analogy is there. > > While the lhasa-apso's may have been important to the tibeten monks, > this really is a very small group in the overall scheme of things. > These dogs didn't make their mark across other "related" groups. > ie they are not used to alert of intruders in the vatican, etc. > While significant to the small group of people, most didn't know > they existed or even care. > > In an earlier posting in this thread, it was suggested that LOPSA > needs to find things that are not being done by these other > organizations to make it's mark. Kind of like the toy dog finding > it's nitch to be useful. In the dog case, the nitch was to call > in the big dogs as needed. LOPSA really doesn't want that image. > > LhasaApso translates into "bearded dog". Kind of like many of > the bearded admins out there. > > /~\ The ASCII Gene Rackow email: [email protected] > \ / Ribbon Campaign Cyber Security Office voice: 630-252-7126 > X Against HTML Argonne National Lab > / \ Email! 9700 S. Cass Ave. / Argonne, IL 60439 > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > -- LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST? COOKIE MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
