As a student that is piloting the new Bachelor of Computer Science: System Administration at Bellevue College in Washington State, I have to say that LOPSA was really just a strange acronym on my Instructor's Podium. Until I asked. I am a Student member now, and I work as an Intern under Ski Kacoroski, and I wouldn't trade the connections and people I've meet in the discussion thread. I have yet to make it to a meeting at U-Dub, but that is just a matter of time and parking fees.
What I mean to tell you is that just having a national group that I can ask questions to, listen in on relevant discussions to my chosen career, and have a chance at joining Mentor-ships and extra training is PRICELESS! And I would have never thought about Systems Administration unless I had asked about what LOPSA was. So, Perhaps the value to us up and comers, the new guys, is that we have this resource of solid professionals and veterans to gain knowledge, training and advice from. So as has been said before, LOPSA needs to get out more! I for one would LOVE to travel around to local High schools and maybe spread the word about Systems Administration as a possible career. When I pay more than the student rate I may have more to say. But for now. I feel I get a lot for what I pay for. Thank you Denise A. Northshore School District Server Team ----- Original Message ----- From: "Will Dennis" <[email protected]> To: "Ski Kacoroski" <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2014 9:18:28 AM Subject: Re: [lopsa-discuss] Why don't people join Lopsa? I value the mailing lists (and much less so the IRC) but those are really the only two things that LOPSA (National) provides that are of any use to me (i.e. I'd be sad if they went away.) Not sure though it takes a nat'l organization to run a mailing list and IRC channel tho ;) I think sysadmin folks are much like cats - fiercely independent, mainly solitary, and only band together for utility (problem solving, job finding, etc.) Therefore, I'm not sure a nat'l org of such folks could ever grow too big (except for the outgoing subset that has already joined.) not trying to be negative, just my honest opinion. Honestly, if not for the bundled LOPSA membership that I get from attending PICC/LOPSA-EAST conf, my membership would have lapsed a long time ago, because everything I want that LOPSA provides is free to anyone (aforementioned mailing lists and IRC.) Thanks, Will > On Jul 31, 2014, at 11:36 AM, Ski Kacoroski <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 10:46:34 -0400 > Ross West <[email protected]> wrote: > >> It's been an interesting discussion recently about net neutrality - >> one that I hope people start realizing it doesn't have a simple cut >> and paste solution. LOPSA is lucky enough that lots of people on >> here hold senior positions in different sides of the discussions, so >> many viewpoints can be heard/seen. >> >> Let's bust out the next one. >> >> Vince Cerf publicly went out and asked why the ACM isn't getting >> programmers to join lately: >> http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2639990 >> >> The comment section makes for a very interesting read on the problems >> of organizations like ACM (and Lopsa/et al) on losing relevance in >> the current online world. >> >> While ACM focuses on programming, it's fairly obvious that Lopsa is >> in the same type of boat. >> >> Do you (as a reader of this mailing list) have thoughts on what would >> make Lopsa more relevant? > > Ross, > > Thanks for starting this thread. I hope there are lots of reqponses as > we are holding the Directors Face to Face meeting this weekend as can > use the input from members. From my experience, LOPSA is facing these > issues: > > - Lots of high quality free content elsewhere and not enough content on > LOPSA (content is expensive and hard to create and maintain), > - As system admins become less general and more specialized, there are > many other websites and organizations that are better suited for > system admins (e.g. if you are a VMware admin you attend VMware > conferences and user groups instead of LOPSA), > - Lack of an external force that makes it worthwhile to join LOPSA such > as required training or certifications (like a Nurse or an > Engineer). > - No need for any formal training for a system admin. Many system > admins just learn by themselves and do see the need to join any group. > - The general public has no clue what system admins are or do so there > is no pressure to have them be certified (like there is with > Engineers) and the younger folks do not think of it as a career. > > So what can LOPSA do to grow its membership? You can do this by: > > - making it so attractive that they want to join (hard to do in our > well connected world where knowledge is just a search away) > - requiring membership to access a benefit (e.g. the recent changes to > Mentorship requiring both mentor and protegee to be members) > - having people join as part of some other thing (e.g. via conferences) > - having people required to join as part of employeement > > Here are few ideas (in no particular order): > > - Find an area that is not served by current groups and websites and > focus on that. This will limit LOPSA's size to that niche. > - Expose more people to system administration as a career via public > outreach (e.g. local groups, high schools, colleges) > - Partner with other technology groups by offering dual memberships, > swapping speakers, etc. > - Partner with companies to help train and mentor system admins for the > company if they will support LOPSA > - Work with HR departments to have them require an Ethics certification > (which would require a LOPSA membership) for system admins. The idea > is that since system admins have access to all kinds of critical > data, companies would like some sort of assurance that they > understand ethics. > - Focus on conferences like Usenix. > - Partner with colleges starting up system admin programs to provide > mentorship and teaching materials > - Create unique content that is not available elsewhere > > Appreciate your comments and thoughts. > > cheers, > > ski > > -- > "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it > connected to the entire universe" John Muir > > Chris "Ski" Kacoroski, [email protected], 206-501-9803 > or ski98033 on most IM services > > _______________________________________________ > 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/ _______________________________________________ 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/ _______________________________________________ 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/
