Thanks, Mark. I should point out that Australian companies, in general, are no better than you've described. Looks like it's a malady to which we have all succumbed.
My reasoning for going to SHARE comes from the lack of any suitable training in Australia. The user group conference over here (Interaction Australia) is combined z/p/i/xSeries, lasts for only three days (one of which is Sunday), and is *never* held in my city. Forget IBM Learning Services in Australia; there's not enough demand for mainframe courses here for them to schedule any but the most basic, and you could get a team to SHARE for less than they charge to run individual training. I just looked at the schedule for Interaction, and was hard-pressed to fill each of the three days. On the contrary, I just downloaded the scheduler for SHARE 99 and ended up with a schedule filled for all five days, with some sessions booked five-deep. I can understand companies over here having difficulties with training, given the (apparent) quality and quantity. However, when SHARE is only a couple of hours away -- or eleven by car ;) -- it's an entirely different value proposition as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, back to our normal programming... Cheers, Vic On 06.06.2002 at 00:32:55, "Post, Mark K" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Vic, > > It comes down to basic short-sightedness and stupidity, two things that are > never in short supply in managers, even in America. :) A lot of managers > view training as the first place to cut when the budget reductions come > (every quarter now for many). It doesn't hurt day-to-day operations (_now_) > so why not? Others view things like SHARE as a perquisite or reward, > particularly since they wind up being places like San Francisco, etc. They > don't look far enough out to realize that their people have to get training > _somehow_, or the whole shop will be hurting eventually. Or they insist > that computer-based training is all they can afford and that anyone would > need. Of course those pesky day-to-day tasks keep getting in the way, but > the employees will _eventually_ train themselves. :( > > Mark Post
