Memos to Members/1 November 2004

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Date:    Mon, 01 Nov 2004 07:42:48 EST
To:      sage-members@sage.org
From:    Geoff Halprin <geoff@sage.org>
Subject: [SAGE] SAGE Memo to Members - October 2004


SAGE Memo to Members - October 2004
-----------------------------------

In This Issue:
 1. The creation of an independent SAGE
 2. Association operations
 3. The Chuck Yerkes award
 4. LISA 2004



Greetings one and all,

This is a very exciting time for SAGE.

As you are aware, SAGE is separating from USENIX, and becoming
a non-profit corporation in its own right. We believe strongly
that this is essential for the future health of the organisation,
and will allow us to pursue our vision of the future of system
administration as a profession, and of SAGE as the professional
association for system administrators.

For all of the obvious and valuable synergies between SAGE and USENIX,
the two organisations have always had different and sometimes
conflicting agendas. With this new phase of SAGE's existence, we will
be able to continue to work closely with USENIX as in the past, but we
will now also be able to address our broader agenda as a professional
association.

In the short term, there will obviously be some teething problems, and
some delays in introducing new programs. We ask for your patience, and
of course, for your contributions.

In this issue, we have included some more detail about the transition
process, as well as a number of other topics. We hope you enjoy the
read.

There will be an extended community meeting at LISA. We hope to see
many of you there.


Warm regards,

The SAGE Interim Board
(Geoff Halprin, David Parter, Trey Harris, Lorette Cheswick)
board@sage-members.org



### 1. The Creation of an Independent SAGE

As you will be aware from the previous few memos, SAGE is in the
process of creating a separate non-profit organization, independent
of USENIX, to which all SAGE activities, assets and members will be
transferred.

There are essentially three phases to this process:
  1. Create the new legal entity;
  2. Transfer assets; and
  3. Complete the transition.

This first step includes registering the non-profit corporation,
writing the initial set of bylaws and policies, and submitting
paperwork to the IRS to register for non-profit status.

It has been the intent of the transition board to complete this
first step by LISA 2004, which is now only a few weeks away. We
are on track with this first milestone.

Once we complete this work, and the USENIX Board certifies that
we have completed the tasks necessary, we will begin the phased
transition of services and members to this new entity. We will
be doing this in a staggered fashion over several months, in
order to minimise the impact on our services.

Six to twelve months after step 2 is concluded, the new SAGE will
demonstrate to the USENIX Board that we have met our obligations and
are a viable entity, at which point the transition will be completed
with the final transfer of SAGE assets to the new SAGE.



### 2. Association Operations

As part of creating an ongoing concern, we must look at how to staff
the association. The two major options are to staff a new office from
scratch, or to outsource management to an organisation that
specialises in provision of association management services.

To explore our options further, in September the board issued a
Request For Proposals (RFP) to a number of assocation management
companies through the International Assocation of Association
Management Companies. [Say that seven times fast!]

We have received 17 proposals, and are now in the process of
evaluating these in order to determine whether one of these companies
represents a good fit for SAGE and will help us to deliver services
and grow the organisation.

In the meantime, services continue to be provided by USENIX, and
we are assembling teams to manage the transition of services and
IT functions.



### 3. Chuck Yerkes Award

As subscribers to sage-members are aware, Chuck Yerkes, a valued
member of the SAGE community, passed away on August 27th. This is a
terrible loss to the SAGE/system administration community. Chuck was a
regular contributor to the list, and always helpful and generous with
his time and knowledge.

In honour of his many contributions, SAGE is pleased to announce that
we have created a new award:

  "The Chuck Yerkes Award for outstanding individual contribution on
  member forums."

  (a.k.a. "The Yerkes Award for Conspicuous Generosity of Clue.")

This will be an annual award, presented to the person (or people)
judged to have most significantly contributed to the mentoring of
their peers through contributions on the various SAGE member
forums (sage-members, SAGEnews, SAGEwire, IRC, etc.).

The inaugural award will be presented at LISA 2004 in Atlanta.



### 4. LISA 2004

We are in the run up to LISA, and the program looks as good as ever!

LISA continues to be the preeminent systems administration conference
on the yearly calendar. It is the most significant training and
professional development opportunity for you and your colleagues. This
year there are training sessions (tutorials) on every day. The
conference program is, again, an excellent, wide-ranging collection of
research and practical papers covering all aspects of the profession.
Lee Damon and his team have done a fantastic job pulling together this
conference.

So, have you registered? http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa04/

LISA remains the major SAGE member event of the year. SAGE will be
conducting an extended community meeting at LISA, to give us time to
hear from you about your concerns and desires for the organisation.

If you or your colleagues hail from the US South East (Georgia,
Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, DC, Virginia, Tennessee), then this is
the first time that LISA has been in the area in quite a while. We
would like to encourage you to pass on the conference information to
all your peers in the area.

We hope to see you there.

-- 
The SAGE Transition Team
board@sage-members.org