August 2004 Memo to Members (11 Aug 2004)

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Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 20:38:19 -0400
From: Geoff Halprin <geoff@sage.org>
To: sage-members@sage.org
Subject: [SAGE] August 2004 Memo to Members

SAGE Memo To Members - August 2004
----------------------------------

It has been a month since the previous update was sent to members.
It's time for another update.

To recap:
  At the June 27 USENIX Board of Directors meeting it was decided to
  dissolve the STG model governing SAGE, and to support the creation
  of an independent non-profit SAGE. USENIX is committed to continuing
  all SAGE services, and is continuing to operate those services
  during the transition period.

  The SAGE Executive Committee held a teleconference on July 7th to
  discuss the situation and how to proceed. The conclusion of the
  discussion is that moving ahead to form an independent SAGE is the
  right thing to do. Geoff Halprin, Trey Harris and David Parter were
  appointed to the core transition team, which will also serve as the
  interim board of the new organisation.

Since then, the following steps have been taken:

1. Lorette Cheswick has joined the Interim Board.

2. Lorette is organizing the paperwork and consulting with other non-
   profit organizations, lawyers and accountants with the intention of
   registering as a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization.
   Lorette has previous experience with several non-profits.

3. 23 members of the system administration community were invited to
   join the new SAGE Advisory Council, in order to give the interim
   board wider, more diverse points of view and experiences as we
   consider various issues in organizing the new SAGE.

   To date, the following people have joined the advisory council:

      Elizabeth Zwicky, Steve Simmons, Aeleen Frisch, Bill LeFebvre,
      Mark Verber, Donal Cunningham, Xev Gittler, Amy Rich,
      Tom Limoncelli, Mark Burgess, Alva Couch, David Blank-Edelman,
      Pat Wilson, Adam Moskowitz, Luke Kanies, Phil Kizer, and
      Marius Strom.

   We are awaiting responses from a few others. We may add further
   members to the council as appropriate.

4. Chris Palmer, Marius Strom and Phillip Steinbachs have helped us
   setup an interim mail server and wiki for use during the transition.
   (Normal services continue to be found at sage.org.)

   The interim board can be reached at <board@sage-members.org>.

5. The following tasks have been assigned to the members of the
   core team:

   Lorette Cheswick
    - Investigation and formation of legal structure (501c3).
    - Drafting of initial rules, by-laws and policies.

   Geoff Halprin
    - Operations model. As part of establishing a new assocation, we
      must address the areas of front-office and back-office functions
      (member enquiries, press enquiries, fulfillment, renewals, etc.)
 
   David Parter
    - Online services transition. Most of SAGE's services are delivered
      online, either via the web site or via mailing lists. Work must be
      performed to create the necessary infrastructure and to migrate
      services.

   Trey Harris
    - Draft an initial list of questions to submit to the advisory
      council.


### MOVING FORWARD

There are a number of steps involved in creating a new organisation,
and many choices we must make as we proceed along this path. We will
be seeking the advice of the council as appropriate, and we will be
seeking help from the greater membership. Some of the issues that will
be determined over the coming months are:

1. Governance issues

   Draft bylaws and policy documents will be drawn up and circulated
   to the advisory council for discussion.

2. Organizational/management issues

   We have to decide on how the organization will be managed. The two
   options are to hire an association management company or to hire a
   part-time office manager/administrative assistant to establish an
   office, maintain the books, and assist in organizing the various
   tasks.

3. Schedule and budget
     Geoff is investigating how best to address this area.

   A realistic schedule of milestones for both organizational
   objectives and for program transfer needs to be established.

   An interim budget for the organisation needs to be established.

4. IT plans

   We need to establish an IT infrastructure, both for the SAGE online
   presence and for "back office" operations.

5. Program plan

   We must develop an initial plan for which new programs to offer,
   and their relative priorities.


### TASK TEAMS/VOLUNTEERS

It is our intention to work with the advisory council and the wider
membership to recruit task-oriented volunteer teams to carry out
many of the organizational and progam-related tasks. Expect to hear
more about this in the next few weeks, as we identify specific areas
and tasks.


### IN CONCLUSION

SAGE is moving forward on its plan to create a viable, independent
professional assocation for system administrators. Much of this work
will be behind the scenes, but there will be significant venues for
members to contribute.

The most important things right now are to continue the activities of
the sage-members forum and the SAGE local groups, contribute news
articles to the sage-news editors, and to recruit attendees for the
annual LISA conference (http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa04/).

We welcome your comments and contributions.


Warm regards,

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