Memos to Members/13 October 2005

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               SAGE  - The People Who Make IT Work

                    OCTOBER MEMO TO MEMBERS

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  Please Email board@sage-members.org with any questions, comments,
      or ideas.  We always want to hear from our membership.

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In this memo:

1.  Register for LISA now!
2.  Resume Standards Project
3.  Bitpusher becomes first Gold Sponsor
4.  Ethics Statement Review
5.  State of USENIX transition
6.  Geoff Halprin Resigns from SAGE Board

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* LISA 2005

Early registration for LISA 2005 is now open.  LISA is the premier system
adminstration conference, co-sponsored by USENIX and SAGE. This year's 
LISA will include day long workshops on specific topics in system 
administration, an excellent program of technical workshops and tutorials, 
and the same great community experience and "hallway track".  LISA is 
the best chance all year to gain a working knowledge of all the trends 
in system administration, not just one specific technology.

Don't wait until the last minute - register for LISA 2005 today.  Hotel
room blocks fill up early, and early registration closes Nov 18th.  SAGE 
is planning a *lot* of fun stuff to highlight and kick off our new 
programs -- LISA 2005 is not one to miss!

Register now at http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa05

* Resume Standards Project

The new SAGE Board of Directors is considering a project to create a
standardized form for the "skills" section of system administrator 
resumes and job postings.  

The intent of this project is to provide standard language guidelines 
for both writers and readers of resumes.  Resume writers then could make
their level of skills clear in each area, and hiring managers would have
much less guesswork when confronted by a list of techonlogies and skills.  
Our aim is to create better matches between job hunters and employers,
returning real meaningful language to resumes and avoiding laundry lists
of keywords. 

This project is in its early stages, and is currently charged with 
producing an initial report.  Trey Harris is leader the effort, and 
is looking for volunteers to explore the issue further.  If you are 
interested in this issue, please subscribe to the mailing list by 
sending a  message to 

resume-interest-request@sage-members.org 

with the subject line "subscribe".

* Bitpusher welcomed as first Founding Gold Sponsor

BitPusher, LLC, the San Francisco Bay Area's premier provider of managed 
information technology services for small and medium-sized businesses, has
generously donated extensive services to SAGE for hosting our website and
other online requirements at their facility.  The SAGE Board in return
has named them our first Founding Sponsor, at the Gold level of sponsorship.

BitPusher's generosity means that the SAGE online presence will be hosted 
in a state of the art facility with top notch uptime, services, and 
reliability.  

BitPusher's website is http://www.bitpusher.com.  Please be sure to check
them out if you are looking for top quality managed hosting services.

* Code of Ethics Review

The SAGE Code of Ethics was adopted in 2003. it is intended that the Code 
of Ethics should be broad enough to not need frequent revision, but strong 
enough to serve the Profession, individual Practitioners and system 
administration organizations.

To take into account any deficiencies found in the Code after adoption, and 
to adapt to changing circumstances, a two-year review was mandated at the 
time of adoption, with the expectation that future reviews every four years 
would be appropriate. It is not intended that this review entail a major 
rewriting of the Code of Ethics. If the review comittee feels that a major 
rewrite is necessary, it should provide an explanation in the submitted 
recomendations, but not undertake that task.

The Code of Ethics Review Committee is charged with organizing the review 
of the SAGE Code of Ethics (http://www.sage.org/ethics.mm):

  - Appropriate attention should be paid to publicity, both for the sake 
    of an informed review involving our members, and as an opportunity 
    for publicity and raising awareness in the broader sysadmin community 
    and perhaps even further (managers, etc).

  - Discussion with the community should include a public event at LISA 
    2005 and online discussions, using SAGE online resources and others 
    as deemed appropriate by the committee

  - The Committee is not charged with redrafting the Code in its entirety. 
    If the Committee believes this necessary, it should make a recommendation 
    to the Board, but should not proceed.
  
  - A report and recommendations (separate from the report) should be 
    submitted to the Board no later than Feb 1, 2006:

Stephen Potter is working with the Leadership Committee to assemble the
Code of Ethics Review Committee.  If you are interested in this effort, 
please contact the Leadership Committee Chair, Greg Rose, at ggr at 
qualcomm.com.

* State of the USENIX Transition

The USENIX negotiations continue, though lately we have met with some 
difficulty.  We hope to resolve these issues soon and reach an agreement
that is best for USENIX, SAGE, and the members of both.  More details will
soon be forthcoming about the shape of the agreement.  

* Geoff Halprin resigns from the SAGE Board. 

Geoff Halprin tendered his resignation from the SAGE Board on October 10th,
effective immediately.  He took this action on advice of counsel regarding 
the negotiations in progress between USENIX and SAGE.  Geoff continues as 
a member of the USENIX Board of Directors.

The rest of the Board reluctantly accepted Geoff's resignation, with 
profound regret and deep thanks for his extended service to SAGE.  
Geoff will of course continue to be a member of SAGE and be involved 
in our future. 

Feel free to contact the SAGE Board at board@sage-members.org with 
questions or concerns.