Imminent Death of BayLISA / July Board Meeting Invitation

Tue Jun 15 12:44:53 PDT 2004

>Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 12:09:41 -0700
>From: Strata R Chalup <strata at virtual.net>
>Reply-To: strata at virtual.net
>To: BayLISA Board <blw at baylisa.org>, baylisa <baylisa at baylisa.org>

>In 2001 we celebrated BayLISA's 10th anniversary as the oldest sysadmin
>organization, predating the founding of even SAGE or New Jersey's
>venerable #group.  Here in 2004, we can't seem to even get speakers
>lined up more than a week in advance of the meeting.

>This sucks.  This sucks MIGHTILY.

Quite agreed.

I note that during the commute either last night or this morning, I had
the radio on KLIV during one of their nn:54 2-minute series on "The
Economy and Silicon Valley;" the interviewee commented that he'd been in
the Valley for some time, and there have always been economic cycles of
about 10 years duration (though the current recession, in his opinion,
seemed to be dragging on longer than usual).

Having been un{,der}employed myself for well over 2 years now, I can't
help but suspect that many of those who might otherwise contribute are
being adversely affected by the current phase of the economic cycle.  I
certainly know colleagues in BayLISA who show symptoms of depression.
(Caveat:  I am not now, nor have I ever been, a health care
professional.  The above is an observation from a sympathetic
perspective; it is certainly not a diagnosis.)  And when a person is
struggling to make ends meet, it can be difficult to allocate resources
to activities that are not perceived as essential.

So how do we get BayLISA to be perceived as *essential*?

The Murky News (and other sources) are reporting somewhat encouraging
signs -- of course, the statistics are all cooked depending on
whoever is funding the study in question.  On the other hand, a lot
of the economy appears based on the Tinkerbell Principle, so
truth/falsehood is less critical than "Does this support my beliefs?"
as far as the economy goes.  [No, I don't know if anyone else calls
it that, but figured that it captured the essence of the approach
succinctly.]

Would it, perhaps, be useful if BayLISA assisted in some way with
(re-)training?  Of course, it's easy for me to ask such things:  I tend
to cope by reacting to others' statements of needs or requirements,
rather than creating things like lesson plans....  :-{

I better cut this off now.

Peace,
david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill				david at catwhisker.org
I do not "unsubscribe" from email "services" to which I have not explicitly
subscribed.  Rather, I block spammers' access to SMTP servers I control,
and encourage others who are in a position to do so to do likewise.