<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Bill,<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"><DIV>You are correct. Most people in attendance of BayLisa are in the "Silicon Valley" region. I cannot personally speak for them, but</DIV><DIV>my guess is that Systems Administrators in San Francisco, the Peninsula, the North Bay, and the East Bay would love to have a</DIV><DIV>professional organization filled with peers that they could network with. I know I would.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Just from a financial point of view, sysadmins are not buying housing in the over-priced silicon valley. The SAGE salary survey is </DIV><DIV>proof that most systems administrators cannot afford the valley anymore. Almost every sysadmin I know who has purchased housing </DIV><DIV>in the past 5 years has. They've all moved to Dublin, Pittsburg, San Ramon, even Santa Rosa. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Beyond housing problems, not all companies with technology needs are in the "Silicon Valley" (man I hate that term). A lot of our colleagues work</DIV><DIV>in the further reaches of the east bay at security companies, financial institutes, etc. These are all people with great potential contributions to BayLisa, </DIV><DIV>none of whom have the time to commute to BayLisa. Cupertino is not central to anything but Santa Clara, San Jose, or Sunnyvale.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Is the goal to inject some new blood into BayLisa, or to maintain the status quo? If it's to maintain the status quo of a stodgy, decades old group content</DIV><DIV>with sitting around and playing remember when, then by all means, keep the meetings at Apple, but consider changing the name to SouthBayLisa?If the</DIV><DIV>goal, however, is to reinvigorate this as a professional group for networking, information exchange, collaboration, and professional advancement, then consider</DIV><DIV>that the other 3/4 of us will never find Cupertino convenient for anything (except pot shots).</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>(BTW, this rant wasn't directed at Bill, just at the notion that the world revolves around Sunnyvale. It doesn't.)</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><DIV><DIV>On Oct 12, 2005, at 10:44 PM, Bill Ward wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">On 10/12/05, <B class="gmail_sendername">Danny Howard</B> <<A href="mailto:dannyman@toldme.com">dannyman@toldme.com</A>> wrote:<DIV><SPAN class="gmail_quote"></SPAN><BLOCKQUOTE class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Eh? Location is up for debate?<BR><BR>I vote for "anywhere on the BART network, especially Oakland or Berkeley"</BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR> That would be a great idea except I think most people who would attend are in the Silicon Valley region. If near BART is a key criterion, why aren't there a lot of successful user groups in SF and the East Bay? Or are there, and we just don't hear much about them?<BR> </DIV></DIV><BR> Public transport is great, and it sucks that we don't have BART 'round the bay. Caltrain's pretty good too. But they don't go to Cupertino. I don't know any big companies willing to host BayLISA that are near rail in the south bay. Oracle in Redwood Shores is close to Caltrain though, and I might be able to arrange for BayLISA to meet there if there was a lot of demand for it, however.<BR clear="all"><BR>-- <BR>Help save the San Jose Earthquakes - <A href="http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/">http://www.soccersiliconvalley.com/</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>