[BBLISA] IT Beer & Pizza social

[Bill Bogstad]

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 10:53 AM, Dean Anderson <dean at av8.com> wrote:
> I'll try to make it...  6pm? 7pm?
>
> BTW, What happened to our fearless meeting organizer?

He repeatedly said that he wasn't going to have the time to do it
anymore (more or less). As a former organizer, I completely
sympathize.  After a while, you can just get tired or have your
priorities changed (my wife gave birth to twins).  BBLISA is a
volunteer organization, the best way to get something to happen is to
do it yourself.  Either find a speaker or volunteer to give a  talk
yourself.

 I'm of the opinion that most of our presentations should be done by
our members. Does that mean that they mean they may be less polished
then some of our previous speakers?  Yes, but acting as a system
administrator's version of  Toastmasters
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toastmasters_International) isn't
necessarily a bad thing. In any case, many people say they go to
LISA/USENIX for the hallway track anyway.  BBLISA meetings can
certainly provide a similar function.  I may be particularily
sensitive to this, since for much of my career I was the only sysadmin
in my department. Having a venue to talk to people with similar
interests/problems can be helpful.  Some people use email/irc/etc. for
this, but face to face can work out better.

Personally, I haven't worked professionally as a system administrator
in 6? years now, so I'm not sure I even know what you people do
anymore. :-))  So don't look to me to give a talk....

Bill Bogstad