LOPSA News

To Whom It May Concern,

Greetings - I am Andree Jacobson; currently CIO for the New Mexico
Consortium (a non-profit in Los Alamos, NM). I also run a small consulting
company that assists other local companies with systems design,
implementation, and training on computer systems. However, even outside the
professional world, I am a long time computer systems and networking
administrator. I’ve practically been on any system I could get my hands on
since before I started school, started small - but now it’s the very large
systems that tickle my mind. The point I’m trying to get across here, is
that I’m passionate about computers - one of man’s greatest technology
creations. I find it fascinating to see how we keep coming up with new
uses, how the field of Computer Science is still growing and morphing
rapidly, and we’re right here in the middle of it! It shows no sign of
slowing down either. I am however also baffled with the lackluster of
education and prestige for the field of Systems Administration. Ever since
the early days of computation it seems that the people who know how to
operate these systems always take a secondary role, yet the world’s whole
infrastructures rests in the hands of a handful of very talented
individuals who are often ignored. I’m running for the board of LOPSA
because I believe in the organization’s mission, and I would be proud the
have the opportunity to represent this particular group of people.*

Andree Jacobson

I have been an active and enthusiastic member of LOPSA East Tennessee
since 2013.  Participating in my local LOPSA chapter has been very valuable
to me personally, and I want to help others find that same value.

My experience in system administration is long and varied.  I did not
realize system administration was even a career when I started as a "lab
assistant" in college.  After a brief detour as a programmer, I returned to
jack-of-all-trades system administration at the beginning of the .com
bubble.  When that wild ride came to a spectacular end, I started working
at a Fortune 1000 as a network administrator.  I transitioned into
converged networking, storage, VMWare virtualization, and finally back to
server administration and AWS cloud infrastructure.  Two years ago, I
transitioned my career into management with a team of eight cloud
engineers.

LOPSA has been a wonderful thing for me to be a part of.  I have made
professional contacts and personal friends through the organization.  I
have learned new things from fellow presenters, and have learned public
speaking by giving my own presentations.  Once moving into management, I
have even been able to hire fellow LOPSA attendees.

In short, I value LOPSA, and I want to do my part to help this
organization.  As a Board member, I will first and foremost help support
and promote local chapters.  The many-to-many personal networking provided
by these groups is invaluable for those willing to take advantage of it.  I
also hope that my wide-ranging background will help me keep LOPSA a big
tent, with an eye towards people in other careers than just Windows and
Linux server administration.

Andy Cowell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-cowell-29865b8/

I have management and leadership experience. I started in tech support and worked my way up to Director of Operations. I now run a training company that trains sysadmins, DevOps engineers, and adjacent professions. I've also run the Los Angeles chapter of LOPSA ( https://www.meetup.com/lopsala/ ) since Sep 28, 2012 and we're now up to 374 members.

I've been attending USENIX conferences since my sysadmin career started in 1996 and I've been a member of LOPSA over 10 years. USENIX, SAGE and LOPSA are key ingredients in my professional success. I got into professional training through LOPSA: Lois B. Bennett tapped me to teach CFEngine at LOPSA University at Ohio Linux Fest in 2010. After this, in 2011, Mark Burgess asked me to cover his CFEngine class at USENIX ATC. Since then, I've been all over North America teaching hundreds of sysadmins at conferences and in corporate on-site classes.

I believe sysadmins are valuable because they do what it takes to keep the show on the road. Ours is an increasingly computerized civilization and Operations Engineers keep it going to no small extent.

I enjoy mentoring and apprenticing system administrators. LOPSA recognized this and awarded me Mentor of the Year in 2011.

I enjoy the sysadmin community so when the Leadership Committee came calling this year I knew I couldn't say "no, I'm busy" again. Yes, I'm busy, but LOPSA is an important part of my life. I must do more to support it.

Aleksey Tsalolikhin

The Leadership Committee is changing the timeline to allow more time to prepare the candidate slate and LOPSA Live sessions.

This allows a little more time for candidate nominations! If you'd like to nominate yourself or another member, please e-mail the Leadership Committee. The revised schedule is below:

June 9 - Final candidate slate and election open

June 30 - Close election

We'll send additional communications once LOPSA Live sessions are scheduled.

Your Leadership Committee has been working diligently behind the scenes to get you a strong candidate slate for the 2017 election! Your participation is key to us having a strong organization -- please plan to take part in the election. Here's our election timeline:

May 15 - Final slate and candidate statements

May 18 - LOPSA Live

May 31 - LOPSA Live

June 1 - Open election (Election can't open later than June 9)

June 23 - Close election (June 30 at the latest)

I was notified by John's son that he passed away on Jan 14th.  John was not only a very active member of LOPSA, its board, and the system admin community, but he was also an incredible friend and a mentor to me. John was always optimistic, kind, considerate, and willing to help anyone who asked.

John passed on his knowledge via his stories of working both as a system admin and in his previous career as a machinist and by posting at http://blogs.lopsa.org.  He was a typical system admin of his era with no formal training, just a fascination of computers and a talent for troubleshooting their problems.  He was as master at making systems work long past their EOL date as evidenced by his work on keeping SCO systems running at his job.

Even though John had health issues, I was constantly amazed how he never let them slow him down.  At the age most of us would be happy to retire he was still on the board, actively coaching football, and working. Many of you saw him at LISA in Boston.  A few days after the conference he had open heart surgery to replace a blocked artery.  I talked with John last week and he was so happy as he had more energy than he had in years and was looking forward to attending more conferences and keeping his "little hacker" of a granddaughter out of trouble.

John, I miss you very much.  Peace be with you.

Ski 

The elections for the 2016 LOPSA Board of Directors have concluded. The winners are George Beech, Brian Globerman, Scott Suehle, Thomas Uphill, and Steven VanDevender.

Big thanks to the Leadership Committee team and the candidates for their time. Without them, we would not have had an election.

The Leadership Committee is pleased to announce that they have opened the 2016 LOPSA board member elections.

Before voting, please take a moment to review the first and second LOPSALive sessions, where the candidates answered LOPSA member questions. Finally, review all the candidate statements.

Vote before the LC closes the polls on June 23 at 12:00AM Eastern.

Here is the chat log from tonight's LOPSA Live session.  Thank you to our moderator, our candidates, and our attendees!

Here is the chat log from tonight's LOPSA Live session.  Thank you to our moderator, our candidates, and our attendees!