I would say the mentorship program is HUGE. But, again, to my point earlier, the mentorship program drives membership to some extent (you have to be a member to be a mentor, to my recollection).
I might also say that the support they give the regional conferences is a big win, even if the vast majority of the legwork is done by the local folks on the ground. But to be honest, speaking as both a "day 1" member, and as a former board member: I cannot think of any really "great accomplishments" of the LOPSA national org, other than those two things. There's been a number of website redesigns, WAY too much time spent dealing with a lawsuit, and a lot of proposals for stuff that might've been cool but died on the vine, but that's about it. Of course, your mileage may vary. D On May 14, 2014, at 4:01 PM, Evan Pettrey <[email protected]> wrote: > Perhaps a good question to ask is: What do LOPSA members feel the most > important contributions LOPSA has made to themselves and the industry at > large since its inception? (this should possibly be a separate thread of its > own) > > If we know what we've done well perhaps we can at least focus on doing more > the things that matter vs. wasting time on things people do not care about. > > > I'd be particularly interested to know in the greatest accomplishments of > LOPSA before the past 3 years or (before the mentorship program started). > > It's all too easy to focus on the negatives, it'd be nice to see what we're > doing right as an organization. > > > On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 3:55 PM, Derek Balling <[email protected]> wrote: > Essentially, I don't think I'm going to agree with you here, and I'm not sure > there's a compromise position to be found, so diametrically opposed am I. > > I think the reality is that depending on member-altruism as a growth > methodology is, to me, a fundamentally unsound strategy that nine years have > proven to be a failure. If this organization was going to grow based on > altruistic membership, it would've done so by now. But membership numbers > have -- if you factor out those folks forced to pay for memberships by going > to LOPSA-East or CascadiaIT -- been largely stagnant to the best of my > knowledge. > > We are not a political organization where people are paying us money "for > what we do for the industry". In part because there's very little agreement > amongst members on what we think an organization SHOULD do for the industry, > let alone a position they should take in so doing. > > And if we're not in that category of organization, we're going to fall into > the other category you describe, the "what does the organization do FOR ME" > category. > > And on that front, the answer is "precious little", with folks seemingly > hell-bent on keeping it that way. > > D > > > > On May 14, 2014, at 3:15 PM, craig constantine <[email protected]> wrote: > > > People ask themselves two questions when considering joining a professional > > organization: > > > > What can the organization do for me? > > What does the organization do at large to benefit the profession? > > > > LOPSA will grow if it is overwhelmingly awesome in its answer to either of > > those questions. > > > > It’s in our nature (as people sure, but especially as pragmatic technology > > workers), to focus on the first question when we first encounter LOPSA. > > Unfortunately, it is very hard for a small organization to muster > > overwhelmingly awesome benefits that attract members. > > > > Instead, LOPSA should do great things which are available to as many people > > as possible. LOPSA should be so awesome at benefitting the profession at > > large, that it becomes the de facto professional organization. Then people > > will join just so they can say, “I support LOPSA!” > > > > LOPSA should make as much as possible of what it does, and provides, free > > and accessible. > > > > --Craig Constantine, http://constantine.name > > > > > > On May 14, 2014, at 2:06 PM, Derek Balling <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > This still does nothing, then, really, to answer the "Why should I pay > > money to join LOPSA?" question which LOPSA boards have been struggling to > > answer in a reasonable fashion for nigh on a decade. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > > http://lopsa.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ >
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