I agree with the idea of metrics, How to make the top 4 meaningful will be
tough.
You want high goals, yet something possible to accomplish.
I think the more important issue is what is in the "etc" 5+ goals.
These are the goals that would make achieving the top 4 simple.
The board should be setting priorities on things that LOPSA should accomplish.
Then a schedule for them to be completed or in the case of on-going events
for them to become established.
Every time this comes up, the issue of it being an all volunteer organization
comes up and tanks the idea of setting goals. Without leadership and drive,
people that may be willing to do something are going to be sitting on their
hands. Most people do not want to lead, but many will run with it if given
a reason to do so. I can't even find a "projects" section on the web page to
see where effort could be applied.
Currently most things I've seen are not tangible. While mentoring is great,
some probably already have "internships" available to cover that without
LOPSA in the mix. What else needs to be done? How can one find those? How
do they contribute? (Note contribute, not lead, manage, run...)
There are things like the Google-Summer-of-Code where projects are created
and people get together to work on them. Maybe some LOPSA sponsored
projects added to the Google stack. Let them to the heavy lifting on
organization, coders, etc, but tag some useful community code projects.
There are various writting programs that encourage people to author short
stories. Lots of people join in to provide something. Makes for enjoyable
reading. While not something useful to LOPSA, it's an indication there are
lots of people that are willing to contribute if leadership is provided.
I haven't seen anything like these out of LOPSA.
Even looking at LOPSA's own web site...
The lopsa.org/LPR pages indicate you need to have hours in 2013 for 2014
participation. It's half way through 2015. Does anyone care? Does being
and LPR mean anything when the organization can't even properly promote it?
Why would an employer look for an LPR? It's meaningless. Yet another failed
startup?
I don't follow the LOSPA stuff very closely for the above reasons.
I keep hearing the Chicago Cubs mantra of "wait until next year" / "give us one
more year".
It's also like politics in DC right now.
Here are some things we'd like to do, but .... poof post election/idea
phase, nothing happens.
We didnt' achieve our goals because... excuses.
Sadly when you look at the systems administration field there are many more
involved that LOPSA or even Usenix has ever seen. Membership is minimal and
not growing to match the field. Compare that to something like the software
package "Service-Now". Yes, it has a company behind it. It's very expensive.
Companies are willing to spend money to train people. This started only a few
years ago and now has about 10,000 people attending the conference.
Considering how many companies have systems admins that need training, how much
of their infrastructure is hosted on those systems, ... you'd think LOPSA
could be doing better. Oh wait.. it's all volunteer so don't expect much.
Personally I don't think many people would really notice if LOPSA did disolve.
Overall I don't think there has been much impact. It's kind of like that
excersize machine in the corner. You bought it with such great expectations
and how it's a clothing rack for stuff that hasn't made it to the closet.
It still has great potential, but if it was gone, would it have much impact?
This isn't meant to knock things down, but give those in charge or with the
drive some ideas/goals/drive to actually accomplish something and get people
to care. IF tangible things were being accomplished, the detractors wouldn't
have a reason to complain.
Paul Graydon made the following keystrokes:
>While at the moment I don't agree with the notion of disolving LOPSA. I
>do agree with Derek's general idea here.
>We're sysadmins, measuring, monitoring and acting on metrics is integral
>in our job.
>
>I would suggest there would be strong value in laying out various
>metrics, setting strong, specific, achievable and measurable goals.
>Keep those figures out in the open.
>Maybe include them in the monthly lopsagrams. Almost every church and
>charitable organisation I've been part of in the past has put their
>funding figures out there in monthly (or even weekly) newsletters.
>Most churches include things like mission giving etc, showing things
>that donations are going towards.
>
>On 6/25/2015 4:14 PM, Derek J. Balling wrote:
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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>>
>>
>> On 6/25/2015 11:58 AM, Ski Kacoroski wrote:
>>> All I ask is that you give us one more year to show that LOPSA is
>>> viable.
>> Challenge accepted.
>>
>> Let's set some key metrics, to determine the viability, and evaluate
>> them in one year.
>>
>> The organization's leadership -- present and future -- needs to be
>> held accountable with a hard, fast, deadline. "Trust us, this is the
>> year for real growth" has been the mantra for too long.
>>
>> Let's have the board -- today -- pass a resolution that if, on say
>> 2016-07-31, the key metrics have not been achieved, then a motion of
>> dissolution *shall* be passed to the membership to approve/disapprove.
>>
>> I propose something like:
>>
>> == begin ==
>> I, {state your name}, move that the following key metrics are
>> considered a good measure of LOPSA's viability:
>> METRIC 1 >= VALUE 1 (membership numbers?)
>> METRIC 2 >= VALUE 2 (retention rate?)
>> METRIC 3 >= VALUE 3 (number of sponsors?)
>> METRIC 4 >= VALUE 4 (revenue from sponsors?)
>> etc.
>>
>> In accordance with that: if, on {YYYY-MM-DD}, any of these metrics
>> shall not have been met, the following resolution MUST be passed to
>> the membership at-large for a referendum vote:
>> "We move to dissolve the LOPSA organization, and distribute any
>> remaining assets to such non-profit organizations as shall be
>> compatible with the goals of LOPSA."
>>
>> This resolution may not be overridden or altered by a future Board vote.
>> == end ==
>>
>> LOPSA leadership has asked for "another year" time and time again.
>> It's time to, as my grandpa would say, "fish or cut bait".
>>
>> D
>>
>>
>> - --
>> I prefer to use encrypted mail. My public key fingerprint is FD6A 6990
>> F035 DE9E 3713 B4F1 661B 3AD6 D82A BBD0. You can download it at
>> http://www.megacity.org/gpg_dballing.txt
>>
>> Learn how to encrypt your email with the E-Mail Self Defense Guide:
>> https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/
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>> Comment: GPGTools - https://gpgtools.org
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