SHARE is all about networking, which is what old boys' clubs do. I went to my first SHARE in 1967 and was welcomed as a newbie. That was how I became a brand new member of the old boys' club. I don't ever remember any older attendees' having an exclusivist attitude towards new attendees. I have been to beaucoup major SHAREs and three mini-SHAREs. There is great camaraderie in SHARE, much to learn, and much to be shared. Go to your first one and keep on going.
When I am at a SHARE, I always see other old-timers whom I recognize. I start talking with them. I don't know how to recognize new attendees easily, but I would assume they have a ribbon of a particular color. If so, I don't know what the color is, so I apologize for not initiating conversations with any new attendees for my last several SHAREs. It's normal human behavior to seek out people you already know and converse with them rather than start talking with a total stranger. If you are a new attendee and no old boy has initiated a conversation with you, find someone in the crowd whose name badge has lots of ribbons on it and start talking to him. And go to the sessions designed specifically for new attendees. Find a group of people standing around talking about anything and stand in the group. Listen for a while. If you don't hear some familiar buzzwords, go look for another group discussing different buzzwords. Pretty soon you will be one of the experts giving presentations or volunteer workers doing project work. I started attending regularly in 1981 and also volunteering to do presentations and being involved in project work, and within 5 years discovered that I knew almost everyone of the elected officers (even the President), because they had been doing project work in many of the same projects I had been involved with. Bill Fairchild Nolensville, TN ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Finnell" <0000000248cce9f3-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2014 4:34:53 PM Subject: Re: Beginners question about SHARE Well, wasn't a first time or a confession but I had a session scheduled in the Marquee Marriott(NYC) in the 'fashion room' with mirrored walls and ceilings. I had a session penciled in for the Hilton across the street, but it was raining so just parked in the 'fashion room'. The session was about Fonts and Font design. Probably one of the most knowledgeable presenters I'd ever heard. Knew optics, physics, biometrics just everything that goes into Font presentation. Great graphics and super slides everything just flowed together. Think I wrote it up as accidental learning. Probably 'old boys club' is exacerbated by shrinking demographics and economic downturn. There's still lots of life left in MVS with new features in hardware and software. SHARE can help you or your company exploit these features and integrate them into your enterprise. There's other OS's too! Guess what to keep and what to throw away as trends come and go is another important benefit. There was a time when Cross system products was the rage. SHARE reorged and by the next Major it was pretty much dead. Anyway life and times... In a message dated 7/30/2014 7:26:26 A.M. Central Daylight Time, robert.richa...@opm.gov writes: Confessions of a first-time SHARE attendee ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
