Let me echo Dave's remarks. As you may perhaps recall, I asked a
while back if an old geezer who retired over twenty years ago could
attend. The answer was yes, so I went.
I knew that the technical sessions would be over my head because much
of the stuff didn't even exist when I was working. But in my working
days I had attended many workshops and SHARE sessions, so I knew that
much of the valuable stuff happened between session, at meals, in
evening bull sessions, etc. So I went primarily to socialize.
I had an absolutely wonderful, if exhausting, time there. I was
excited to see people I had known in the past but also to meet younger
people whom I did not know including folks from Endicott, where we
live.
You better believe I plan to go to the next one. I just hope my
health holds up....
The original concept of the workshops was to provide a forum for
people whose employers would not send them to SHARE. The idea was to
try to keep the cost down so folks could afford to pay their own way.
By attending SHARE and workshops I was able to meet and become friends
with a whole lot of people. And I communicated with these people
between meetings. It would be even easier to keep in touch now with
the internet, which wasn't available then.
If you have not had the opportunity to attend user group meetings
before, you would be wise to do so whenever you have the opportunity.
The knowledge and friendships I gained made my career.
Kent "Mongo" Taylor
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Boyes" <dbo...@sinenomine.net>
To: <IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU>
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2011 6:08 PM
Subject: VM Workshop -- was fantastic!
For those of you who didn't make it.... you missed a great time. Great
food, interesting people, a lot of hallway "what if we did this?"
conversations, and general good fun all around. Best $100 I've spent
all year.
We're going to do it again next year, site TBD, but definitely gonna
happen. Put it on your calendars for sometime in June 2012.
-- db
