by I want to thank those who asked me to run for the LOPSA Board. I have been a member of LOPSA since its inception. During the early years of LOPSA I was just a member that used the mailing list and web site to help resolve issues at work. With the PICC’10 conference I answered a call for volunteers to help with the conference. I believe I was deemed the demographic the group was targeting for the conference. I work as a one person IT shop with little to no budget for professional development among other things.
As fate would have it I am now working for an Educational Institution. Coming out of High School I wanted to be a Teacher but life took a different direction and I ended in the work force as a machinist Apprentice for Defense Department. Almost 45 years later I am now working for an Educational Institution and part of my job, besides administering our High School Administration System, is to train the users on using the system.
My entire working career has always had a large training presence. As an apprentice I had weekly classes. As a Journeyman there were classes on new manufacturing techniques. I was lucky enough to be able to get my Engineering degree over a stint as a Machinist with the US Mint. During that stint I made a career change to get out of the Machinist Trade and went back to the Defense Department where I got a chance to use the computer skills I learned to automate my job which then lend to more training and finally into the Electronic Commerce Office where I again attended classes on Networking and Information Systems (both private and College Level). Retiring from the Government I took a job with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia where I have to rely on those skills I picked up over those years and start to be a full time administrator. On this job I was left to my books and maybe some contacts I made along the way to learn more about networks and actual system administration.
I stumbled on SAGE and quickly found the mailing list as a place to ask the “stupid” questions and found a haven that would at a minimum point me to a direction that I could find my answer. When LOPSA came along it was a no brainer for me to get on use the resources provided to help me out of jams. I saw LOPSA as a growing Community where at some point in time I might be able to contribute and give back to those folks that helped me out over the years.
Education has been an integral part of my working experience. This strong foundation in education is what I feel I bring to the organization. I also bring along a foundation in organizational skills that I accrued through my final 15 years with the Federal Government. I hope to be able to help LOPSA continue to build the training/educational aspect of the organization.
As a group we can lay the ground work for the basic requirements for a person to work in this field. We can develop criteria that a College, University or Company can use to create a program that would assure a person going through that program would come out with enough basic knowledge to work in the field. Last year we took the first step in the formulation of the Mentorship Program. Hopefully we can make the Mentorship program grow and become successful.
Outside of work I am heavily involved in High School Football and Youth Football. I was involved in running a 26 Town Youth Football League for 12 years and have been coaching Football at various levels since 1982. Currently I am in my 13th year at the High School level (Coming up on my 8th consecutive year at Palmyra High School, Palmyra NJ) . I also am President of a Spring Football League for 8th Grade boys intending on playing High School Football. I also handle the Web site for my Church.
I am available to field any question you have. You can email me at jboris at adphila dot org any time. If you are headed to PICC’11 I’ll be there so look me up if you would like to chat, have a coffee or beverage of choice. I won’t be hard to find, just look for a short white haired chubby gentleman with one of the original LOPSA Blue Shirts. Thanks for taking the time in reading this. Go Team!! (wb)