Fellow LOPSA members: The 2013 election for five of the nine LOPSA Board positions is at hand. The election site is tested, the candidate statements are readily available, and two IRC chat sessions with the candidates have successfully concluded with logs available. We have done what we can to inform you; now we ask you to cast your vote for our next leaders. Please be sure you have valid credentials to login to the lopsa.org site, you will need these to vote. If you haven't done so in a long time, please take a minute to confirm those credentials work – we want you to be able to vote. There should be one more announcement on discuss@lopsa.org just prior to the opening of the polls. The election will open Saturday, June 1, at 12pm EDT, and conclude two weeks later on June 15, at the same 12pm EDT time. After verification by our volunteer auditor, the announced results may be expected within 24-48 hours after the poll closes. The vote will take place at https://election.lopsa.org Note that only those votes cast during the election window will be counted. TIA, Mario Obejas, for the Leadership Committee Continue reading

Focus – Marketing   Traditionally each board member picks an area of focus.  I would focus on marketing. I would take my experience with Cascadia IT Conference and work on awareness campaigns to reach people that have never heard of LOPSA.  Much of this can be done with little or no budget.   A focus…

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  I believe strongly that LOPSA's future lies in the support and growth of local chapters and regional conferences. As the founder of one of the most successful LOPSA chapters, LOPSA-ETENN (which averages 29 people each meeting), I know first-hand how a chapter gets built and how to make it succeed. As a LOPSA Director, I…

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Hello fellow SA's!   For those of you out there who aren't as familiar with IRC as some of your colleagues are, or are just not up to speed on using IRC, I figured I'd post some quick, simple instructions on how to join us for the upcoming LOPSA-Live board candidate sessions this Thursday (5/9)…

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I appreciate the confidence the membership has shown in my abilities by electing me twice for the LOPSA Board of Directors. I hope they will continue to support my run for a third term. With nearly 25 years of experience as a systems administrator, network administrator, webmaster and sometimes developer, I feel I have a…

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I feel that LOPSA is poised for a time of growth.  We are getting more interest from system admins, from companies who cannot find system admins to hire, and from students who are starting to realize that system administration is a good career.  I have been focused on improving LOPSA's communications with it members and prospective members by putting out the LOPSAgram on a monthly basis, posting to social media sites about LOPSA events, representing LOPSA at several conferences such as SCALE, LinuxfestNW, LISA, and ACPENW via working the booth and giving talks, mentoring several people at work and via the mentorship program along with co-chairing the Cascadia 2012 IT Conference.  I have also been involved in setting up a new 4 year system admin degree at Bellevue College in Bellevue, WA.
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There's been a change at LOPSA recently.  Less talking, more doing.  My name is William Bilancio and I am proud to be part of that change. 

Recent accomplishments:

• 4 successful conferences: I chaired the inaugural PICC 2010, mentored Cascadia IT 2011, 2012 and 2013 and coordinated the hotel/food and audio visual contracts and getting all the trainers for PICC 2011, 2012 and LOPSA-East ‘13.  All three were profitable before the doors opened.  A combined total of more than 150 new LOPSA memberships were gained and put over $9,000 in LOPSA's bank account.
   
• Working on getting the LOPSA web site looking more modern and upgraded to Drupal 7 as well as getting forums up and running as well
   
• Hosted the LOPSA board retreat at my office in NJ to save money for the past 3 years.
   
• Member and chair of the LOPSA Education Committee since 2005, coordinating our efforts at SCALE, OLF and more.

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This is the third of my blog posts about issues within LOPSA that I would like to change. The text is taken, in a large part, from my candidate statement. At this moment, anyone who is not on the Board of Directors has a hard time knowing what is going on with the organization, and…

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There is a discussion on LinkedIn about starting a Philadelphia area LOPSA group. If you're related to network and systems administration, and are anywhere near Philly, please head over to the discussion.

Tom Limoncelli has posted a pair of interesting questions on his blog, the same ones he asked the LOPSA Board candidates at one of the #lopsa-live sesssions last year. While I didn't get to answer them last year since I wasn't up for re-election, here is my take on them now. Question 1: I have…

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