Blair has been a director since 1999, and active in the Tinkers group.
Howard was also a director in 2001/2002.
I've been in the information technology business since 1968, working for various firms from Pan-American Petroleum (AMOCO) to Univ. of British Columbia, COMINCO and currently the City of Calgary. My work has primarily been in the operational areas of IT, from mainframe to distributed systems, networks to help-desks. I've held various positions from operator to network tech to Supervisor and currently I am working as a Management Systems Analyst with responsibility for project coordination within the division of the City's ITS department known as the Customer Centre. I also hold a CIPS ISP designation. My Operating system interests range from mainframe systems, should I say it Windows? to OS/2 to UNIX, Linux and BSD. I am also a CUUG volunteer at the Bethany Centre and have served for one term as a CUUG Director.
Ken was a director in 1998, and also in 2001/2002.
I have been a member of CUUG for several years and involved on the board or with committees for most of those years. My focus has always been with membership and its needs. In my position as Membership Committee Chairperson I have worked with a great group to complete several initiatives for the club and its members.
Sounds like a lot of work, but mostly it was a lot fun. It's for that reason that volunteerism has been 'catching on' lately and our committee group has grown. This was especially evident at our volunteer orientation in preparation for Convergence. Some have also realized, like myself, that there are career benefits as well. Not sure at this point whether I should be passing the 'Membership torch' or keeping it burning, but I'll probably continue to be involved with that Committee.
In real life I am a Systems Administrator (I've gotten way too good at
typing the 'Admin' word, I won't admit where that's coming from). I am
currently with one of our sponsors: NE2 (Coincidence?)
Roy has served on the board in the past, and has done the newsletter for
over four years. He is an Engineer and former I.T. manager for the City
of Calgary Waterworks.
Connie was also Treasurer in the 2001/2002 year.
2002/2003 will be my third year as a member of CUUG, second as a Board Member and Treasurer. How did I get into CUUG? Look at my surname. Roy's enthusiasm for CUUG just kind of spilled over and infected me, I guess.
I don't actually know much of anything (well, maybe I do remember a little bit of the firewall class) about UNIX except that I can count on it to do its job. If I have a choice (depends on the project/client) I choose UNIX.
What do I do? Accounting, web site development, software training - whatever happens to be needed this month. Such is life as a consultant.
My intended CUUG project for this year is to have my company take over the
business management duties covered by CBS plus a few others currently taken
care of by the Treasurer, but as a sponsor. If this works out OK it will save
CUUG money that can then be used for projects and reduce the burden on the
position of Treasurer.
Bob has been a long-time CUUG member, and joins the Board of Directors for the first time this year.
I first laid hands on a computer in 1965, and it's all been downhill from there. My first programs (in Fortran for an IBM 360) produced spectacular ABEND dumps and little by way of useful results, a pattern to be repeated almost daily thereafter. Unix found its way into my life around 1976 and it was love at first sight. Apart from a brief interlude with Xerox lisp machines I've been a Unix programmer, sys admin, and hobbyist ever since, and a member of CUUG since 1993 or so.
I see bureaucracy as a necessary evil, which is the only reason I am seeking a
board position with CUUG. I will do everything I can to make sure CUUG
functions effectively with as little administrative overhead as possible (==
less work for everyone, including me :-). If anyone else thinks they can do a
better job than I *please* feel free to take my place!
Robin joins the Board of Directors for the first time this year.
This is my first year as a member of CUUG. My background with UNIX has spanned over approximately 5 years and 90% of my training has come from the BBT (Big Brother Tutoring from Randy Greig, a CUUG Lifer). The other 10% would be from the UNIX Networking Certificate courses that I have completed at SAIT and untold hours staring blankly at the screen wondering what is wrong with the syntax of my commands... I play at home with my OpenBSD(2.9) Firewall and Webserver(3.0) running PHP and MySQL. At work I administer the SCO UNIX Server, OpenBSD(2.9) Firewall, and am in the process of setting up an internal Webserver.
I have been very impressed with the Member support and sharing of
experience that takes place within the CUUG meetings. I believe that
as members we get out what we put in, so I would like to volunteer as
a candidate for the board.
Mark has been a Director since 1998, and was Chairman for two years.
I first discovered UNIX about the same time as its greater and cruftier progenitor MULTICS many years ago in university while studying physics and astronomy. I liked its combination of simplicity and power in a fairly smooth design that aided rather than hindered its users and developers.
Many years later both myself and UNIX are still around, though both are not what they used to be. Unfortunately UNIX has had the worst of what the years bring and now challenges and even exceeds MULTICS in some places for byzantine layered legacy design. I have also acquired many layers and like UNIX could bear to shed a few. Now my profession is mostly hardware as a field service technician, but my work does sometimes involve using and fixing UNIX computers and their distant kin like CISCO routers.
I have followed the Free and Open Software Revolution through GNU, Minix, Linux, and now Debian. I am glad computing is returning to its roots of sharing information in the tradition of the scientific and engineering professions, as building on what others have done and peer review is critical to correct, rigorous, and proper progress.
I strongly support CUUG's dedication to promoting and advancing UNIX, as UNIX even with its layers of somewhat dubious additions is still the best operating system we have. It is still a powerful tool, and many are working to backfile its lesser parts with better redesign, and develop new polished refinements to add to its power.
I have served on CUUG's Board of Directors from 1998 Jan to Jun, and
as Board Chairman from 2000 Jun to now. I am also deeply involved
with keeping the Computer Resource Centre running and working towards
improving it for CUUG's members. I would be proud to serve on our
Board for the next year.
Greg is with CUUG Diamond Sponsor Hewlett-Packard, and joins the Board
of Directors for the first time this year.
Keith has been a director since 1998, and maintains the content of the
CUUG web site.
Paul has been a director since 2000, and served as Vice President for one year.
CUUG (and organizations like it) are important for maintaining diversity
in computing, but CUUG cannot do anything without a Board of Directors.
I have been a board member for two years and an active member of the
Membership Committee for the last three years. I hope to continue making
a contribution to CUUG in the coming year.
Earl has been a director since 2001, and was heavily involved in CUUG's
Bethany project.