This page is for the LOPSA June 2007 election and is shown here for historical purposes

My name is Matthew Barr, and I've been on the board since just after the public announcement of LOPSA as it is currently. I'm honored to be included in the list of candidates, and this time I think I've actually met everyone on the slate. All / any of us will do a good job for you. So.. Why me?

I work w/ some great folks, but I've also seen the need for moving the profession forward. We need better distribution of new methods of working smarter. We need to make sure that our concerns are heard about legislation that affects us, and our jobs. We need to have good training, and local times to help each other, and explore new options. And you know - getting together once a month to talk to folks that actually understand what you do can be wonderfully helpful, and therapeutic.

I am seeking re-election to the LOPSA board because of my past and current involvement and commitment to the organization. Two years ago I stated "We have laid the groundwork ... to be a success -- it is time to build on that." Since then, we have made progress, but we there is much work yet to be done.

I am the Associate Director and Senior System Administrator at the Computer Systems Lab of the University of Wisconsin Computer Science Department. In this capacity I have worked as a manager; been involved in campus committees; and collaborated with other groups on campus. In the CS Department I work with faculty, staff and graduate students to support and contribute to their research projects. I train, manage and work with undergraduate students who work in the lab. In my free time, I am a private pilot and play ice hockey.

Jesse Trucks

We read manuals, books, and blogs, but we often need the interactive help of someone with experience in a particular operating system, programming language, or software package. When we need serious help, we ask our coworkers and other colleagues for opinions, explanations, and assistance hoping we know someone with the experience that matters. The strongest asset system administration professionals have is access to other system administration professionals. Outside our immediate coworkers or friends, it is difficult to connect with other professionals in our field. The League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA) can provide the human networking and communication channels to make those connections. The way to do that is to start building a strong sense of community among our membership and being open and inviting to non-members and new members. We can accomplish this in many ways. The http://lopsa.org web site is undergoing an overhaul for better navigation and information management. This will be a large part of our online effort toward facilitating communication and community between system administrators. We need to build a stronger sense of mentorship between all of us to openly teach others what we know and to learn from what others teach.

My name is Chris Palmer, and I'm running for a second term on the LOPSA Board. The first term was a bit of a wild time; we radically changed our purpose and direction mere months after being elected, and suddenly had to launch and start an entire new organization from scratch.

We therefore spent a lot of time building policy, membership structurs, and the like; we spent a lot of time launching new programs, and figuring our mission out. That was all to the good, and necessary for our new organization. And just as good, we did not spend a lot of time navel gazing about governance, trying to figure out what the blockages to action were, and bickering amongst ourselves. We have a great staff, a great group dynamic, and above all a great membership.

Two years ago, when we held our first Board of Directors election,
LOPSA did not even exist (except as a legal entity by a different
name). The election was meant to choose the Board for a newly
independent but well-established organization, with pre-existing
membership, sponsors, funds reserve and other boons that would let
us get off to a running start.

None of us who were elected then foresaw what we would actually find
ourselves doing: creating a brand-new professional organization from
scratch. Instead of thousands of members, we started with none.
Instead of working capital to get projects started, we had debts to

LoPSA is more than a membership card or a board of directors - it is a community of professionals at all stages of their careers with similar technical, professional, and social interests.

However, ours is a geographically diverse community with members scattered around the globe. The “Sysadmin Days” mini-conferences have helped bring that sense of community to new venues and I predict that local chapters will be the backbone of the organization. To that end, I believe LoPSA must support local chapters by learning where their members' interests lie as well as what techniques and events have been most successful and by sharing that information among the local chapters and working with them to discover new and innovative ways to help them succeed and grow.

Thank you for considering me as a candidate for the LOPSA board. While I
have been a member of the trade which we call system administration for
over ten years, it's only in the most recent phase of my career in which
I've seen the need to be more active in our community. No sysadmin is an
island. Over the last few years, I've come to recognize that we cannot
successfully do this job alone.

I joined LOPSA following the LISA'05 conference because I found a sense of
community and belonging within LOPSA that was lacking in other groups, both
locally and globally. One of the immediate benefits I encountered was the

My name is Derek Balling. If you haven't met me, I'm the co-author of the O'Reilly 'High Performance MySQL' book. You may have bumped into me at LISA, I've been attending since 2003, or you may have read previous posts of mine on the LOPSA lists.

A few years ago I achieved a personal goal by getting a job in a higher-ed environment. I now manage the systems administration team at Vassar College. This past fall, I got married to a very wonderful and understanding woman. All of this combines to mean that I'm in a very upbeat state of mind these days.

One of the Leadership Committee folks asked me about running for the Board. Since both my job and my wife are supportive, and I truly would like to help our organization grow, I figure its the best time to step up my LOPSA involvement.

Two years ago, when I first ran for board election, my candidate statement
started "In information technology, we often are overwhelmed by the huge
technological changes that appear to happen every day." In the past two
years, as an organization we have learned that there are not just huge
technological changes that happen every day, but also huge social,
political, and organization changes that happen as well.

I am seeking re-election to the board to continue to move forward on the
issues I laid out two years ago: establishment of the organization, an
organized body of knowledge, member benefits, and community building.