Well, I was going to wait for us to put up an announcement on the front page of LOPSA, but since Tom Limoncelli just pointed to his blog posting, I guess it is OK to go ahead.

Happy Birthday, LOPSA! It has been a long and sometimes tough journey to reach our one year milestone. We suffered through some early setbacks and had to launch prematurely. But we launched successfully, and we've continued to grow, succeed, and provide service throughout the year:

• our web site is up, we have content (we'd like more... please contact me if you'd like to contribute) including our popular jobs board and blog feature
• we've broken through five hundred members, and are less than a handful away from six hundred (please join now if you aren't already a member; renew now, even if early, if you are!)
• we've been involved with several conferences, including LISA, SCALE, Ohio Linux Fest, and our very own Sysadmin Days
• we sponsored and redesigned the Sys Admin Appreciation Day site
• we partnered with USENIX to review and expand the applicability of the System Administrator Code of Ethics
• we have active mailing lists and IRC channels, including the monthly (or so) #lopsa-live meeting with the Board
• we successfully launched our Chapter and Affiliate program, and have two Chapters
• we've arranged a variety of useful discounts and other member benefits, and are continuing to add more

For the next year, we have many more plans, including more Sysadmin Days (perhaps including a return to Phoenix, but also at least one other location), another Sys Admin Appreciation Day, more chapters, more career development services, more benefits, more conferences (including a surprise at LISA 06), an expanded online community, and more opportunities.

Join us for the next leg in our adventurous journey. Who knows, you might be the 600th member to join, today on our birthday, and there might be a special prize! If you're already a member, use our wonderful new renewal feature, and get out there and spread the word. This is your organization, help us grow and succeed so we can continue to improve your profession.

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