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
service. We even needed a new name--and new branding, domain names,
and a website to go along with it.
These surprises could have been fatal; LOPSA could easily have been
forced to fold. The remarkable thing is that we have not just
survived, but begun to flourish in just 18 months. Our membership is
growing. Each month in the Memo to Members you've seen announcements
of new sponsors, new partnerships, new benefits and new local
chapters. Make no mistake--our accomplishments to date are not as
grand as I had hoped when I stood for election two years ago. But
after the seismic shift in circumstances, I'm astonished at what we've
managed to do given our limited means.
This wouldn't have been possible without the faith shown by our
founding sponsors, who gave money to the very *idea* of LOPSA, before
we had anything concrete to show. And by Association Headquarters,
our management firm, who stood by us even when they had to accept
promises instead of cash on the table. They all deserve our thanks.
Most of all, though, LOPSA would not exist today without the faith of
you, our members. Each of you have made a commitment in money, time,
or both, to help get LOPSA--*your* League--off the ground. Your
generosity has astounded me. Thank you.
Aside from this support, I believe the key characteristic that has
enabled LOPSA's growth is our agility. Our brilliant staff and
volunteers have brought projects and partnerships from inception to
fruition in astonishingly short periods of time. We've been able to
capitalize on opportunities as they've arisen, not merely react in
slow motion, as other organizations have done.
So I'm not going to write here about particular projects I want to see
done. Instead, in the coming two years, I'd like to work to see us
further this agility so we can tackle *any* project. More than SAGE
ever did, LOPSA has used non-Board volunteers to accomplish more
things in a shorter period of time with better quality. We need to
get even better at it, by documenting what works, streamlining our
policies, and increasing our communications and project-management
infrastructure.
Shoring up our finances, increasing our membership, and expanding our
member benefits are essential for LOPSA to continue to grow. But
these are all terms in the same equation. If we increase our benefits
in a fiscally prudent manner, our membership will increase, and our
finances will improve. The crucial thing is to build the structures
necessary to support this growth.
If you look at the governance.lopsa.org website, you'll see that the
Board has had a business meeting by teleconference nearly every single
week over the past two years. This has been necessary to keep tabs on
all the many moving parts involved in this startup. But the Board
*must* cease to be a bottleneck in the coming months. The Board needs
to step up one level of abstraction, so to speak; stop managing
projects and concentrate instead on governing the organization as a
whole.
LOPSA has come amazingly far in 18 months, but we've just started down
the path to being a useful, self-sustaining organization for the long
term. We can get there, with the continued support of our staff, our
sponsors, and you, our members and volunteers. Let's get on with
it--there's work to be done!
--
Trey Harris is a current member of the LOPSA Board of Directors, and
was a member of the interim Board that wrote LOPSA's bylaws and
presided over the organization's foundational arrangements. A system
administrator, programmer, and sometime Perl-trainer for fifteen
years, he is presently Vice President at Merrill Lynch in New York,
where he works with global filesystems. Prior to that, he worked at
Amazon.com in Seattle, Morgan Stanley in New York, the University of
North Carolina, and other companies in various roles. Besides LOPSA,
his community work has included two terms on the SAGE Executive
Committee, twice serving on the LISA Program Committee, membership in
the IETF IMAP4rev1 Working Group, and contributions to Perl 6. His
most recent presentation was "Get Ready for Perl 6", at LOPSA
SysAdminDays in Phoenix, Arizona.
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