LOPSA News

Hello again! It’s incredible that it’s been two years already. My name is Jackson Smith, and I’m currently a board member, Vice President, and Secretary of LOPSA. I’m seeking reelection.

For those unfamiliar with me, I’ve been a board member since 2021. I started as the secretary and later became the Vice President and Secretary after Aaron Haun’s departure.

During my tenure, I’ve made significant contributions to the organization. I’ve helped revamp our bylaws and worked on rebuilding our education programs. As the Technical Services Chair, I’ve addressed issues related to LOPSA.org, our blog, and migrated our systems from MediaWiki to Notion. Additionally, I’ve successfully reduced the meeting minutes backlog since taking on the role of secretary.

I understand that LOPSA has faced challenges in the past, but I’m committed to laying the foundation for a stronger and more successful organization. The field of systems administration has evolved significantly since our foundation, and the demand for a professional organization for sysadmins remains high. I’m dedicated to expanding LOPSA and advancing the practice of systems administration into the future.

I’m asking for your trust in my commitment to both education and outreach as I guide us through these uncertain times.While I can’t guarantee immediate results or a complete turnaround, I’m committed to continuing the steady and unglamorous work necessary to revitalize our organization if reelected.

The 2024 LOPSA Board Election is coming up in December. This year voting will open on December 2nd and close on December 30th.

We are currently seeking candidates for this election. Any member can nominate a candidate, including themselves, provided the nominee meets the eligibility criteria.

To clarify, an "eligible member" is a non-student-level member who has kept their membership active and in good standing since the last Board election in December of last year.

If you or someone you know meets these criteria and is interested in running for a seat on the Board, we’d love to hear from you. Please send an email to board@lopsa.org by 6PM Pacific Time on November 29, 2024, to declare your intent to run.

Tonight we investigated an issue our transcription service was having when retrieving Zoom meeting recordings. We also approved meeting minutes from our transcription service.

At tonight's community meeting, we continued correspondence with member chapter leadership and service providers. We removed a broken link to the Mentorship program from the home page, we plan on restoring it when the program is brought back online.

At our next meeting, we plan on discussing our working session progress and accomplishments over the past few months. If you are interested in joining that discussion or have feedback, please reach out to board@lopsa.org and we will ensure you can participate.

Tonight we continued our theme of previous working sessions--communicating with chapter leaders and service providers.

Tonight we had a session that was mostly housekeeping, reaching out to chapter leaders, vendors, and administrative support. These communications will require some followup, so we expect to see more of this in the next few meetings.

As always, stay tuned for LOPSA updates!

Tonight we followed up with chapter leaders and our meeting minute transcription service.

This evening we explored calendar automation for syndicating our Knoxville chapter's events. We're hoping to help our most active chapter broaden their reach.

Also approved some board meeting minutes and reached out to our transcriber for an invoice for her services and to inquire about continued meeting minute transcription.

Tonight, the LOPSA Board met again for our usual Working Session meeting. We added a new Members-only page for Chapter Support on LOPSA.org. And we reached out to LOPSA Chapter leaders to syndicate their future event details on our events calendar on LOPSA.org. We look forward to meeting again soon, and working on more LOPSA.org changes.

Hello all!

We continue our work cleaning up the LOPSA website. We followed up on a ticket with our hosting provider regarding an issue with our Past Sponsors widgets, clarified language around making donations versus becoming a member on our donations page, and commented out a widget for sponsor ads (we are not currently sponsored but if interested check out Become a Sponsor!

We look forward to seeing you and providing more updates in the future.