Re: Re[2]: The "greying of Common" Is it still true?

You have to consider what conferences are like in the professions of the 
people who approve yes or no for technical people to technical conferences.  
If their profession has nothing comparable to continuing education, then 
there has to be an effort to sell them on whatever you can get.   I have had 
bosses who were busy taking some nite classes with a local university to get 
an MBA or equivalent & we do have several local colleges teaching AS/400 
classes, but their hours have not fit in with my schedule to consider them 
for me & the curriculum looks to be entry level not what I need.

In my opinion COMMON is the most cost effective continuing education, but I 
have only been able to persuade 1 boss in my entire 35 year career so far to 
pay for me going there & I paid for one visit out of my own pocket.  Getting 
them to send me to IBM school has been far easier, and I consider it 
absolutely critical to go to IBM school in a city other than our home 
company, or else I will be expected to do part of my regular job the day I am 
trying to do a full day of classes & a full evening of studying the material.

I did get some of the AS/400 tapes, intending to listen to them on the audio 
at home with study materials at my leisure, only to learn that they only work 
with an AS/400 available right now ... my work is too frenetic to fit this in 
at the office.

>  From:    eric.delong@pmsi-services.com    

>       IMO, too many organizations view tech conferences as a form of paid 
>       vacation and are handed out as "rewards" instead of determining 
>       where/who has technical interests. You can bet that if given the 
>       opportunity, I'd be there. I have nothing against TFM, it's been 
>       the best resource I've had access to, but some day I'd just love to 
>       try the alternative to hours/weeks of grueling study and/or 
>       guesswork (on my own time, usually) to extract the appropriate 
>       materials from the books.
>       
>       BTW, I view this list as one of the BEST resources available to 
>       gain exposure to new techniques. I learn more in a few weeks by 
>       reading the mountain of emails than I'd learn in months of 
>       self-study.
>       
>       JMO,
>       eric.delong@pmsi-services.com

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
http://www.cen-elec.com MIS Manager Programmer & Computer Janitor
When you want it cheap - you get what you paid for.
When in doubt, read the manual, assuming you can find the right one.
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