Re: IBM Education Card -- MIDRANGE-L

Information on the Card
http://www-3.ibm.com/services/learning/us/

IBM AS/400 Curriculum in general
http://www.training.ibm.com/ibmedu/spotlight/as400.html

Other places offer IBM classes & variants & honor the IBM card for most of 
their Ed
http://www.tsg-usa.com
http://www.3x.com

IBM Education by Geography
http://www-3.ibm.com/services/learning/lsweb/educationcenters/

The card is good for 12 months from the date you get it & it is NOT for all 
IBM classes ... there is some IBM education, believe it or not, that costs 
more than the card itself - I wonder what the turn-out is.  But it is good 
for the IBM Technical conferences which I understand are like Common in 
minature.  We can also go back & take same class again as a refresher - who 
has time?  Only people who live real close to where the classes are.

There was an earlier thread on COMMON on the ECONOMY PLAN which also applies 
to my hotels & air fare & etc.

Our local user group IBM guy organizes van pools for people from several 
companies traveling together to various AS/400 related conferences.

We almost had, but it fell through, a deal where several companies were going 
to charter general air so folks from several neighbor companies would spend a 
day in another city of a mutual interest conference.  General Air offers 
certain economies when you consider hub to hub puddle jumper commercial air 
... you can blow a whole day just getting to your destination, and luggage is 
seldom a constraint.

You know that IBM will cancel a class if not enough people reserved to make 
it worth holding it so ... if you got non-refundable airline tickets to save 
on bucks?  

The IBM fax service gives map of education site & nearest hotels, but what 
with IBM sub-farming education out to various Business Partners, the official 
IBM education places do not always have real current information, so we CALL 
the place that is hosting the IBM Ed & we ASK then for hotels reccommended by 
THEM in the vicinity of the classes & usually find out about places that are 
NOT on the IBM fax service, then often there is some big discount deal 
between the hotel and the Ed ... like a place that usually costs $ 150.00 per 
nite costing $ 75.00 for people attending the IBM classes.  This makes a big 
difference if you gonna be at the classes for a week or so.

If there's going to be 2 or more classes in close succession at the same 
place, I like to take a vacation in between.  Milt would say that this is not 
ethical I am sure, but I believe the company benefits ... instead of plane 
fare round trip to each class, there is just the one overall trip.

Company pays my round trip to Kansas City where the classes are being held & 
in the middle there is a round trip from KC paid by me to some place else 
close by for my vacation.  This means I get to my vacation spot much cheaper 
than no education involved.

Al Macintyre  ���
MIS Manager Green Screen Programmer & Computer Janitor of BPCS 405 CD Rel-02 
running on AS/400 V4R3 http://www.cen-elec.com Central Industries of 
Indiana--->Quality manufacturer of wire harnesses and electrical 
sub-assemblies
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