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Paul thanks for remembering the User Groups we are here to help I from over 29 years of common and many more years of industry and User Group relationships and projects in my past IBM days.

give a shout or send a note - when ready
I'd like to hear your thoughts on what might be considered for more bang to your membership - [No Promises]
Glenn
Glenn Ericson
Chair, Common LUG Committee
e-mail: Glenn Ericson <Glenn_Ericson@xxxxxxxxxx>


At 06:21 PM 11/14/2003 -0600, pnelson@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
With all due respect to Zak Metz, et. al, you are taking what I feel is
the wrong approach when you talk about throwing out your COMMON membership
renewal forms. There has been a healthy discussion going on in the COMMON
discussion thread about various "opportunities", and one of the volunteers
made the following comment that speaks directly to the point of where to
look for education:

"Membership  and conference attendance have become all confused, too. Do
you belong to COMMON  or do you go to conferences? Is there some value in
the collective beyond the  information gleaned in sessions? Is COMMON all
about education, or is there also  value in a collective influence on the
industry, the vendors, and the culture?  But this is a subject for another
conversation."

Let us never forget that first and foremost, COMMON is an IBM midrange
systems user's group dedicated to sharing knowledge amongst its members.
Remember that each and every attendee becomes a member. Currently, there
are over 20,000 members. COMMON is a not for profit entity. Are any of the
other conferences? Despite some false starts, COMMON has worked to assist
local user groups to remain viable and to prosper. If you haven't been to
your local user group meeting lately, get off you duff and network with
your peers. If you don't have a local user group, talk with Glenn Ericson
or Don Rima, and they'll help you. These guys are first class.

I've been around COMMON for 23 1/2 years now, and I've been a volunteer
for 22 1/2. A lot of the COMMON bashing being done on this list is
justified, but a bigger percentage is not. Before you can say one negative
word about COMMON, you need to EARN the right by actually being one of the
people that makes these conferences happen. Only when you are part of this
"family" can you start spouting off. Joe talks about disagreements, etc.
for his departure from COMMON. Hell, I used to quit every 6 months about
one thing or another. I came real close to punching out the president
once. The thing is, though, that these people are my friends and we get
past the problems and disagreements. Where else can you establish such a
good relationship with an IBM developer that he or she will give you their
home phone number, and not be pissed off when you call them with a problem
at 10 PM on a Friday night? Don't laugh, I've done it. COMMON, warts and
all, is still the best bang for the buck. To paraphrase American Express'
motto: COMMON membership has its rewards.

Come back, Joe. We need you.

Paul Nelson
Arbor Solutions, Inc.
708-670-6978  Cell
pnelson@xxxxxxxxxx

"Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of
others are often stiffened." ~~ Billy Graham
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