The globalization of COMMON, or is this the right direction?

All -

I have not been to a COMMON conference in quite a while, but I had heard that 
the next conference is being held in Miami. As I was looking at COMMON's web 
site yesterday, I happened to click on the link that shows the candidates in 
the next board of directors election ( 
http://www.common.org/about/candidates.html ). 

As I read the candidate's statements, I noticed that one candidate (Rajan 
Narayanan) is a senior VP for a company named Mindtree that promotes the 
outsourcing of work to India ( http://www.common.org/about/rajan.html ). 
That, of course, immediately pushed one of my hot buttons. This candidate 
apparently earns his salary by taking jobs from North Americans and giving them 
to workers in India. If this is not the case, I would surely like to see his 
employee list!

In fact, a quick visit to his employer's web page to view current job openings 
( http://www.mindtree.com/crs/opngs.php ) confirmed what I already suspected - 
that Mindtree probably does NOT hire technical people in the United States!  Of 
73 positions being advertised, only ONE is in the USA - and it is for a 
"Manager of Business Development" in Schaumburg, Illinois.

It's no secret to anyone who subscribes to midrange-L or midrange-jobs how I 
feel about outsourcing American jobs overseas. Does anyone see anything wrong 
with the message that COMMON seems to be sending with this nomination? 

COMMON purports to be an education provider, and it has programs designed to 
work with schools to bring young programmers into the midrange community. It 
even has a group calling itself the YIPS (Young iSeries Professionals). 
Ostensibly, this education is intended to benefit the iSeries community in 
North America. The last time I checked, COMMON was still based in Chicago, 
Illinois, and not in Bangalore, India. 

I have heard that not many people vote for the board candidates because only 
those with individual memberships and the member representatives for a company 
are entitled to vote. It is my understanding that with people moving around in 
the industry and within their companies, COMMON has had trouble figuring out 
exactly who the member reps actually are. 

If I am allowed a little conjecture here, a candidate with a large IT labor 
force could actually "buy" a seat on COMMON's board by telling his employees to 
purchase individual memberships and that the company would provide 
reimbursement. Also, the prospect that COMMON's membership list could then be 
available to an outsourcing firm really bothers me. 

I am planning to buy a membership so that I can stand up for what I believe. If 
you also see a problem with COMMON's direction, I urge you to join COMMON and 
vote too. 

By the way...I'm sure that Rajan appreciates IBM for their ongoing investment 
in India.  See 
http://news.com.com/IBM+to+pour+6+billion+into+India/2100-1014_3-6080346.html?tag=st.ref.goo
  or http://tinyurl.com/eengr

On that note, I'm wondering why IBM doens't just pull up and move their 
headquarters to India!  They could get rid of hundreds (or thousands) of 
overpaid executives in Armonk and Rochester and replace them with far cheaper 
workers in Bangalore...

Thanks for your time,
Steve Landess
Austin, Texas
(512) 423-0935

It is strange the way the ignorant and inexperienced so often and so 
undeservedly succeed when the informed and the experienced fail.  - Mark Twain