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From: kil...@eisner.decus.org
Newsgroups: vmsnet.decus.lugs,comp.org.decus
Subject: The DECUS U.S. Chapter National LUG Organization reorganizes!
Message-ID: <1993Feb22.224318.59@eisner.decus.org>
Date: 23 Feb 93 03:43:18 GMT
Organization: DECUServe
Lines: 89
The World is Flat
or
Reorganizing the NLC
We asked ourselves, "How can we better serve our LUG customers? What would
make life easier and better for the volunteers at the local and national
level?" And, finally, "How do we improve services and still maintain good
representation?"
The answers took a lot of time and soul-searching, but we think we came up
with a great solution - United, we provide! The best analogy to our new
structure would be a typical city government. The new LUG Advocates are the
city council with district representation. The XMT, which is made up of the
NLC Chair, Vice-Chair and Staff Interface, is the office of the mayor. The
new Functional Teams are the departments that deliver the city services and
have replaced the regional structure.
Why did we do this? Since the LUG Council's meeting of February 1992 in
Hartford there has been an ongoing effort to make the NLO a customer-driven
organization. As a result of the September 1992 LUG Chairs meeting in
Orlando, an action list was established of approximately 30 items based upon
input from the LUG Chairs. In response to both the enhanced direction of the
NLO and the tasks at hand, both now and in the future, the LUG Council
realized the need to do something in order to be a more responsive structure.
The regional structure has been eliminated and replaced with a new
function-based structure which now gives each LUG up to 8 contact points
within the NLC. Although this may sound like a lot of contacts, the new
structure breaks up the old bottlenecks and allows for direct and quick
communication.
The highlights of the reorganization are as follows...
Each LUG will elect a "LUG Advocate" to the NLC. Unlike the old
Regional LUG Coordinator (RLC) system the LUG Advocate will not be
responsible for providing services. The job of LUG Advocate is to
represent the LUGs on the NLC. The LUG Advocate is also to act as the
"customer service" representative for the LUGs and facilitate the
resolution of any communication or organizational issues. There will
be approximately 4-5 direct LUG Advocates. Each LUG will have a
specific LUG advocate they will elect to represent them. The LUG
Advocate will represent approximately 25-35 LUGs. In the past the RLC
position was viewed as a killer position. Under the new structure
this position will most likely require a time commitment on the same
scale as running a large LUG. The LUG advocates along with the Chair,
Vice-Chair, and Staff interface will select all the positions on the
National LUG Council (NLC) and will vote on all strategic NLO policy
issues.
The Executive Management Team (XMT) will continue to be the NLC Chair,
Vice-Chair, and Staff Interface. The XMT will have the responsibility
for the tactical operation of the NLO. The XMT will nominate all the
"Functional Team" positions which will be approved by the NLC. In
general, the XMT will have the responsibility to facilitate the
execution of the strategic direction of the NLO. The XMT will also be
the NLO's primary representative to the rest of the DECUS
organization.
There will now be 7 "Functional Teams". The 7 teams are:
_Leadership Development,
_Budget
_Structures
_Events
_Symposia
_Communications, and
_3rd Party Relationships
Each team will facilitate providing services to the LUGs. Each team
will have 2-4 team members. Each team will have a team leader who
will be a non-voting member of the NLC. A complete description of the
Functional Teams will be published at a later date.
This change accomplishes a significant number of good things for the LUGs. It
flattens the organization and creates a direct service path between the
functions and the LUGs. It allows them to maintain strong representation on
the NLC. It creates volunteer jobs that are far more reasonable than what we
have had in the past. And finally, rather than having teams and expertise
that may benefit just one region, everything is now consistent and available
nationally.
A transition plan is being developed by a task force and the new structure will
be in place by July 1, 1993.
--
DECUS -User Driven...
Future focused on the art of delivering multiplatform computer technology
Jeff Killeen - DECUS U.S. Chapter NLC Chair | Email:...@eisner.decus.org
The NLC is the national council for DECUS's Local User Groups - come join us!
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From: kil...@eisner.decus.org
Newsgroups: comp.org.decus
Subject: U.S. Chapter Transformation report#1
Message-ID: <1993Mar23.074248.134@eisner.decus.org>
Date: 23 Mar 93 07:42:48 -0500
Organization: DECUServe
Lines: 70
<<< TOPAZ::$255$DUA108:[NOTES$LIBRARY]BOARD_PUBLIC.NOTE;1 >>>
-< Welcome to the Board_Public conference >-
================================================================================
Note 74.0 Tran Report #1 No replies
TOPAZ::STAMERJOHN "Ralph Stamerjohn, VP" 58 lines 22-MAR-1993 23:36
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is #1 of a series of weekly reports on the Transformation process.
(If you are puzzled about words like Transformation, see the
second article in the latest LeaderNews. If hard to find for
you, send me a note and I will forward a copy).
(More context, this is first of something I do at least once a week,
if just to tell you I'm busy and don't know what is happending.
Right now, the concentration is on the Phase I, especially the
preplanning).
A group is in place to faciliate the VISION process. This first
stage transition team consists of Marg Knox (chair), Ted Grenham,
Peter Jancourtz, Jeff Jalbert, Christine Kemp, Sandy Krueger, and me
(Ralph). Phil Dixon has been employed to work with this group.
Our goal is is to convene a 'Future Search' process which will result
in a vision for the society to be presented at Atlanta. We know we
work best fast-to-face, so the key activity in this phase is a
meeting involving representatives of as stakeholders sometime in May.
At our last (and first) conference call last Wednesday, Phil advised
us of the type of pre-work we needed to do to make the May conference
a success. Some of the specific points mentioned incldued:
1) Get as many of the stakeholders (people with a interest in DECUS even
if not members, provider, or leadership, i.e. my wife is a stakeholder in
DECUS, see following message) as possible involved. Remember the large
part of what you need to know is what you don't know. Look at other
organizations for what should be included to figure out who to involve.
We must diversity in the stakeholder groups involved in 'Future Search'
2) We must not take our eye off the customer this year. We have a
risk of becomming internalized. We need to ensure that the 'current
business' stays running.
3) Communications is key.
4) Phil is putting together a more complete list for our next call on
Wednesday.
5) Communications is key.
Other activity includes meeting in person or via phone with anyone
who wants to meet. Todate, Dave Johnson of the Board meet last
weekend with the CHI SIG at their woods meeting in Sonoma,
California. I have used speaker phones to talk with the L&T SIG and
the THE SIG. I am looking any other group who would like a in-person
(or at least in-voice) report and discussion on the DECUS Transition.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I am opening two new topics for discussion in BOARD_PUBLIC or using
mail directly with me. The first is your thoughts on all the
different stakeholders in DECUS and hence all the groups which need
to be represented in our 'Future Search' process. The second is your
thoughts on what would be a successful outcome of Phase I.
Ralph Stamerjohn, VP
--
DECUS -User Driven...
Future focused on the art of delivering multiplatform computer technology
Jeff Killeen - DECUS U.S. Chapter NLC Chair | Email:...@eisner.decus.org
The NLC is the national council for DECUS's Local User Groups - come join us!
Path: sparky!uunet!noc.near.net!eisner.decus.org!killeen
From: kil...@eisner.decus.org
Newsgroups: comp.org.decus
Subject: Who are DECUS's competitors?
Message-ID: <1993Mar25.000231.143@eisner.decus.org>
Date: 25 Mar 93 00:02:31 -0500
Organization: DECUServe
Lines: 22
<<< TOPAZ::$255$DUA108:[NOTES$LIBRARY]BOARD_PUBLIC.NOTE;1 >>>
-< Welcome to the Board_Public conference >-
================================================================================
Note 79.0 Who are our competitors? No replies
TOPAZ::STAMERJOHN "Ralph Stamerjohn, VP" 10 lines 24-MAR-1993 23:53
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an information gathering stream (i.e. I just want accumulated
names, etc)
Who is our competition? That is what are the other society's,
associations, meetings, so forth ...
To start it off, I saw a note posted about the Microsoft TECH-ED
conference.
A second competitor is the Software Developers Conference.
--
DECUS -User Driven...
Future focused on the art of delivering multiplatform computer technology
Jeff Killeen - DECUS U.S. Chapter NLC Chair | Email:...@eisner.decus.org
The NLC is the national council for DECUS's Local User Groups - come join us!