I am opening up to all interested and available members of the Ada
community to join members of the SIGAda Extended Executive Committee
and candidates for officer (new terms starting July 1) in a combined
LONG-RANGE-PLANNING and Officer-Transition meeting 9AM-6PM on MONDAY,
JUNE 23, at the McLEAN HILTON AT TYSONS CORNER (Virginia). Address:
McLean Hilton At Tysons Corner
7920 Jones Branch Drive
McLean, VA 22102
Reservations: (703)761-5111;
(ask if the $124 WAdaS group rate is still available)
About a dozen of us are intending to attend this meeting at present.
[This is the site of the 13th Washington Ada Symposium (WAdaS'97)
co-sponsored by DC SIGAda and ACM SIGAda, and is the 1st of their 2
tutorial days, followed by the 2-day symposium June 25-26. If you
want more info on WAdaS'97, its URL is http://www.ois.com/wadas97 ]
Long Range Planning is the primary purpose of the meeting, and given
the considerable interdependence of SIGAda purposes & fate with other
segments of the Ada community, I think it is appropriate to
alternatively construe this meeting as long-range planning for Ada
community actions to ensure our mutual future vitality and prosperity.
SIGAda always seeks to take actions complementing those of other
Ada-interested parties (e.g., Ada vendors, system houses using Ada,
educators & students, Government agents & sponsors, researchers,
consultants, trainers, etc.) in promoting the technical and business
health of the Ada community. Like everyone else, SIGAda's resources
are not unlimited, so identifying where SIGAda can uniquely contribute
the most as part of an orchestrated Ada-industry-wide strategy, and
understanding the roles that other parts of the community can do
better than SIGAda, will make SIGAda more effective. That's why I am
opening up this invitation and hoping some of you find this meeting an
enticing prospect.
To set the stage, the following 4 major attention areas were identified
at SIGAda's 6/95 LRP mtg:
(1) Conferences, workshops, meetings, etc.
(2) Ada Promotion/Publicity & Public Relations
(3) Publications, other forms of communication
(4) SIGAda Membership retention & recruiting
It seems to me that the first 3 of these 4 topics are of concern to
other parts of the Ada community/industry too. Some plan improvements
especially in the areas of (2) & (3) have been partially implemented
since 1995, but by no means as completely as hoped or needed. The
June 23 meeting will start with a review of the objectives, problems,
& issues already identified in these 4 areas; an update of status
toward alleviating the problems/issues; and then a general revisit of
today's perception of the urgency for improvement in each area, and
possible identification of a new "major" attention area or two. I
think this part of the meeting would be best accomplished by the group
as a whole and estimate that it will consume the morning. Then, I
propose that attendees break into subgroups in the afternoon to
brainstorm actions for SIGAda (& others?) to take in each area, do
some prioritizing & cost estimating (labor & $$), and come up with
recommended action plans for the new SIGAda Executive Committee (&
others?) to undertake. We will close with reports back from each
subgroup to all participants, possible merged prioritizing of all
recommendations by the group as a whole, and identification of next
steps and needed commitments to achieve (or at least start) them.
(Or, if time is running out, the merged prioritizing and next-steps
stuff could be done just by the new officers with the assistance of
the subset of other interested volunteers to work overtime.) This
general meeting agenda is subject to revision at the top of the
meeting and again after the morning's events.
If you think you can come, plz let me know. (not mandatory)
-- Hal
PS to SIGAda MEMBERS: If it helps get you to this meeting, I will
authorize SIGAda reimbursement of the cost of one night at the hotel
and up to $100 toward your transportation costs. Contact me privately
about this offer. If you are not a member and want to join
immediately in time to qualify for the offer (talk about return on a
$50-100 SIGAda or ACM membership!), a SIGAda membership application is
available on SIGAda's home page: http://www.acm.org/sigada
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