It is Sunday night...

Extra cables and parts and systems are loaded in the van, just in case...

Support systems for the Boot Camp.

Personal packing is done. Care package for the drive is getting put together. All the odds and ends to have - JUST IN CASE... Driving up so I have a car for the 10 days or so I am in Nashua.

Many things are still coming together and need to be sorted out over the next week:

• Equipment arrival
• A/V setup verification
• Equipment staging
• Network build and configuration
• Systems and Network Testing
• Presentation checking
• Last minute details which keep multiplying
• ...
• And of course the list goes on and on...

All of the things to get an technical conference off the ground and running for a week has to be planned and coordinated. We have a great team in the Program Committee:

• Sue Skonetski, Program Chairperson
• Michelle Popejoy, OpenVMS SIG Co-Chairperson
• Greg Guthman, Connect Board Member
• Gerrit Woertman, VMS Ambassador
• Ray Turner, VMS Ambassador
• Anders Johannson
• Kevin St George, Electricial Infrastructure
• Dave Schmidt
• Tom Moran, Network Infrastructure
• Signe Maximous, Partner Roundhouse Coordinator


• Kristi Browder, Connect Worldwide Executive Director
• Suzanne Jarl, Connect Marketing Director
• Shari Riddle, Connect Membership Liason

All of these people have helped bring this year's Boot Camp together and are working to lay the ground work for future events. They will also all be working to make sure the Boot Camp, Partner Roundhouse, OpenVMS Reunion and every other aspect of the event goes off without a hear.

Well, I still have much to do and still need to sleep tonight and head North.

See you in Nashua!

Thanks!

Bill.

This is a call to the OpenVMS Community to contribute some COOL
memorabilia for use in a charitable silent auction. The auction will be part of the OpenVMS Reunion to be held, Thursday evening, 16 September, at the Radisson Nashua, in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Connect Worldwide as part of the 2010 Connect OpenVMS Boot Camp is
holding a silent auction to raise funds for the Future Leaders of
Information Technology Scholarship Fund. All funds raised through
this auction will be donated to the fund in the name of William (Chip) Webb who passed away earlier this Summmer.

Additionally, $5.00 of the $25.00 OpenVMS Reunion ticket prices will also be donated to the Scholarship Fund, also in Chip's name.

We are looking for the interesting and cool items which people would be interested in having as a reminder of events in OpenVMS history or DIGITAL history. Please contact Sue Skonetski to arrange to donate items for the auction.

Please visit the Connect website to purchase tickets to the event.

If you have already bought your Connect OpenVMS Boot Camp registration you are automatically included in the OpenVMS Reunion and do not need to register.

See you in Nashua!

Thanks,

Bill Pedersen
2010 Connect OpenVMS Boot Camp
Event Project Manager

Hey, folks!

Sorry, have not been here recently. I have been working on very diligently to help bring together the 2010 Connect OpenVMS Boot Camp.

This is a re-incarnation of the long running Ambassadors' Meetings and then the OpenVMS Advanced Technical Boot Camps as hosted by Sue Skonetski. It has been quite a process to re-create and also extend this unique technical conference. We have been working this process in a fast an furious fashion since the initial formation of the Program Committee back in the February time frame. The time we have had could have been longer but I am sure not nearly as much "fun" if we had had more time.

While attendees will see a certain familiar look and feel about the Boot Camp there will be some new features as part of Connect's Community orientation. Lunches will have a bit more structure for those who want it - look for various meeting places around the banquet tables and different themes each day: vertical alignment, market place, organization, technology - all different ways to help people connect with difference segments of our OpenVMS Community.

Connect is also hosting an OpenVMS Reunion on Thursday evening, 16 September. This will be a "pool side" event. Some have said "Pool Party" but given the time of year and the potential for cool evening temps... As part of the Reunion we are holding a silent auction the proceeds from which will go to the Future Leaders of Information Technology Scholarship Fund in William "Chip" Webb's name. Chip who was a strong supporter of OpenVMS and active Boot Camp and DECUS participant recently passed away. The reunion is $25, of which $5 also goes to the Scholarship Fund in Chip's name.

Have you registered? Great! See you in Nashua!

No? Better do it quick!

See you there!

Bill.

That quote from John Wooden is as applicable to OpenVMS as is it was to his coaching of basketball players. It truly is a philosophy for success.

To focus on what you have no control over, rather than to expend your energy on what you can make happen now disrupts the process of improvement you so much want. Many people in the OpenVMS Community are suggesting THE TASK which needs to be addressed is to port the OS to yet another platform. That action, a 4+ year exercise, is something which we CAN NOT DO and it is distracting people from the process of trying to get the community to move forward with tasks they can do.

What can the OpenVMS Community do? As a Community we can work to:

• Get OpenVMS more positive exposure in the marketplace


• Implement more Open Source applications


• Introduce new people into the OpenVMS Community


• Train new OpenVMS Community members


• Migrate VAX and Alpha owners to newer OpenVMS environments


• Guide OpenVMS to the future

Come join me in this journey!

Yes, it is a journey. These tasks are not trivial nor are they something that need only be done one. They will have to be repeated over and over and over again. We believe as OpenVMS evolves to support some of the newer technology that the process will become easier and more straight forward but it is still a process which will be ongoing for many years to come.

If we do not start this journey then the alternative is unacceptable.

We can have a specific forum for this process or we can use an existing forum. No matter how you look at it though, we need to have exposure so people can see what we are doing and see progress so they can then be encouraged to join in this journey.

Talk to you soon.

Bill.

That's right. At the end of the day we will close the public submission process for proposed sessions for the September 2010 Connect OpenVMS Bootcamp.

If you have just realized you for forgot to submit your session, then, please, go to the Connect website and do it NOW!

Help make this event THE OpenVMS Technical Event of 2010.

Thank you to all who have already submitted sessions. We look forward to reviewing all submissions and finalizing them over the next couple weeks.

See you there!

Bill.