Working Groups

[Elizabeth Zwicky <erg.sri.com">zwicky]

(This message was sent to sageusenix.org, the main sage mailing list.)

The Systems Administrators' Guild (SAGE) was founded to meet many needs of
the people who administer and manage computing systems.  As the
organization grows, we want to have a clear vision of just what those
needs are and how they should be addressed.  In that light, working groups
were formed at the SAGE meeting in San Antonio in June.

Each group is chartered to discuss a topic of interest and determine if it
is a viable candidate for action on the part of SAGE.  The working groups
can recommend against pursuing a topic any further.  If you have strong
feelings in either direction, you should join the group and present your
opinion.  If determined to be viable, the working group also has the
charter to draft for the SAGE board a proposal which outlines possible
methods of addressing the issue at hand.

Below is the list of working groups (current as of June 25th, 1992).
Listed are the names of the group, the leader, the email address that the
working group will be using, and a description of some of the topics, and
goals the group will attempt to address.  If you feel that there is a
topic not covered by these groups that SAGE should pursue, you should send
email to <sage-boardusenix.org> describing the topic.  If you are
interested in joining one or more of these groups, send email to
<listservusenix.org> with a body message of "help" or to
<listname-requestusenix.org> and you will be sent further information on
subscribing to the various lists.

1.  Conferences and Workshops - Steve Simmons (scsiti.org) - sage-confusenix.org

The conferences and workshops group will focus on public activities of
both academic and practical use for systems administration, including
involvement in the USENIX LISA conference.

2.  Publications - Bryan McDonald (bigmacerg.sri.com) - sage-pubsusenix.org

The publications group is chartered to put together a series of proposals
related to the various publications that SAGE wants established.  In the
immediate future the pubs group will be asked to assist in the publication
of the first issues of newsletter segments within "login:".  Long term
goals include proposals concerning an independent newsletter, a technical
journal, software tool collections, and any other ideas the committee can
collect.

3.  Electronic Information Distribution - Mark Verber (verberparc.xerox.com) - sage-onlineusenix.org

The electronic information distribution working group will identify
existing information sources that would be of use to SAGE members, new
types of information that should be gathered/produced, and make proposals
for the effective distribution of this information.  Existing sources
should include reprints of papers/articles and mailing-list/USENET news
archives.  New information sources might include specially written
technical/positional papers and custom databases such as vendor neutral
list of bugs.  Distribution methods will include WAIS or other information
servers, anonymous ftp/uucp, and CDrom.

3.  Education - Pat Wilson (pawnorthstar.dartmouth.edu) - sage-eduusenix.org

The education working group's initial goal is to outline possible plans
for institutional and continuing education of the community through the
development of model curricula, the identification and promotion of useful
tutorial programs, and the construction of guides for self-study.

4.  Certification - Paul Moriarty (pmmcisco.com) - sage-certifyusenix.org

The purpose of the certification working group is to address the issues
surrounding certification and discuss the various approaches that might be
taken.  The working group will present the model along with their
recommendations to the board of directors.

5.  Job Descriptions - Tina Darmohray (tmds1.gov) - sage-jobsusenix.org

The job description group will evaluate SAGE's role in assisting system
administrators with defining job descriptions.  If it is determined that
this is an area that SAGE should pursue, the focus of the group will be to
create multiple system administration job description suites that can be
used as templates for those who are writing position descriptions for
hiring purposes at their own site.

6.  Awards - John Detke (jfdoctel.com) - sage-robbiesusenix.org

The awards working group will focus how SAGE can best go about recognizing
outstanding system administrators, and their achievements.  Initial
suggestions include a "Best of LISA" award and an annual outstanding
sysadmin award.

7.  Public Relations - Paul Evans (plemaspar.com) - sage-prusenix.org

As a professional society, SAGE has the opportunity to speak out to many
factions of industry and/or government on issues that affect us and our
profession.  This committee will examine the issues, set guidelines to
SAGE's involvement in this area, and (if appropriate) determine a plan or
focus for the guild to evaluate and pursue (or not pursue).  This group
will also serve to direct any future public relations issues that may
arise.

8.  Local Groups - Bjorn Satdeva (bjornsysadmin.com) - sage-localsusenix.org

This group will have the task of exploring how the creation of new local
groups can be made easier, how SAGE and USENIX can assist in their
formation, and how SAGE can support existing local groups.

9.  Ethics - Ed Gould (edpa.dec.com) - sage-ethicsusenix.org

This group is charged with determining SAGE's role in developing a set of
guidelines or codes of ethics for the system administrator.  We see these
guidelines or codes as having at least two purposes, namely, guiding one's
self in the performance of system administration tasks, and informing
one's employer and co-workers of the proper bounds of system
administration.

10. Policies - Lee Damon (nomadwatson.ibm.com) - sage-policiesusenix.org

The focus of the policies working group is the consideration of one or
several documents for system/network administrators to use as guidelines
or boilerplates in setting up their site's policies and procedures.  We
will also be working with the education and ethics working groups to help
systems administrators understand just what policies are, and why they can
be important.

11. Vendors - Terry Bartlett (bartlettrmtc.central.sun.com) - sage-vendorsusenix.org

The vendor working group will evaluate SAGE's role in establishing a
consensus on the types of tools we'd like vendors to provide for system
and network administration.  The group may also act as a vendor lobbying
organization to convince the various manufacturers to "do the right thing"
when it comes to system administration.

12. Standards - Janet Frazer (janetusl.com) - sage-stdsusenix.org

The standards working group will evaluate the potential for SAGE to
monitor and affect the various standards bodies that are currently or will
be in the future setting standards for system administration.

13. Non-UNIX - John Detke (jfdoctel.com) - sage-outreachusenix.org

The non-UNIX outreach working group will focus on how SAGE can remain
pertinent to people who manage computing systems and networks, addressing
the issues that cross operating and network system boundaries.

14. Part-Time Admins - Peg Schafer (pegbbn.com) - sage-ptusenix.org

The part time working group is concerned that the proposed SAGE charter
did not mention the large number of people who do system administration
less than 100% of the time (e.g., there are chemists who fulfill system
administration roles some portion of each working day; yet, they view
themselves as chemists, not system administrators).  We will consider how
SAGE could address the needs of such individuals and propose changes to
the proposed SAGE charter which address this "dual-role" reality.

15. Security - Laura de Leon (deleonhpl.hp.com) & Arnold de Leon (arnoldsynopsys.com) - sage-securityusenix.org

Security is a growing concern for system administrators.  This group will
examine ways of helping system administrators assess their need for
security and security policies.  We will seek ways to educate system
administrators on security issues.  We will consider soliciting or
developing sample policies and tools in this arena.