SAGE Update for May, 1997

[Pat Wilson <paw@northstar.dartmouth.edu>]

Hello!

The SAGE board held at meeting at the annual SANS Conference last month,
of which SAGE is a co-sponsor.  Attendance at this year's SANS almost
doubled over the previous year!

Now that everyone's back from SANS (where we _didn't_ manage to hold a SAGE
BoF - apologies to those who looked for it!), it's time for a SAGE status
report.

SANS seemed to be quite a good show.  Along with the advertised program,
there were *lots* of BoFs on all sorts of things, including the idea of 
making SAGE more of a Guild (using master/journeyman/apprentice model).  
If you were at a BoF which generated good ideas, let the membership know!  
sage-members can be used to recruit folks for discussion lists, and SAGE 
can host mailing lists...

The SAGE Locals folks, headed by Amy Kreiling (amy@usenix.org) sponsored
one of the BoFs - Amy is working to increase the level of support SAGE can
give a local group.  Right now, she's collecting information and requesting
feedback from local groups (info which will eventually make its way onto
the SAGE web site).  If your local group wasn't represented at SANS and
would like to participate, send mail to Amy (amy@usenix.org) or Brian
Kirouac (bri@pencom.com).  There's currently a page with pointers to many 
local groups at <URL:http://www.usenix.org/sage/locals/sage-localgroups.html>.

In other hot conference news, the LISA '97 extended abstract submission
deadline is JUNE 3rd (almost here!).  There's still time, though - check
out the CFP at <URL:http://www.usenix.org/lisa97/cfp.html> and submit!
We're also still accepting Invited Talk ideas/proposals - send 'em to
itlisa@usenix.org.

The LISA NT (Large Scale System Administration of Windows NT) workshop is coming 
together nicely - look for registration materials very soon.  This is a
_workshop_, so attendance will be limited.  Register early, so you don't
miss it!  We hope to have a session at LISA with "results" from the
workshop, so you can catch up there if you can't get to Seattle in August.

SAGE is contemplating the possibility of having a "teraLISA" (very large
site) conference or workshop - if you're interested, drop a line to Hal
Miller (halm@usenix.org). 

USENIX and SAGE are pleased to announce that Peter Collinson is now working
as our Webmaster.  Peter's got plenty of experience, and lots of good
ideas - look for neat new things to be happening at the web site in the
near future!

On other fronts, SAGE was approached by the Maryland Virtual High School
project with a request for us to put together and fund a one-day sysadmin 
class for their (high school) students, which we've done.  We'd be happy to 
consider other such "good works" projects - we're looking for things that fit 
the mission and charter of SAGE, of course, and for which we're in a unique
position to help.  Get in touch with Helen Harrison (helen@usenix.org) if
you've got ideas or a request.

The Code of Ethics <URL:http://www.usenix.org/sage/hypertext/code_of_ethics.html>, 
while still "advisory", is being translated into French and Portugese.  Discussions 
are underway with SAGE-AU (which has its own Code) about the possibility of 
combining the two Codes into one true world-wide document.  Please send comments to 
Hal Miller (halm@usenix.org).  He'd also love to hear from you if you're interested 
in helping the translation effort.

The discussion about "Merit Badges" continues - we hope to have a White
Paper and FAQ about the proposed program available Real Soon.

There's a BoF kit that's available (or will be soon) from SAGE for folks
who'd like to hold a SAGE BoF at conferences they attend which don't have a
USENIX/SAGE presence - send mail to Tim Gassaway (gassaway@usenix.org) for
details.

Current members should by now have received your copy of the new Short
Topics booklet _System Security: A Management Perspective_.  We hope it's
helpful (feed it to your CEO) and we'd love your feedback!  If you haven't
gotten your copy, drop a line to office@usenix.org and let them know.
We're still looking for proposals on a Short Topics booklet on "site
audits" - see the RFP at <URL:http://www.usenix.org/sage/audit.cfp.html>
for details.

Remember, SAGE is _all_ of us.  Drop us (sage-board@usenix.org) a note and
let us know what's up!  

Your SAGE Board of Directors