Hi Matt, I think a membership drive of sorts, is a great idea. I don't even mind the idea of the business giving it to the SAs in question. It's a lot more useful than flowers (or whatever the geek equivalent is), and if they get in the habit, hey, built-in renewal. I agree with whoever it was, (Tom, maybe?) who said that renewal notices should get sent to the member AND the person who gave the gift.
Speaking of flowers and the like... I am in complete agreement with Matt that LOPSA should do what it can to encourage the idea of System Administrator Appreciation Day. It sounds silly, but advocating things like this card <http://www.bluemountain.com/ecards/7-27-system-administrator-day/card-3080819?q=system%20administrator>from Blue Mountain or these cards<http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/shopping/cb.asp?keyword=Sysadmin+day> from Greeting Card Universe create awareness. If I got one, even from another system administrator, I'd print it out and hang it at my desk for the week of SysAdmin Appreciation Day. If LOPSA were made of money, I'd say that we could work out some kind of bulk postcard deal to send members SysAdmin Day cards to their business addresses, but e-cards are free. Maybe just send a "Happy System Administrator Appreciation Day" email, the way that some companies send "Merry Christmas" emails to their clients. Regarding the membership drive, one thing I've thought about a lot is sending free memberships to prominent members of the tech community. I don't know what the cost to LOPSA is per member, but I suspect it would be worth the expense to offer a free membership to people who are newsworthy and have the attention of the media. Maybe nice heartwarming stories like this guy's<http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print/2012/04/03/formerly-jobless-woolwich-man-adds-presidential-in/118468> . It also seems like, sometime around mid June, "SysAdmin of the Year" contests start coming out of the woodwork. Although the idea of rewarding heroics is kind of...abrasive...to me, we should be able to brainstorm and come up with a way to put a positive spin on the idea, and maybe partner with an established contest. BigFix has done it, as has CyberArk, but OpenDNS is probably the longest-running and most respected. Plus they throw a big SysAdmin Appreciation Day bash every year in the bay area. If they were interested in partnering, it could be a really good matchup. What does everyone else think of these ideas? --Matt (Simmons) On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 10:08 PM, Matt Disney <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, folks. > > As many of you are aware, System Administrator Appreciation Day is the > last Friday in July. Let's start planning what LOPSA should do to recognize > and promote it. > > One thing I have in mind is a membership drive of some sort, perhaps in > the form of discounted gift memberships. Want to show a sysadmin some > appreciation? Get them a one-year membership to LOPSA. And maybe we can > give better discounts if you buy 5, 10, 25 gift memberships. Ok, but maybe > we need to have some sort of gift to go along with it. Maybe a book of some > kind, donated or discounted to LOPSA if possible to make the numbers work > better. And some organizations don't pay for association memberships, so > maybe we offer the gift for a certain price and the membership is actually > complimentary. It would be a deal where it would be available for new > memberships or to extend the membership of a current member by a year. This > plan is not fully baked but I think it might have some potential. > > The reason I'm pushing for a membership drive sort of thing here (even if > we don't label it as such) is that increasing our rosters allows us to get > bigger partnerships/sponsorships and in turn recruit even more members. And > having a larger membership is one important way that LOPSA will gain > efficiencies of scale, serve our membership better, and also be more > influential in the public arena and to other organizations regarding system > administration as a profession. > > I'd like to hear what you think about the gift membership drive idea, > suggestions on how to improve it, and if you have other ideas for Sys Admin > Day activities. > > Thanks, > Matt Disney > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > > -- LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST? COOKIE MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process.
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