curley@wharton-10.ARPA ("ROBERT CURLEY") (07/08/86)
I have just become a Director of DECUS. I was third in a field of five with three open slots in the election this Spring. Thank you for the votes. There has been some comment about the Board being unapproachable and already knowing what you want. I would appreciate your comments on the following two questions that concern me greatly - or any comments you would share with the "new guy on the block." 1. What should be the important points in a DECUS Commercialism Policy? What should or should not be permitted in the Newsletters, at Symposia or in the Exhibit Area? There is a real need, I think, for simple, understandable rules - before we become a trade arena rather than a technical forum. 2. Why is Symposia attendance declining? Or, why are half the attendees at each Symposium "first timers"? Why don't you come more often? Thank you for your time and consideration, Bob Curley Department of Radiation Therapy University of Pennsylvania Room 410 - 133 South 36th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-3246 (voice) 215-662-3083 (ARPA ) CURLEY@WHARTON ------
bill@LOGICON.ARPA.UUCP (07/10/86)
While I have no answer for your question on commercialism, I do have some comments about the reduced attendance and so many first-timers. I have attended a single symposium, the spring 1982 one in Atlanta, I found it very useful and was able to get answers to most of the questions that I had. Unfortunately, it appears that our management feels that attendance at these functions is too expensive to be taken out of overhead. So, if it isn't directly chargeable to a contract we are unlikely to send anyone. I suspect that a fair number of companies take the same view. The symposium which I attended was in fact charged to a contract because the customer agreed that the symposium was a good place to find answers to some questions which we had at the time. Also, some companies seem to view attendance at a symposium as a kind of reward, and send different people each time to avoid charges of favoritism. Taking the rate of turnover in this industry, in general, into account, it is not surprising that a large number of attendees are first-timers and may not stay with the company long enough to attend again. I have transferred to a different department since I went to the Atlanta symposium, and now don't work with DEC operating systems anymore. We have four machines, with a fifth on the horizon, all running different versions of UNIX. So now I find myself in the same boat with respect to UNIX conferences. With the number of UNIX machines we have we should send someone to at least one of the UNIX conferences each year, but we haven't sent anyone since I attended the june 1985 USENIX conference in Portland. In talking to people at other companies who are principally government contractors, I have found a similar attitude. That is, if it can't be legitimately charged to the contract, no one is sent. Some companies send people who are more marketing oriented, and I suspect that if you check you will find a fair number of repeat attendees who fall into this category. Lastly, the budgeting cycle of the company may affect the decision, a couple of times in the past we have wanted to send people to symposium/conferences but it was too far into the quarter/year and there weren't any funds available. Hope this wasn't too long-winded, and that I wasn't just telling you things you already knew. Bill D'Camp Logicon, Operating Systems Division San Diego, Ca ****Disclaimer: I am not an official spokesperson for Logicon and the opinions expressed above are strictly my own.