League of Professional System Administrators

LOPSA

Type	Non-Profit
Founded	2004
Headquarters	Mount Laurel, New Jersey, United States
Website	www.lopsa.org

The League of Professional System Administrators (LOPSA) is a non-profit organization. The organization's mission is "to advance the practice of system administration; to support, recognize, educate, and encourage its practitioners; and to serve the public through education and outreach on system administration issues".^{[citation needed]}

The corporation was created as "The System Administrators Guild, Inc." in July 2004 by volunteers of the USENIX Association as part of a plan to spin off its SAGE Special Technical Group into a separate organization. After the spin-off from USENIX Association was halted in November 2005, the volunteers involved in the spin-off opted to move forward as a new organization which was renamed LOPSA, and began reorganizing itself into an independent entity.

LOPSA is governed by a nine-member Board of Directors; the first board was elected in July 2005 by the membership of SAGE. Elections for new Board members are held every two years, in June. Its headquarters are in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.

History

• Pre-history

LOPSA's history begins in the early 1990s. Then, a group of system administrators decided that it was time to address the issues of System Administration as a profession. Their efforts lead to the founding of SAGE -- The System Administrators' Guild. Since the founders are active participants in USENIX and its LISA conference, they decided to work with USENIX to organize SAGE. While it was never intended that SAGE be a permanent part of USENIX, SAGE began as the first (and only) USENIX _Special Technical Group_. However, running a professional society for one group of people under the auspicies of an organization with different goals comes with challenges. Serving the profession of system administration required a different focus and different resources than USENIX's mission of advanced computer systems research and conferences. Therefore, after years of growing pains and differences, the leadership of both SAGE and USENIX decided to make a change.

• 2004: SAGE disbanded and charted a roadmap for a new organization

In June 2004, the USENIX Board disbanded the SAGE special technical group, and established a roadmap for the creation of an independent SAGE, including the transition of assets from the SAGE to the new organization. They asked the former SAGE Executive Committee if they were interested in pursuing that course. Three members of the Executive Committee (Geoff Halprin, Trey Harris and David Parter), with the endorsement of the rest of the executive committee agreed to serve as the transition committee. They were joined by Lorette Cheswick. 2004-2005: Transition Committee and Interim Board; Elections The transition committee incorporated _The System Administrators Guild_, a New Jersey Non-Profit corporation in November 2004, and became the interim Board of Directors, or _NewSAGE_. Throughout the fall of 2004 and Spring of 2005, the Interim Board worked on the building blocks of the new organization, and laying the groundwork for the transition from USENIX. The Interim Board recruited a Leadership Committee (Greg Rose, Esther Filderman, Adam Moskowitz, Mario Obejas) to recruit candidates and oversee the election of the first full Board of Directors. Jesse Trucks and Matt Okeson-Harlow of Cyberius' Network volunteered to write the election software and conduct the online election, which was held in June 2005. The "election results":http://governance.lopsa.org/index.php/2005_Election_Results were announced on June 28, 2005.

• Summer/Fall 2005: Preparing for the transition

The first elected Board of Directors met in Mount Laurel, NJ on July 29–31, 2005. Tom Perrine was elected the President, Pat Wilson Vice President, and Andrew Hume Secretary-Treasurer. Sam Albrecht (from "Association Headquarters":http://www.ahint.com) was approved as our Executive Director. During the remainder of the Summer and early Fall of 2005, _NewSAGE_ attempted to work with USENIX on the promised transition of services and assets. In October, Geoff Halprin resigned from the SAGE Board because of conflict of interest, citing "advice of counsel regarding the negotiations in progress between USENIX and SAGE", since Geoff was also a member of the USENIX Board of Directors at the time.

• November 2005: LOPSA is born

In November 2005, negotiations with USENIX broke down, and Mike Jones, USENIX President, sent an email message to all USENIX and SAGE members announcing that the USENIX Board decided not to proceed with separating SAGE from USENIX. It then became clear that USENIX's plans and expectations had changed, and that USENIX was no longer willing to continue with negotiations towards separation. However, the fundamental issues underlying SAGE's growing pains and USENIX had not changed; indeed they were greater due to SAGE's dormancy for a year. The Board of the newly formed organization unanimously believed that the need for an independent professional society for system administrators was as manifest as ever. Therefore, the Board decided to continue on, and *The League of Professional System Administrators—LOPSA* was born. A lot of hard work by a group of dedicated volunteers ensued, and after a few days, the new lopsa.org website went live on November 11, 2005. SAGE continues to exist as a separate entity run as a special interest group of Usenix (also a 501c(3)).^{[citation needed]}

Community

• LOPSA Mailing Lists

LOPSA sponsors and hosts mailing lists to serve the community. Most mailing lists are open to all; some may have more limited subscription policies.

• LOPSA IRC channels

The LOPSA IRC channels are on irc.lopsa.org:

The channel #lopsa is a combination professional channel and coffee house—conversation is often freewheeling and ranges on a variety of topics however, when you ask a technical or professional question, you will get answers.

The channel #lopsa-live is used for scheduled community discussions with the Board.

• The LOPSA Mentorship Program

LOPSA provides a “match-maker” service for people that want to be mentors and people that want to be proteges. Mentors list their availability and a brief description of their skills and interests. A coordinator brings the two together. The pair is free to work out their own goals, timeline, schedule, and so on.

Chapters and affiliations

LOPSA fosters community through local chapters and affiliation with and support for other local groups.

Chapters in the USA

• Arizona
• Madison, Wisconsin
• New Jersey
• Austin, Texas

Established affiliates

• System Administrators Guild of Ireland (Ireland)
• Ottawa Valley SAGE (Canada)
• Sonoma County System Administrators (Northern California)
• Seattle Area System Administrators Guild (Seattle, Washington)
• Unix Users Association of Southern California, LA Chapter (Los Angeles, California)

Other regional system administration groups

• Americas
  • Pittsburgh - System and Network Administrators of Pittsburgh
  • North Carolina - NC*SA or North Carolina System Administrators
  • Boston - BBLISA
• Australia
  • SAGE-AU

External links

• Official LOPSA website

References

• https://lopsa.org/about_history
• https://lopsa.org/mailinglists
• https://lopsa.org/irc
• https://lopsa.org/mentor