Published in the president's column of the Summer 2003 edition of RMOUG SQL>Update.  As there is no electronic copies available online prior to 2009, I have pulled this from my emails.

It’s summer!  In some parts of Colorado, the kids are out of school.  Flowers are blooming.  The grass is growing.  The economy is recovering.  Yes, finally!

It’s the beginning of a new fiscal year for Oracle Corporation.  And RMOUG has elected a new board of directors!

My name is Tim Gorman and I’ve been given the honor of being president of RMOUG this year.  I’ve been involved with the RMOUG board of directors for about 8 years now and a member of RMOUG for about 10 years.  I have been a developer on Oracle technology since 1990 and have been performing database administration duties since 1994.  All in all, a youth misspent, but it certainly beats housepainting and bartending, which were my only other marketable skills prior.

Some faces remain from last year and previous years, but some faces are new.  This is a wonderful thing about our organization, that we attract active generous people willing to share their expertise and pitch in to keep the organization running.  I’d like to introduce you to them:

 

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By the time you read this, the “http://www.rmoug.org” website will be updated with the contact information and biographies of the new board of directors.  There is also a listing of the board near the back of all newsletters, consisting of contact information.  Please feel free to contact any of us if you have any questions or suggestions for RMOUG and its activities.

The past few years have been difficult for everyone in the IT community, with RMOUG members not excepted.  It’s a dramatically different world now than 1999 — who would have thought that the millenium would really make such a difference?  The world has changed in so many ways, with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, 9/11, two wars, a severe recession.  For the past couple decades, that would have sufficed for an entire generation, but we have seen this in about 1000 days.

But, in our careers as Oracle professionals, one major fact remains unchanged:  we are incredibly fortunate to have found all this.  My father was a policeman and my mother was a waitress — it is not easy to explain to them exactly what I do for a living.  I often simply state that “it beats working”, which is genuinely how I feel about this career.

Oracle technology is applied in a wide variety of ways, across a broad spectrum of organizations from government to education to finance to medical to law enforcement to manufacturing to retail to engineering to telecommunications and beyond.  It is all pervasive in our society and we, as Oracle professionals, have an incredible opportunity to learn about several of these industries during our careers.  What opportunities!  What challenges!  What pure out-and-out fun!

It almost seems unfair, but not only are we employed in one of the most challenging, rewarding, and fun jobs imaginable, but we also live in Colorado!  Take it from someone who grew up in New Jersey, this is too good to be true!  I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and find myself stuck in traffic on the NJ Turnpike, trying to get home with 10 million irritable people who talk like Joe Pesci.

Suffice to say, we are fortunate.  However, it should be obvious that continuous training is paramount in staying abreast of new developments.  That is the mission of RMOUG:  education.  We are a community of professionals with a wide range of abilities, interests, and accomplishments.  There is a social aspect to this organization, but our purpose is not job-seeking.  We read the newsletter, we attend meetings and conferences, we listen to our peers in order to LEARN.  It is continuous education that RMOUG provides, and this helps our members improve their own skills, which improves our lives.

A couple of facts about RMOUG to reinforce this focus on education:

• member privacy
  
  • RMOUG does not distribute information about its members.  This is not a job-seeking organization, so member privacy is protected to maintain focus on education
  • As a matter of fact, only the executive director and membership director are permitted access to the membership lists.  In fact, neither the president of RMOUG nor any other board member is permitted to view this information, unless they are assisting on membership tasks.
  • RMOUG does allow vendors to send one-time mailings to members, but they are never given any membership information.  The whole operation is managed by a bonded mailing house.  The vendors send their content and RMOUG sends the mailing list to the bonded mailing house for one use.  By contract, the bonded mailing house cannot divulge the information it is provided to any party.  The vendors purchase the use of the mailing list for these one-time mailings, and approval must be obtained from a majority of the board before the purchase is permitted.  The money from the purchase goes into the general funds of RMOUG.
    
• Training Days conference
  
  • This event is entering its second decade.  During its existence, the Training Days conference has grown from about 100 people on one day to over 1,000 people over two days.  We attract highly qualified speakers from Colorado as well as the rest of North America and Europe.  Feedback from those who have attended this event compare it to the national and international conferences, and with over 90 presentations the educational content satisfies everyone from beginner to the most experienced.
    
• Membership meetings
  
  • These are generally held on a quarterly basis, usually in May, August, and November.  Training Days represents the winter membership meeting.  Membership meetings last one day and features 4-8 presentations or mini-seminars.
  • Additionally, there is an active Northern Chapter in the Fort Collins area and we are helping a nascent Southern Chapter in the Pueblo area get off the ground.  Further, we work in close cooperation with the Pikes Peak Oracle Users Group (PPOUG) which is based in Colorado Springs and has the same educational mission as RMOUG.
    
• Newsletter
  
  • RMOUG’s award-winning newsletter can be found not only on most members desks throughout Colorado, but also on desks throughout the US.  Members and non-members alike share their experiences in columns and articles that continually inform about recent developments in technology and cool techniques.
    

There is a lot more going on at RMOUG, but it is all in support of this collaborative educational mission.  We all use Oracle technology and we know it best.  Who better to teach it?

Again, I’m excited to be involved with RMOUG at this moment in time.  Great things are happening, opportunities are increasing, and we live in a beautiful place.  It certainly does beat working for a living.

Please feel free to contact any board member if you have any questions or suggestions.  See you during the next year!