Justin Porter — COMMON BoD Candidate 2012

Editors note: The following is a post by guest author Justin Porter who is a candidate for the COMMON Board of Directors. COMMON has survived quite well through the financial crisis—in no small part due to the dedication of its members, volunteers and staff who wish to see COMMON continue providing top quality education into…

CAAC Bends IBM’s Ear

This post is written by guest blogger Michelle August The CAAC (COMMON Americas Advisory Council) called snowy, icy Rochester home for three days in early December. They started off the meeting with a warm welcome from Dave Nelson and a Power Systems Update from Ian Jarman. This great start to the meeting set the tone…

Al Barsa Challenge 2011 – Follow up

I’m pleased to announce that we met all the goals set for the 2011 Al Barsa Challenge! We received $2330 in contributions and had $4050 in matching donations for a total of $6380. Thanks to … Amanda Shaw, Leo Whitakar, Laura Ubelhor, Jon Anglis, David Willenborg, John Voris, Sharon Bodine, Guy Vig, Jenniefer Halverson, Marty…

CEF Scholarships

Today’s post comes from guest author Randy Dufault … Randy is a former president of COMMON and is currently leading the COMMON certification team and member of the COMMON Education Foundation Board. I went to college in a completely different era (read: I’m an old guy). I attended a state school as a resident and…

COMMON 2011 Day 1 From a First-Timer

I have been in the Midrange.com community since around 2001. In those 10 years, I have been helped by many in that community countless times. Today, I got to see several of those people and I am sure by the end of the week, I will meet many more. Today was a whirlwind of events…

Jeff Carey – COMMON BoD Candidate 2011

Ed note: The following is a post by guest author Jeff Carey who is a candidate for the COMMON Board of Directors. I’ve been a proud member of COMMON for almost 20 years now and a volunteer for about 6. Attending my first meeting in 1993 in New Orleans, I was struck with seeing a…

Russ Meyer – COMMON BoD Candidate 2011

Why COMMON? Because it just makes sense. COMMON offers our power community much more than a few meetings a year. I believe in and have reaped the benefits of being a member of this community for a number of years. In addition to gaining education and technical advancements I have had the great fortune to…

COMMON Board Elections 2011

Recently COMMON sent out an email blast notifying people announcing the candidates for the next board of directors election. Running for the three board positions available are … Jeff Carey Robert Krzceczowski Phil McCullough Russell Meyer As I did last year, I’ve offered each of the candidates a guest author spot on this blog. As…

IBM Power System Technical University

I’m currently at the IBM Power System Technical University conference in Las Vegas. Originally I wasn’t going … but a scheduling problem with another person in my office came up and I got tagged to pinch hit for him. So far the conference is going well … although I’m only here for the “Solution Center”…

COMMON 2010

Well, another COMMON Conference & Annual Meeting is in the bag. I’m currently at my departure gate in Orlando Airport and I figured this is a great time to make a post (especially since they have free wifi). My current, totally unscientific, impression is that attendance was up. I’ve heard other people, including COMMON officers,…