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Graham Jones , as a top engineer created many innovations and more recently led the Canadian user group VANTUG to a No.1 work ranking. In addition, Graham was a founder and long time Chairman of the largest international user group federation, GITCA, which is HQed in Canada. We met recently where he...

Graham Jones (Chair 2009-2010 Culminis Global Board) Back in April 2008 I wrote a blog here entitled “ Professionalizing the Profession ”. I was inspired to write this following a presentation made by Stephen Ibaraki [blogger extraordinaire and regular contributor here] on what is happening with respect...

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional and President of VANTUG ) The Opportunity to Spread the Word Last week Stephen Ibaraki (blogger extraordinaire – congrats on being named one of the top 10 in Canada ) and I attended the "Global" MVP Summit and a "World" UG Management Summit in Redmond...

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional and President of VANTUG ) The Traditional Role The traditional role for most UG's has been to hold technical events to inform and educate their members, promote networking between members and perhaps to run certification classes. Although this is a necessary...

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional) Leading VANTUG I have written here several times about running User Groups and the important part that I believe that they play in the IT Community. When I took over as Leader of VANTUG a little over 6 years ago I had absolutely no clue how to run a User Group...

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional) Keeping Things Current As already stated in part 1 the quality of the data is paramount. Keeping the resource plan up to date requires organization and discipline. The frequency for doing this may vary by project timescales and organization but probably shouldn...

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional) Putting It All Together From a resource planning standpoint we need to see the total demand picture into the future by discipline. The components that make up that picture are: Project backlog, ie. currently active projects Prospects, ie. work that you are...

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC - IT Professional) The Problem In a project environment it is an ongoing challenge to match human resource requirements and skills to project and proposal demands. You need to try and avoid a surplus, which goes straight to the bottom line, or a deficit, thereby affecting schedules...

Graham Jones (Surrey, BC, IT Professional) Recently I was having a “serious” conversation with my son and it was progressing as usual, ie. not going much of anywhere. As the frustration level was rising I said to him, “you need to work on your Active Listening skills”. This was met with the familiar...

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) About 25 years ago I became involved in 3D Computer Aided Design of process plants using a product called PDMS (Plant Design Management System) which is now marketed under the company name Aveva . I was the typical young (well fairly young) “enthusiast...

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) In a recent blog here I wrote about JDQ’s nomination for the 2007 BCTIA Technology Impact Award for Leadership in Social Responsibility. The awards dinner was on June 6 th and I had the pleasure of being there to see them take home the “tia” in front...

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) I have written here a number of times about JDQ and their 3Spheres community program. One of my blogs was an interview with Jon Morris , JDQ President. In that interview I asked Jon about his reasoning behind starting the 3Spheres program. Part of his answer...

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) Over the past few months Stephen Ibaraki and I have written several times about the Neil Squire Society (NSS) and the great work that they do in adapting computers for use by the handicapped and their very successful job training programs. I have also...

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) I was recently contacted by Joanna Trebon of a non-profit organization (NPO) called the Electronic Recycling Association that refurbishes computer hardware for use by other NPO's. They were seeking my help on two fronts; finding hardware to recycle and...

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) As usual Stephen has beaten me to it but then of course he barely sleeps! I too was at the MVP Summit for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the whole affair. Canada was very well represented and very visible (and very loud at Bill G...

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) I noted Celso's comment about language being a barrier in one of his projects . It reminded me of one of my own experiences. Inevitably when dealing with contract language, the legal profession usually gets involved somewhere. I found myself having to...

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) In Part 1 I highlighted the importance of “relationships” with employees. In Part 2 I will relate some of my personal experiences. Two management “old chestnuts” are “open door policy” and “management by walking about”. The most important part here is...

Graham Jones (Vancouver, President of VANTUG) Recently I found myself contemplating accomplishments, failures ((:-) and past experiences with friends, superiors, peers and subordinates. This all ultimately defines who we become. As managers we largely accomplish “tasks” through others. Each year I...

My daughter-in-law asked me if I could completely rebuild and upgrade the website for her law practice. Wishing for her to make lots of money to help take best care of my grandchildren, I agreed :). This was to involve something of a makeover to improve what had originally been rather poor use of HTML...

When I am not writing articles, helping to run the VANTUG UG , helping to organize local community IT events such as TechFest 2007 , teaching Office, playing with my granddaughter or walking the dog (the pecking order used to be my wife and then me – now it is my wife, our granddaughter, the dog and...

Every day we hear about some new internet scam defrauding people of their hard earned money. It isn’t like crime is a new phenomena by any means. As long as there are people there will be a fraction who endeavour to make money the easy way; by preying on others. Unfortunately the ubiquity of email, wireless...

Little did the Monty Python “gang” realize how famous, or infamous might be a better description, that the word “spam” would become! I am sure that if you mentioned the word in conversation today most people would immediately think of its use in the context of email and not the original meat product...

As a User Group Leader I am often asked my opinion about the value of Technical Certification. My answer is always the same, “all things being equal, who would you select for employment?”. Now I fully realize that “all things are rarely equal” and I could stand to be accused of giving something of a...

I have written several times here about JDQ as a company and also about their excellent 3Spheres of Reciprocity ™ community program. Stephen and I have also written a number of times about the equally worthy Neil Squire Society . Recently when JDQ were asking for applications for their next community...

I have written about JDQ and their 3Spheres Community Program a number of times here in the CIM blog. When I set out on a recent visit to what I thought was JDQ’s offices I discovered that I was only visiting Jon Morris’s office. I had been intrigued by the address before I left because it seemed to...