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  Message from the President

geer_dan

by Daniel Geer
<geer@usenix.org>

President, USENIX Board of Directors

"USENIX has, in many ways, made me what I am today, and it is with humble gratitude that I accept the chance to put back into this very special organization a small measure of what I owe it, what I owe you collectively." That is what I said in my candidate statement. I meant it then; I mean it now.

Folks, this is your organization. What you get out of it is, in the cornball truth, what you put into it. We don't care what you know or do, we can find you a way to use it and to grow with it. This is not about miracles, it is about a world that clearly values initiative, current knowledge, and a web of colleagues that you can think of as your own partners. That is why I quoted my own damned candidate statement to start off my maiden article as President.

I'm writing this on 23 May. By the time you read it, the new Board of Directors will have met, we'll have had our first fist-fight over what order to do what, and then divvied up the work that goes with it. The Board is made of just the sort of people somebody was thinking of when they supposedly said, "When you have to get something done, give it to the busiest person in the shop — they may be busy but the reason they are busy is that they get the most things done." This group is the ghost of USENIX future; if you are interested in that future, ask them how to help. Trust me on this — the way to become an expert in your field is to start acting like one, and a professional association as good as USENIX is the densest opportunity space you're likely to stumble over. Want to look like a genius? Know the future. Want to know the future? Be part of putting on a meeting where the future gets announced. Think you know where the future is? Put a paper into one of our meetings or, if is a Really Big Idea, talk to the Board about it, since we regularly stage workshops on new topics. Like teaching so much that above all else you like your audience to ask hard questions? Put in a tutorial proposal. Today. First-time attendee? Find a way to come back, and if your current employer doesn't want to invest in you that much, all the more reason to do it yourself.

Tired: The Big eat the Small.

Wired: The Fast eat the Slow.

All Aboard!

Balkan Olympiad in Informatics

Piele_Don

by Don Piele
<piele@cs.uwp.edu>

USA Team Leader

USA team members Reid Barton from Arlington, Massachusetts, and John Danaher from Springfield, Virginia, finished number one and number two at the 8th Balkan Olympiad in Informatics, which took place in Ohrid, Macedonia, on May 15-19. They received the top two of the four gold medals awarded at the event.

Team members Percy Liang from Phoenix, Arizona, and Yuran Lu from Presque Isle, Maine, finished 13th and 18th respectively and received bronze medals. The USA team's combined score ranked second, behind the team from Romania which captured the third and fourth gold medals and two silver medals.

The USA team participated as a guest for the first time in the Balkan Olympiad, which this year attracted teams from nine countries: Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Georgia (another guest), and the host country, Macedonia.

Marjan Gusev and his staff of volunteers from the Institute for Informatics in Skopje, Macedonia, worked around the clock to put on a very enjoyable and successful program. Unlike the larger International Olympiads in Informatics, which involve 65 countries, the Balkan Olympiad was a more personal event, with lots of opportunities to socialize with other team leaders and members of Marjan's staff.

The final rankings are posted on the BOI web site
<https://www.uwp.edu/academic/mathematics/usaco/2000/BOI/boi.htm>.

The USA Team is sponsored by USENIX.

 

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Last changed: 28 Nov. 2000 ah
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