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Great articles on other sites
Great articles on other sites
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- TPG iiNet bid: major shareholders complain
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Renai LeMay
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- George R. R. Martin's next book The Winds of Winter won't arrive in 2015
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Enterprise IT, Featured, News - Written by Renai LeMay on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 12:49 - 12 Comments
NSW kickstarts cloud email, virtual desktop trial
news The New South Wales State Government today kicked off two trials of virtual desktop and cloud email services, in a move which could eventually signal a mass migration of some 30,000 government users into the cloud and which represents one of the first concrete steps by the state into the new cloud computing landscape.
Australia's public sector has in the past notoriously been averse to purchasing products and services which fall under the cloud computing umbrella. While pure play cloud and software as a service vendors such as Salesforce.com, Google, Amazon Web Services and others have experienced a solid level of success in various aspects of Australia's private sector with their solutions, the fact that most such services have been hosted offshore has prevented such companies from making strong in-roads into Australian governments at any level — federal, state and local. Similarly, companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP which offer both SaaS and on-premises models have continued to see strong public sector demand for their traditional solutions, with only slow uptake of their SaaS options.
However, over the past year, the NSW Government has been giving increasing signs that it is moving to adopt the kind of 'cloud-first' IT procurement strategy which jurisdictions such as the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand have pursued over the past several years, in a move which could fundamentally change the way the state buys and uses technology.
In two new tendering initiatives released today along with a statement by NSW Minister for Finance and Services Greg Pearce, the state made it clear just how serious it is about the shift to cloud computing.
The first tender document lays out NSW's plan to trial what it described as 'messaging as a service' (MaaS) technologies. The state's IT shared services group ServiceFirst currently provides Novell's Groupwise platform for email and calendaring services to a number of departments and agencies. However, Groupwise is widely regarded as representing a legacy environment for collaboration compared with Microsoft's dominant Outlook/Exchange platform, or even Google's Apps (Gmail and Google Calendar) system.
In its documents, ServiceFirst stated that its trial of MaaS options would delivering serivces to about 100 staff of ServiceFirst government customers, but must be ultimately scalable to larger numbers of staff — up to 30,000.
"This call to market and the implementation of any subsequent proof‐of‐concept solution will inform the broader pilot project under the NSW Government ICT Strategy 2012," the document stated. "This pilot project will investigate and trial new delivery models to better understand the implications of cloud based services for the NSW Government. The outcomes of the project will inform the development of whole of government policies and the implementation of service offerings on the ICT Service Catalogue. Key areas to be studied will include the technical, regulatory, cost, contractual, and usability aspects, the impact on the agencies involved and application for whole of government."
"In order for Government to better understand the benefits and implications of the change to a service paradigm, respondents are asked to offer proposals for a proof‐of‐concept project to deliver messaging as‐a‐service to approximately 100 staff of ServiceFirst customers. Proposals must be capable of scaling up to many thousands if required."
The state has similarly flagged plans in another tender document to kick off a trial of what it described as 'Desktop as a Service' (DaaS) solutions.
The definition of DaaS is a little vague. In its document, ServiceFirst described DaaS services as "s a solution that provides end users with access to typically used applications to perform their duties", leaving it up to vendors to decide whether that would include a wholly virtualised desktop environment or perhaps just virtualised applications or applications delivered as a service. The desktop trial will similarly target just 100 staff.
In both cases, the state has placed fairly loose requirements around vendor solutions to be delivered as part of the trial, stating that the trials were an opportunity for the IT industry to provide "innovative solutions without being constrained by legacy technology and to provide alternatives including open source and non‐typical approaches to the requirements".
However, vendors may still face the issue of data sovereignty in their responses, with the state noting that a number of pieces of state legislation would guide to storage and use of data through the cloud computing services.
ServiceFirst as an organisation currently provides a wide range of centralised IT services to government departments and agencies across NSW — serving some 8,300 staff in 46 NSW government agencies located in about 300 locations across NSW. Its current ICT infrastructure is somewhat out of date; for example, it still runs Windows XP across many desktops (although it also has Windows 7 in some places), as well as Groupwise and Novell file and print services.
Its desktop environment utilises Zenworks and Citrix for application delivery, versions of Microsoft Office ranging from Office 2003 to 2007 and 2010, and versions of Internet Explorer ranging from 7 to 9. It uses SAP's HR and finance platforms, TRIM, Sharepoint and Objective document management platforms, Active Directory and Novell eDirectory for ID management, and BlackBerrys, iPhones and iPads for smartphones and tablets.
In a separate statement, NSW Minister for Finance and Services Greg Pearce said cloud-based IT solutions were "a large part of the future" and the NSW Government was keen to take advantage of this trend to improve government services.
"We will test multiple cloud based systems across different scenarios and environments to ensure they are cost-effective, secure and efficient and if successful we will look at how they can be rolled out across government," said Pearce. "The trial will test technical and regulatory questions, as well as opportunities to reduce the Government's annual ICT expenditure. Importantly we need to know whether NSW Government agencies and ICT suppliers have the technical capacity for the wider adoption of cloud based solutions across the diverse range of government services," he said.
NSW is also planning separate pilot projects in the areas of Enterprise Resource Planning as a service, Infrastructure as a Service and shared services multi-tenanted email as a service.
Pearce said work is underway with WorkCover, Fire and Rescue NSW, the Department of Trade and Investment and Businesslink who have already engaged with suppliers of cloud-based email, finance and case management services. "Assessing the potential of cloud across a range of solutions will ensure our assessment of cloud-based opportunities is as comprehensive as possible," said Pearce. "The Department of Finance and Services will monitor and report on all the projects throughout 2013."
Wow. It's absolutely fantastic to see a government such as NSW take leadership in evaluating the potential of cloud computing services to help support government service delivery, and I applaud NSW for having such vision. NSW truly is leading Australia in terms of evaluating and adopting cloud computing technologies at the moment, and while I have no doubt there will be some hiccups, this is truly a revolution which needs to come to the nation's problem-plagued state government IT sector.
Right now I have only good things to say about the approach which the Coalition is taking to IT administration in the NSW State Government. Pearce and co truly "get it" and are forcing the public service to move forward in a positive way in this area. I haven't been so impressed with a government IT strategy in quite some time, and I look forward to some good results from the trials announced by Pearce today. Such positive is hugely refreshing. I can only hope the other states follow where NSW is leading at the moment.
12 Comments
When all government IT is hosted by the same cloud provider the day will be close behind that all government IT is down – or hacked.
I believe that the politicians clambering to pile us on to the cloud are totally ignorant of the diverse needs of the various agencies and any trial to determine the future of all government IT should have 100 users from each of the larger agencies and a few from the smaller ones take part in it. I believe this trial is being manipulated to succeed, it's at that point the problems will start, it's all very good if all agency clients had Desktops with an operating system, email, Office and an antivirus but it's not that simple. If it were then Businesslink and Service First wouldn't be having any problems at all.
The first and major problem will be to try to integrate all the specialist programs that each agency requires to run. Many of these programs are old and have dependencies on things like IE6 and antiquated technologies which make it a pain to update so I believe what ever the winning tender quotes as a estimate will blowout to an embarrassing amount for the government..
I also have doubts about the potential savings of going to the cloud, I believe the savings will be minimal, you will shed some front line IT staff from the IT Service Desk, all Desktop staff , most email and a few others, you will still need back end application support and packagers. To put that into perspective, for example at Businesslink there are currently 5 staff servicing around 13,000 clients, personally I believe that's pretty good value for money.
I also have concerns about the security and stability of the cloud, when you hear about companies like Amazon, Apple and Sony being hacked then I have real concerns for the critical data the agencies will have bouncing around the cloud.
The cloud is coming, there is no stopping it, IT jobs will be lost and many skilled workers gone forever causing a great deal of hardship for some. It will be only minor consolation to us to read that this has gone horribly wrong I hope the people pushing for this ridiculous plan are held accountable.
I disagree. Governments have to get with the market and there are numerous reasons why they need to try cloud services. The big ones though are:
– Cost. Cloud services move IT spend from CapEx to OpEx and you don't need to forklift upgrade anything. The service provider (particularly if it's SaaS) is contractually required to deal with that. These guys are ALWAYS going to be better at datacentre and server management than any government agency is.
– Users. Government struggles to attract people and retain them in a strong job market. Young employees have *zero* beef with using cloud services and expect the flexibility that a cloud platform provides. Go where the market is going or your long-term costs skyrocket.
– It's already "Cloud". As soon as governments created entities such as ServiceFirst and CenITex, they were already creating cloud services. Shared environments offered as an OpEx service = cloud. To then say "our internal cloud is better than a commercially operated cloud" would be a fallacy.
IT is a service business, but has its head up its bum focusing on technology (rather than service) instead. The more we un-wind this thinking, the better. If my client asks me for an Email system which supports 80,000 users and is fast, reliable and cheap it is my *duty* to offer them something which fits that mould. And hitting all those markers means a cloud service.
Hi "outsourced",
The thing to understand is that cloud service providers are simply shared services … that actually work (for once). Whether they work or not can be assessed up front …"cloudy is as cloudy does".They do this because the cloud providers have the opportunity of a largely greenfield starting point, relatively new technology and control over their service catalogue. They don't (and can't) pander to every unique customer requirement … they simple deliver a standardised, somewhat configurable, service. This enables them to achieve massive economies of scale and to deliver this as a benefit to their customers via iterative evolution of service functionality and continual reduction in unit costs. Amazon web services, for example, has reduced its unit service costs 25 times since 2006 … all the while improving the scope and depth of functionality, speed, security, reliability etc. There is no question that cloud services will be the preferred delivery model for many categories of infrastructure and applications.
In contrast, the old internal government shared services model has failed time and time again because it tries to be "all things to all people" in a closed 'socialist market' economy. Agencies are able to insist on their specialised, dedicated, customised solutions with the result that the shared services overall is too complex, too fragmented, too unsupportable … with insufficient investment … and so eventually fails to meet customer expectations.
The question, however, for government agencies is can they make the changes in their mindset and the way they specify, procure and implement IT that are required to be an intelligent consumer of a standardised cloud service … and to avail themselves of the service benefits and costs savings?
The only way to progress this argument is with prudent, eyes-open, hands-on experience. It cannot be an academic, theoretical, ideological discussion. The NSW government is doing exactly the right thing seeking to test the market and gain experience. Let's stop fretting over the process and instead focus on the big picture outcomes.
The fact is that the current model is unsustainable. If cloud services can provide a catalyst for agencies to tap into shared services that actually work and to change their mindset about the need for customised/dedicated solutions then they can spend more time and money actually delivering policy and service delivery innovations to citizens rather than mucking around duplicatively and unproductively with technology. IMHO. ;-)
Hi Ed,
I appreciate your comments and consed that the premiss behind your points are correct, but instead of cost I believe a better term would be value for money and I believe that if the government chooses to go with SAAS then when they try to implement it across the agencies costs will blow out. If they try to implement a one size fits all solution across the agencies then I fear it will fail miserably.
I'm not sure where you get the quote of "our internal cloud is better than a commercially operated cloud" but I will use that for an example of what can go wrong, the agency I work for implemented a system, while it's not a 'cloud' solution it is a remote emulation using Citrix. Before this Citrix solution was implemented everything was fine but we have had nothing but problems since with slow response speeds of application and a host of other problems.
you are right again that IT is a service business, it needs to service the needs clients who in this case have a very diverse range of critical needs and there will be applications that simply will not work in the cloud, so wheat ever solution the government go with needs flexibility.
Even if the transition to the cloud is a monumental success, most agencies have data of a sensitive and critical nature that no one can possibly guarantee that it will be %100 is safe on the cloud. Imagine if information from Community Services or Police got into the wrong hands or if someone was able to hack NSW Parliamentary emails.
What every you or I write here makes no difference, it is the governments agenda to push all NSW agencies on to the cloud, I'm just hoping whoever does it takes the time to understand what the agencies roles are and takes the time to ensure that their critical applications run, and cross your fingers and hope it doesn't fail because if it does there will be no turning back.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for replying to my post, I do see where you are coming from and for companies like Amazon a cloud solution makes perfect sense one of the major drawbacks of a cloud solution is "They don't (and can't) pander to every unique customer requirement". The problem is many agencies have mission critical specialist applications that most likely can't be hosted on the cloud.
I'm not doubting the economic sense of cloud technology, I'm not saying the IT systems we currently have aren't flawed, my concern is that the cloud wont be flexible enough to service the needs of the agencies and since the very company you held up as an example of cloud goodness, "Amazon" has been hacked you can understand my concern for security.
I believe this push for the cloud is being run by government officials and upper level management, on the surface cloud computing looks to to be the perfect panacea for any companies IT woes, and for many it's the perfect solution.
When you think of government departments, you think of large buildings with full T1 internet connectivity and yeah those do exist. But what you might not be taking into consideration is that there are hundreds of government sites, with painfully slow internet access, which for sure will have an impact on their cloud experience.
I believe that cloud technology for a desktop solution as it stands at the moment isn't capable to handle the demands that the various agencies will throw at it. I have concerns for security and the performance at sites with slow internet connections. I hope anyone taking on this project is aware and addresses each of those concerns, if they don't than they can not succeed.
Hmmm … yes, well, "Outsourced" … you are of course correct in saying that not all government applications, data or workloads will be appropriate for cloud services – however nobody is actually suggesting that this is the case. The services need to satisfy genuine agency business requirements and operational constraints … of course. [Though having said this highly specific and customised requirements are not always genuine … we just need better ways to challenge them and steer executives towards understanding the benefits of using standardised functionality rather than insisting on unnecessary … and unaffordable … customisation].
The fact is that cloud services are already available that are entirely appropriate for some applications, data or workloads … and as the onshore offerings mature the applicability of cloud services to government will only increase. I've written detailed case studies of the implementation of cloud services where the outcome was better, faster, less expensive and more secure than the in-house services that were replaced. It can, and has been, done already in the Australian public sector.
Regarding security, you just need to read the reports published by auditor generals in every jurisdiction to dispel any mistaken belief that government ICT environments are adequately secure today. The coming period of budget cuts, technical challenges and changes in user behaviour (BYO etc.) means that, from any practical perspective, the security of in-house ICT will only weaken further. In contrast, the leading enterprise-grade cloud services providers are, and will be, highly secure and reliable. Its all about trade-offs and practical benefit vs. risk assessments. The world is not a perfect place.
Amazon Web Services (just to use them as an example) are already being used by many federal government agencies in the USA audited up to a FISMA Moderate security level (which would address the vast majority of NSW agency security requirements). There is no real reason why AWS couldn't deliver similar levels of security for Australian agencies out of its Sydney availability region – the general argument that "cloud services are not secure" does not actually hold up to rational analysis – sorry! [as long as we are talking about professionally established cloud services provided by enterprise-grade providers]. I'm not pushing AWS, just using them as the exemplar of a mature public cloud service.
The best way to look at this is to concede that the current approach to government ICT is fundamentally unsustainable overall … wave the surrender flag … and acknowledge that cloud services are already OK for some things and will become progressively more robust, functional and affordable over time. From this perspective the question is really all about how to get started and how to work out where to use cloud services safely and well in order to take the pressure off agency ICT budgets and focus in-house capabilities on those areas that will add the most public value.
Oustsourced, if an agency has critical data that needs to be secured then they should encrypt their data from the agency end.
That data that is stored or processed in the cloud is encrypted, all the agency are using is the compute power.
Well Steve, The problem with your argument as I see it is you are failing to understand the nature of the NSW Government agencies. To start with they were all separate entities, each fending for themselves, each developing procedures and applications to for fill their function. As a result they have become totally dependent on their in house applications to function. The IT demands of Transport will be miles apart from the IT demands of Health which are miles apart from Education. There simply will not be an out of the box solution that will come close to satisfying the basic requirements of there critical services.
Just getting back to your comment "Though having said this highly specific and customised requirements are not always genuine". There really isn't a lot of fat in the agencies IT services, most agencies have core, crucial applications that they simply can't function without, many of these applications were specifically developed for them and have cost the tax payers millions to develop so I doubt if many agencies will make do with an off the shelf solution.
As for security, I consed there are definitely are risks at the moment, and those risks to be rectified, but the analogy I would use in this case is that at the moment each agency is pretty much isolated, we are on Australian networks and we are like a very small and uninteresting targets for most world class hackers to worry about.
Most of the best hackers are in the US, Europe and China, once an originisation as large the NSW government puts all there services on the cloud, that would make a very tempting target for world class international hackers out there.
A major contributing factor to why there are so few successful attempts at hacking the agencies as they stand is the fact that they use propitiatory applications which the hackers don't have access to to make sense of any data they might gleam from the agencies. Health use Firstnet CIS (Clinical information Service) Community Services have KIDS, Housing have HOMES and so on, each major agency have applications like these to make sense of the raw data at the back end and without these applications and the very specific user knowledge to use these applications to interpret the data most of the data would be meaningless.if you force agencies to use off the shelf applications then that would give potential hackers the chance to use the same applications to interpret data.
Nearly any major US and international organisation or company be they on the cloud or not have been hacked, from Microsoft to Apple and Amazon to the US military and NASA to the Kremlin. The thing most of them have in common is that they are large and appealing targets for potential hackers. Hackers are generally very bright and ego driven people that relish a challenge and the larger the organisation they hack the more they like it and the more cu dose they earn from the hacking community.
Steve I know you are all for a cloud solution and I consed that for things like SAP and MAAS it can make sense. But to try to replace all of IT infrastructure with cloud technology as is stands will be an expensive and embarrassing mistake but one the NSW Government is hell bent on making.
I hope I'm wrong, I hope the implantation all goes well and it fixes all that is wrong with the system as it stands at the moment. But common sense is telling me it just won't be that simple.
Hey "Outsourced" … thanks for continuing the dialogue because what we need in this space is open dialogue and a sharing of experiences and perspectives … rather than closed thinking and ideology.
[Whistles for hobby horse … which comes trotting in due course after a somewhat insolent delay … checks girth strap for tension … climbs into saddle, seizes reins and shouts "away!" …] Actually, I'm in a hotel room in Washington and a bit bored … so … here goes.
I am actually well grounded in the theory and practice of the Westminster system of government and the primacy of agency autonomy. This was one element of my doctoral studies in Oxford in the late 80s and I was Director eGovernment Strategy & Policy and Deputy CIO for the Victorian government 2001-2006. Government jurisdictions (federal, state) are like a 'corporation' with a board (i.e. cabinet) but no head office, with a 'chairman' (prime minister/premier) but no 'CEO', 'CFO', 'COO'. Each agency autonomously reports to a minister, or multiple ministers, and the structure is randomly cut and diced periodically by machinery of government changes. The primary management mechanism is outputs with loose management of overall outcomes … and agency secretaries, director generals and CEOs are left to make their own decisions on inputs such as people, processes, assets … and ICT. This structure has proven to be highly adaptive and flexible because it optimises for outputs, and to a lesser degree outcomes, while leaving agencies to make their own decentralised decisions on inputs – such as ICT.
All good. Decentralised agency autonomy rules! But … the strategic problem is that ICT turns out in the long run to be infrastructural and expensive (think motorways) and the decentralised model is sub-optimal when one attempts to take a whole-of-government (i.e. citizen-centric) view. (Wasteful and ineffective for the traveler when agencies duplicate roads and build them to different width and surface specs for no good reason beyond the parochial). Agency autonomy creates fragmentation, sub-scale investments, duplication, silos of processes and information etc. etc. Solution? Throw the baby out with the bathwater, give the pendulum a kick back the other way, centralise ICT into shared services by WoG or clusters of agencies … one motorway with many different vehicles … simple! Problem: This is inconsistent with the core logic of the way the organisation runs. Decentralised agency autonomy rules!
Hence, shared services tend to be unsustainable … in theory they can work with strong/consistent leadership, solid investment and intelligent/willing customers … but in practice some or all of these CSFs are usually absent. Grrr! OK. Let's just stop this silly game and let each agency do its own ICT then. Problem: Too expensive, not enough money, not enough experienced/skilled people, ageing workforce, ageing assets. Average ICT quality too low. Also, we need systems across agencies to be more interoperable/integrated to support seamless, citizen-centric, processes. Grrr! There is no obvious 'one best way'.
This is the context within which we need to give serious thought to cloud services.
As I often rant on about (apologies dear long suffering reader!) mature enterprise-grade cloud services are simply shared services that actually work because they were architected from the outset to serve a multitude of customers with diverse requirements. "Cloudy is as cloudy does". The services are empirically proven to work because customers have voluntarily adopted them in an open competitive market … on the basis that they were better, faster, less expensive and less risky (when all things are considered).
The strength of the cloud services model, from an agency's perspective, is that individual agencies can make unilateral decisions about cloud services adoption and still gain the benefits of economies of scale and the use of shared platforms. It is a huge advantage that the services are abstracted, commoditised, standardised and radically externalised … because this enables the service provider to protect itself against the random diversity of its customer's requirements and therefore deliver and sustain genuine economies of scale. The normal 'inside-out'(give me what I want) requirements definition logic of ICT procurement is reversed. Cloud service customers need to make a positive choice to think about requirements in an 'external-in' (I'll cope with the way the service works) manner.
This is a fundamental point … in order to simplify and access economies of scale one must be prepared to make compromises on one's individual requirements. Hence the nub of the argument. Dedicated agency-by-agency ICT is strategically un-affordable (overall). Shared services fail because governments lack the investment appetite to design and build them for success and also because the internal governance arrangements mean that customer agencies are seldom willing to make the compromises necessary to consume a standardised service offering. Cloud services can succeed (for some applications in some agencies) because they are designed and built to be successful shared services ("cloudy is as cloudy does" … the service does what it says on the label) and because their external arms-length provision means that there is no option for agencies but to consume the standardised, somewhat configured, service offering. QED.
To address your specific arguments:
1. Your quote: "The problem with your argument as I see it is you are failing to understand the nature of the NSW Government agencies. To start with they were all separate entities, each fending for themselves, each developing procedures and applications to for fill their function."
Ah! But my view is that this is exactly the reason why cloud services can work where both dedicated in-house ICT and shared services have failed! How can it be that AWS, Google, RightNow, Salesforce, ServiceNow, SuccessFactors, Workday etc. support hundreds of thousands of different and diverse customers out of standardised shared services? Each of these customer organisations are "separate entities, each fending for themselves, each developing procedures and applications to for fill their function". The cloud services model is actually perfectly designed for the organisational diversity of government!
2. Your quote: "There simply will not be an out of the box solution that will come close to satisfying the basic requirements of there critical services"
This may be true for some specific applications that are tied to legislation etc, but it is not true for most relatively generic applications such as finance, HR, service management, document & records management, web content management, email, collaboration, office automation, CRM etc. In addition, there is a world-wide recognition emerging that there is a pretty generic set of functionality behind most government agencies. COTS is based on this logic, and SaaS simply reduces the entry cost of these solutions and makes them more flexible. In addition, the new architecture of SOA and configurability that underpins SaaS solutions means that it is becoming indefensible for agencies to argue that they genuinely require customised solutions for all but the most specialised use cases. Even solutions like Oracle Policy Automation (nee RuleBurst) will soon bring the ability to codify jurisdiction specific legislation and policy into commodity-like SaaS platforms. So, you are correct historically – but this perspective needs to be challenged. From a strategic perspective, it is in everyone's interest for agencies to desist from building dedicated bespoke systems wherever possible.
3. Your quote: "There really isn't a lot of fat in the agencies IT services, most agencies have core, crucial applications that they simply can't function without, many of these applications were specifically developed for them and have cost the tax payers millions to develop so I doubt if many agencies will make do with an off the shelf solution."
Tactically you may well be correct, but from a strategic perspective we need to look at the long run affordability of these applications. Perhaps a sunk asset can be used for many years, but as soon as it needs to be upgraded or enhanced (for example to enable mobility or web access or integration with other systems) then the whole thing often needs to be unzipped … and then a more strategic perspective is required. Also, one of the reasons that there is no fat in agency ICT budgets is because they are doing a lot of commodity-like work operating basic ICT infrastructure and systems in a sub-scale inefficient manner … no?
4. Your quote: "once an orginisation as large the NSW government puts all their services on the cloud, that would make a very tempting target for world class international hackers out there."
True. This is why any move to cloud needs to be carefully considered and why agencies need hands-on experience at managing the practical process and technical security realities. I don't think it is really sufficient to say that fragmentation = safety while consolidation = danger because there is an overarching context of increasing inter-connectedness and flow of information across agencies and jurisdictions. Agencies cannot simply say that it is safer to stay in silos because this is inconsistent with policy and service delivery reform realities – and citizen expectations.
5. Your quote: "if you force agencies to use off the shelf applications then that would give potential hackers the chance to use the same applications to interpret data".
True to some degree. It just comes down to an 'arms race' at the end of the day. I agree with the sentiment of 'hiding under your desk in your office with the door closed in the far corner of the world', but I just don't see this as feasible given the broader issues of budget constraints and the general imperatives for these systems to become increasingly connected to other parts of government and third parties in the private sector. The question is how to participate as safely as possible in an interconnected digital economy … within fiscal constraints.
6. Your quote: "But to try to replace all of IT infrastructure with cloud technology as is stands will be an expensive and embarrassing mistake but one the NSW Government is hell bent on making."
I just don't agree with this statement at all. Perhaps I am a naiive bunny, but my understanding is that the strategy is to investigate prudent and secure use of enterprise-grade cloud services for appropriate applications, workloads and categories of data using a mix of public and private cloud services arrangements as required to meet agency requirements. I really believe in "cloudy is as cloudy does". For the first time in ICT history, it is possible for an agency to see a fully operational ICT system working and to test it before they commit to procurement. Agencies should only commit to cloud services once they are sure that they (a) work and (b) can meet their requirements (given the preceding discussion on being flexible about defining 'requirements').
We also need to remember that government itself has influence over how this game plays out in Australia. One of the reasons that I have been quite critical of AGIMO and the Federal Government's "cloud last" strategy to date is because it's hyper-cautious approach has failed to put government demand on the table to stimulate the development of on-shore cloud services that are fit for government work. It is a cop out for government ICT strategists to say "the cloud is not ready for government work in Australia" when one of the reasons that this is so is because government itself has not shown leadership and stimulated the development of on-shore cloud services as part of a broader digital economy policy agenda. (Though there is hope for the pending National Cloud Computing Strategy being developed by DBCDE). We need a bigger picture strategic view here which brings together ICT industry development policy with government ICT procurement policy in order to stimulate the development of Australia's cloud services industry – for the benefit of both government agencies and overall GDP.
I actually sympthise with many of your reservations, which will no doubt turn out to be quite valid in some agencies and projects in the years to come etc. (many a slip twixt cup and lip). My view, however, is that there are overriding strategic imperatives which mean that we need to treat these as challenges to be solved in the context of a focus on business outcomes – not as reasons for inaction just because they don't align with the dominant wisdom of ICT thinking and practice.
The net of all of this is that I think the NSW ICT Strategy is heading in the right direction ;-)
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GoGrid Announces Cloud Services Powered by New Intel Xeon Processor 5600 Series
San Francisco, CA June 15, 2010–Today GoGrid, a leading cloud infrastructure hosting provider, announced they will be deploying cloud services based on the powerful new Intel® Xeon® Processor 5600 series, formerly codenamed "Westmere".
"GoGrid cloud services have always provided superior CPU performance, which means faster response times and improved productivity for our customers," said John Keagy, GoGrid CEO. "With the latest Intel Xeon processor technology, we will be able to deliver an even better experience to our customers at a lower cost."
Last year, Intel and GoGrid formally began collaborating to optimize platform selection, performance and energy efficiency to meet the emerging needs of their customers. "With the Intel Xeon Processor 5600 series, we get far more performance with significantly less power usage," said Paul Lappas, GoGrid VP engineering.
The Intel Xeon 5600 processor series will enable a dramatic power savings resulting in about a 50% reduction in energy consumption as compared to previous configuration. In addition, the higher performance of Xeon 5600 processors within the GoGrid node infrastructure allows supporting more customers and thus a 30% reduction in the cost-of-goods of server hardware.
"The partnership with GoGrid provides Acumatica customers with a reliable and cost effective way to deploy Acumatica," said Doug Johnson, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Acumatica. "Customers only pay for services they use and can quickly scale their deployment up or down."
"Acumatica offers a feature-rich alternative to traditional client-server ERP and CRM solutions," said Michael Sheehan, Technology Evangelist at GoGrid. "This partnership delivers value to customers by combining a modern software platform with a modern cloud hosting platform."
"I applaud GoGrid's rapid deployment of this technology, and believe customers will value the enhanced user experience and the energy savings that the Intel Xeon processor 5600 series enables," said Jason Waxman, General Manager of High Density Servers at Intel.
New GoGrid nodes running with the new Intel Xeon Processor 5600 series will be implemented in the third quarter of 2010 and will be available to GoGrid customers shortly thereafter.
- Welcome to GoGrid!
- I'm a Cloud Infrastructure and Big Data Solutions expert.
- What questions do you have today?

subset: commoncrawl


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$100,000 a year and still greedy enough to allow no-bid contracts in exchange for work on a home.
The people who complained about socialism had better not complain about this bill.
I think climate change is occurring in part because of humans. I also think carbon credits are stupid. It's just another investment bubble that'll burst.
Other than that, the southwest will have another dustbowl in a few years and I think next year will be big for hurricanes.
Thank your lucky stars or God that you live in Ohio.
Browns fans have been riding the quarterback carousel for so long that whenever it starts to stop to let a quarterback off, we all throw up all over each other. Now everyone's covered in vomit and it stinks to high hell so the coach spins up the carousel again to try to get the stink out.
Seriously though. I'll say it again: WHY DID WE CUT BARTEL AND KEEP THE RAT?!
Hey guys: stop gloating. For all we know this is a mangini smoke screen.
Seriously, a 'league source' how vague can you get?
I prefer BQ for a different direction but I'd wait until at least the starters are announced sunday before gloating.
This is not socialized healthcare. You people have no idea what any of the bills entail at all.
* Employers with 50 employees either insure you or pay a fine.
* Employers with 200 employees automatically enroll you in a plan.
* The fine for employers is "based on" the amount of tax credit their employees get, with a maximum of $400 * total number of employees
* ...except "employees participating in a welfare-to-work program, children in foster care and workers with a disability"
* You must buy health care, whether it's through your company, Medicare, or on your own.
* You can keep whatever existing insurance you have and be grandfathered in. Hooray!
* If you are 150-300% poverty level, your fine for not buying heath care is $750 per year (up to $1500 per family).
* If you are 300%+, your fine is $950 per year (up to $3800 per family)
* No fines if you're already covered, Medicare-eligible, or below 100% poverty level (133% in 2014)
* Read: Poor people won't be forced to have health insurance.
* Financial assistance for the poor comes in the form of a tax credit (on a sliding scale up to 300% poverty level).
* No tax credit if the plan your employer offers you is "affordable."
* "Affordable" means less than 13% of your income.
* There's a bit at the end about extending Medicare eligibility to more people below 133% poverty line.
Yes. It is true that the current bills will be upwards of 500 billion, and the one mentioned will be about 900 billion. The thing is: they don't really cover any sort of strong public option and definitely not single payer. The government is going to create a bunch of weak standards to live up to, and costs really aren't going to change. Even worse: YOU HAVE TO STICK WITH YOUR BAD INSURANCE if it meets whatever standards the government imposes. You will NOT be able to shop the free market for other insurance. You and I are both against it, and for different reasons. WE can both agree that it is HORRIBLE. But I cannot stress enough that there is nothing slightly socialist in this bill whatsoever.
It isn't that SS and Medicare are ballooning out of control: they've worked very well. They are running out of money not because they cover too much, or that too many people use it: they are running out of money because its the first place (after NASA) they grab money from when they need to shift money for some other legislative boondoggle they want.
Malpractice INSURANCE is very expensive, I do not disagree. I disagree with the reasoning that it is so expensive. Like I said, its only half a percent in costs for total litigation/award (malpractice is actually under-reported). Studies have shown that if a group of doctors (the study in particular was for anestetics[spelled wrong!]) and they have shown that once they started tracking what the triggers were for malpractice (working to eliminate mistakes) their premiums went down to 1985 levels.
At this point I dont care. I just want to watch the browns in a regular season game.
"Now is not the time to be implementing a new federal government entitlement program. The federal government cannot even manage Social Security and Medicare and both will run out of money soon unless they are significantly reformed. We are currently running a $1.6 TRILLION, yes that's TRILLION dollar budget deficit."
The reason why Social Security and Medicare will 'run out of money' is because this is one of the first places the government likes to raid for extra money. So basically, all the money that should go to it goes somewhere else. Keep in mind that this deficit includes the cost of our overseas deployments.
"The healthcare bill currently being put together in the Senate has a price tage of $900 BILLION with a B dollars so add that to the 1.6 TRILLION dollar deficit. The House version, HR 3200 will probably cost even much more if anyone can get through reading the 1,000+ pages of the bill. The Senate version is something like 600 pages."
Isn't it outrageous that with even all the concessions that we give private insurance that we're still forced to pay this much? They say paperwork/administrative costs for the insurance industry attributes to some 350 billion in itself. Which, ironically, is how much the single payer option would have cost us had we the testicular fortitude to go for it.
"Do you think the House and Senate members you voted for crafted this legislation? No, most of them haven't even bothered to read it. The legislation has been drafted by an army of professional staffers who work on Capitol Hill and stay there regardless of who wins or loses elections. Try reading just a few pages of HR 3200. It is written in such legalese and gobbledygook that it would take an army of lawyers to decipher it and make heads or tails out of it."
I can assure you each and every one of them has scanned it numerous times. They're debating this stuff behind closed doors a lot. Aides are pretty much up in arms because they think they're going to spend the rest of their lives locked in a room with lawmakers. Unfortunately, this means that lawmakers are sneaking stuff in as concessions that will cost the taxpayer more money in the long run.
"limiting outrageous law suits and bringing down the cost of malpractice insurance."
The lawsuits only account for half a percent of all costs. Its a non-issue.
Don't let anyone fool you: This bill is NOT socialism. It is CORPORATISM. The bills floating around are nothing more than a massive kick-back to the private insurance industry. Basically, there are 'mandates' that measure if your employer's health care is good enough. if it meets that, you HAVE to buy your employer's crappy health care. You have no choice. If your employer by some strange reason can't scrounge up enough under those standards, you can absolutely buy free-market healthcare.
But the 'choice' argument has been a red-herring to begin with. Who here can afford the same level of healthcare as their employer provides?
Tort reform isn't really necessary as is accurate tracking of malpractice suits goes. To put it in perspective: the payouts as the result of malpractice in total are about 0.5% of all the money in the system. The accurate tracking of malpractice and the like, however, contributed to lowering insurance premiums for the doctors.
Not only should the ban be upheld, but expanded. However, we're going to have to have to reach far into the hearts of our representatives to get any of them to PROPOSE a law for it.
Why did we keep ratliff and ditch bartel? Bartel string qb looked good against all the defenses.
I've had enough of this QB nonsense from fans.
It doesn't matter who the quarterback is. None of you are going to think he's good even if he pans out to be the next (insert your favorite quarterback here).
You're all deluded to think that the QB is really the problem, but you're all arguing over it for the past X amount of years. You literally won't agree on a starting quarterback since you either think DA or BQ is the real deal.
Who cares? It's not as if this team is one QB away from taking the division. Just admit to yourself that first and foremost: YOU WILL NEVER BE SATISIFIED AS TO WHO THE QUARTERBACK IS. You're the type that would turn down a future hall of famer in his prime.
There are a lot of underperforming quarterbacks starting in this league, what makes you think Cleveland is the exception?
Nobody hears anything about the Browns except "234 starting quarterbacks in 9 years". Other teams tend to get past their quarterback mill fairly quickly. You want to get out of that rut? Let the team pick a guy, and stick with them.
So, in the paragraph above, its definitely the managements fault too. You gotta stick with a guy. First of all: STOP WITH THE CONTESTS. If you don't think so and so is your starter, GET RID OF HIM. That doesn't mean put him as backup, SEND HIM TO ANOTHER TEAM OR CUT HIM. That way your fans won't be second guessing your decision every play that Starter is on the field and Former Starter is on bench and a play goes wrong.
Sorry I meant Patten, lot Legget.
After watching last night's game, I think we can get rid of Legget and Ratliff at least.
Oh and comedy option: Bartel is the starting qb.
The crippling budget deficits are in part due to legacy costs from the previous administration. Also, the big bailout netted 6 billion in profit so far for the US Gov.
This bill is about as far from socialism as you can get. I don't think any of you are really aware of what the bill entails. Fact is, most of you won't even be affected. If you're lucky, your current health insurance will improve in value. But that all depends if the fedgov has the testicular fortitude to stand up to the insurance industry (hint: they don't).
You should be mad that more government money is subsidizing for-profit businesses. How is that socialism?
We pay the most for healthcare, but other nations get just as much for less. With less infant mortality and other important measures as well.
Heck, we can even make it German style: all health insurance companies are non-profit and operate under regulations.
I'm all for rail, but not if the normal speed isn't at least 100mph. Anything less (especially with stops) is a waste.


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It was a good week last week for the Beth Haven Christian girls' volleyball team which won the WVCEA Division A state championship at Appalachian Bible College in Beckley.
Beth Haven went into the tournament seeded sixth in the state in the Christian Athletic Association but advanced with wins over No. 3 Emmanuel Christian School in the quarterfinals and No. 2 seed Mercer Christian in the semifinals last Friday.
The Hornets toppled Mercer in five sets.
Then last Saturday, Beth Haven scored an upset five-set victory over No. 1 seed Victory Baptist Academy in the state championship match.
The Hornets were led by Most Valuable player Megan Topping.
Freshman Hannah Browning and junior Presley Holbrook were named to the all-tournament team.
The Beth Haven Christian middle school team also played very well in the state tournament.
The Hornets lost to Elk Valley Christian School last Friday, but bounced back to defeat Emmanual Christian last Saturday to take third place in the WVCEA Middle School Tournament.
The Hornets were led by all-tournament selections Megan Hager and Ashleigh Lowe.
Beth Haven head coach Regina Vance said the season ended well for both of the squads.
"The girls had a rocky start to their season but it ended great," Vance said.
Vance was assisted by Katie Maynard.
Beth Haven's high school team is made up of: Kaitlyn Lambert; Emily Wallace; Ashleigh Lowe; Hannah Browning; Marie Bailey; Megan Topping; Billie Bailey; Megan Hager; Ashton Fry; and Presley Holbrook.
The BHCS middle school squad is comprised of: Mikki Conley; Katelynne Wells; Ashleigh Lowe; Sierra Conley; Hailey Adkins; Madison Fortney; Mackenzie Hall; Megan Hager; Charity DeBerry; and Rosie Maynard.


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|« Back to Article
Air Force hotline aiding misconduct probes
By Sig Christenson : January 27, 2013 : Updated: January 27, 2013 11:24pm
Photo By John L. Mone/ASSOCIATED PRESSTIMELINE: The sex abuse scandal centered at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland has become the worst in Air Force history with 33 basic training instructors under investigation for allegations of misconduct with 63 recruits and technical training students. The following photos depict the still-unfolding investigation.
Photo By William Luther/San Antonio Express-NewsMarch 2, 2012: Air Force trainees at Lackland Air Force Base listen as officials explain to them about sexual misconduct and their responsibilities to report it.
Photo By Lisa Krantz/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWSApril, 2012: Staff Sgt. Peter Vega-Maldonado, 32, pleaded guilty to two charges stemming from his relationship with a 21-year-old airman he supervised in basic training. In exchange for a reduced sentence, he agreed to testify against two other trainers he said had illicit relationships with women. The judge gave Maldonado 90 days in jail, 30 days hard labor while restricted to the base, reduction from staff sergeant to airman and forfeiture of $500 a month pay for four months. Read more: Two more Lackland AFB instructors implicated in sex scandal
Photo By COURTESY PHOTOJune 20, 2012: Lt. Col. Mike Paquette lost his job as commander of the 331st Training Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, where most of the accused instructors had worked. He had led the 331st Training Squadron for two years. Read more: Training boss ousted in Lackland sex scandal
Photo By Billy Calzada/Associated PressJuly 20, 2012: Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker arrives for the fourth day of his trial at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. Walker was accused of sexually assaulting 10 basic trainees, with charges ranging from rape and aggravated sexual assault to obstructing justice and violating rules of professional conduct. Read more: Staff Sgt. Walker found guilty on all charges of sexual misconduct
Photo By Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-NewsJuly 21, 2012: Staff Sgt. Luis A. Walker is taken away in chains from the 37th Training Wing Headquarters after sentencing. Walker, called a "sexual predator" by Air Force prosecutors, was given 20 years in prison. Read more: 'Sexual predator' gets 20 years at Lackland trial
August 1, 2012: Tech Sgt. Christopher Smith, 33, was convicted on two of four counts of misconduct with basic trainees and sentenced to 30 days in jail and a reduction in rank to airman first class, a penalty that will permit him to remain in the Air Force. Read more: AF trainer given 30 days behind bars, loss of rank
Photo By William Luther/William email@example.com 10, 2012: Col. Glenn Palmer lost command of the 737th Training Group, which trains more than 35,000 airmen a year at Lackland. Read more: Lackland training chief is ousted
August 22, 2012: Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward submitted the Command Directed Investigation, which took a deeper and wider look at basic military training, to AETC Commander Gen. Edward Rice. Her recommendations will become an important blueprint for actions that will be implemented throughout basic training as well as technical training. Read more: Major general to investigate 'systemic issues'
Photo By COURTESY/USAFSept. 4, 2012: After a little more than a year on the job, Air Force Col. Eric Axelbank stepped down as head of a training wing here that has been rocked by a growing sex scandal. The command change occurred one day before another instructor, Master Sgt. Jamey Crawford, goes on trial on charges of having sex with a trainee. Read more: Col. Axelbank exits Lackland for the Pentagon
Photo By Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-NewsSept. 10, 2012: U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Kwinton Estacio arrives for the start of his court marshal at Lackland Air Force Base. Estacio was initially tried on charges that he sexually assaulted a female basic training student, violated a no-contact order and asked several trainees to lie about his contact with them. Read more: Lackland sergeant pleads guilty to less serious charges
Photo By Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-NewsSept. 12, 2012: Staff Sgt. Kwinton Estacio is led away from the 37th Training Wing Headquarters after sentencing in his trial at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He was sentenced to one year in prison after pleading guilty to charges of obstruction and having sex with a trainee in violation of Air Force conduct rules. Read more: Former Lackland trainer receives 1-year sentence
Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-NewsSept. 21, 2012: Col. Deborah Liddick marches with military drill instructors during her change-of-command ceremony at JBSA-Lackland. The fourth woman to oversee the Air Force's boot camp since 1996, she takes over amid an investigation that is scrutinizing 33 basic training instructors for misconduct. Read more: Woman now heads AF training at Lackland
Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-NewsSept. 21, 2012: Col. Deborah Liddick, left, salutes new military training instructor Staff Sgt. Abigail Rodriguez, after taking command of the Air Force basic training program at JBSA-Lackland.
Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-NewsSept. 21, 2012: Col. Deborah Liddick, new commander of Air Force basic training at JBSA-Lackland, is applauded by by presiding officer and commander of the 37th Training Wing Col. Mark Camerer during a change-of-command ceremony.
Photo By Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-NewsSept. 24, 2012: Staff Sgt. Jason Manko (right) is led from the courthouse to a waiting pickup on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland after being sentenced to 45 days in jail and another 30 days of hard labor on the base for having an illicit relationship with a female trainee. Read more: Lackland trainer gets 45 days in jail in sex case
Photo By Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-NewsOct. 2, 2012: U.S. Congresswomen from California, members of the House Armed Services Committee, Loretta Sanchez (from left), Jackie Speier and Susan Davis hold a press conference outside Lackland Air Forc e Base. The committee members met with personnel at the base to investigate the ongoing sex scandal. Read more: Lackland's 'culture' blamed for scandal
Photo By Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-NewsOct. 23, 2012: Air Force Secretary Michael Donley gives comments on the Lackland AFB sex scandal now involving 33 instructors having inappropriate contact with 60 women and three men. Read more: AF training likely won't see sex segregation
Photo By Sig Christenson/San Antonio Express-NewsNov. 14, 2012: Gen. Edward Rice Jr. and Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward met with the media at a press conference in the Pentagon as Col. Steve Clutter stands nearby to field questions. The commanders met with reporters to outline the results of an investigation into sexual misconduct among basic training instructors at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Read more: Lackland leaders cited in scandal
Photo By BOB OWEN/San Antonio Express-NewsNov. 24, 2012: Former Air Force instructor Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc, center, who was facing 52 years in prison on charges of misconduct with three trainees, threatened to jump from a local overpass after becoming overwhelmed by his legal problems and travel restrictions. Read more: Lackland instructor's legal woes cited in apparent suicide tries. He remained in the Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland lockup after a hearing Dec. 4 in which the Air Force said he committed four new violations. Read more: Lackland trainer jailed after release
Photo By Courtesy photoJan. 3, 2013: A military judge found Staff Sgt. Christopher Jackson guilty of having sex with two women trainees and telling one to lie if investigators asked about them. He received a 100-day jail sentence but will stay in the Air Force. Read more: AF instructor is sentenced to 100 days in jail | Sex case witnesses depict Lackland trainer as a true friend
Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-NewsJan. 8, 2013: Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jaime Rodriguez, middle, who is accused of rape, forcible sodomy and adultery while assigned to the Lake Jackson recruiting office from August 2008 to November 2011, arrives for an evidentiary hearing at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Read more: Air Force recruiter pursued girl for sex
Photo By Susan BiddleJan. 23, 2013: House members sharply criticized two Air Force generals for a culture that allowed pervasive sexual abuse of recruits at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, and for "significant" delays in reporting the crimes. Lawmakers from both parties took turns at a congressional hearing voicing their displeasure and pressed the generals about steps the Air Force is taking to stop sexual abuse. Technical Sergeant Jennifer Norris wipes a tear as she testifies during the hearing. Read more: Panel criticizes handling of Lackland abuse
Photo By Jerry Lara/San Antonio Express-NewsJan. 31, 2013: A day after jurors cleared Staff Sgt. Donald Davis of the most serious charges against him, he was sentenced to three months of hard labor and a bad conduct discharge for having sex with a trainee in technical school. Read more: Air Force instructor sentenced to hard labor
Photo By Billy Calzada/San Antonio Express-NewsFeb. 14, 2013: Air Force Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc, in chains, is led from a JBSA Lackland courtroom after being sentenced to 2 1/2 years after he was found guilty on all but one of nine charges that included a 2011 tryst with a recruit. Facing a battery of allegations that included sexually assaulting a woman, he was at risk of going to prison for 52 years. Read more: Lackland trainer gets prison for sexual misconduct
Photo By Bob Owen / San Antonio Express-NewsFeb. 20, 2013: A judge threw out a case against Tech. Sgt. Samuel Wicks, who was charged with pursing illicit liaisons with three women, saying prosecutors relied on evidence taken from a stolen cellphone. Read more: Judge tosses case against Lackland trainer
March 4, 2013: Former Air Force trainer Ryan Deraas was sentenced to three months in jail and given a bad-conduct discharge for assaulting a pair of recruits and pursuing five illicit relationships. Read more: Former Lackland trainer sentenced to 3 months in jail
March 16, 2013: Air Force Staff Sgt. Eddy Soto got four years in prison and a dishonorable discharge after being found guilty of raping an airman he'd led in basic training. Soto, 30, is only the second trainer at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland to be convicted of rape since trials began last spring in the growing instructor misconduct scandal. Staff Sgt. Luis Walker was given 20 years in July. Read more: Lackland trainer handed 4 years in rape
March 21, 2013: Former Air Force basic training instructor Master Sgt. Jamey Crawford was given seven months in jail, two months' hard labor and a bad-conduct discharge for having sex with two women and later lying to investigators about it. Read more: Trainer gets 7 months in Lackland scandal
Photo By MAX WHITTAKER/New York TimesApril 1, 2013: Virginia Messick is the first victim of a still-unfolding sexual assault scandal at Lackland Air Force Base to speak publicly about what she has endured. Read more: Lackland instructor's victim speaks of trauma, fear
Photo By JERRY LARA/San Antonio Express-NewsApril 2, 2013: Staff Sgt. William Romero was given 30 days' hard labor, restricted to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland another 30 days and reduced to airman after pleading guilty to charges that he had illicit relationships with four women and committed adultery. Read more: Lackland trainer, an Iraq vet, gets 60-day sentence
April 24, 2013: Tech. Sgt. Bobby Bass, who faced up to 33 years in prison, was convicted on multiple counts of misconduct with recruits four years ago at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and sentenced to six months in jail and a reduction in rank by a single stripe. He was acquitted by the jury of two officers and four NCOs of a rape charge involving an airman while in Kyrgyzstan. Read more: NCO gets 6 months in abuses at Lackland
Photo By JOHN DAVENPORT/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWSApril 25, 2013: Staff Sgt. Robert Hudson pleaded guilty to having sex with a recruit in basic training and also sickening airmen in a boot camp flight he led after pouring two gallons of bleach in a latrine. Read more: Lackland instructor poured bleach on floor, sickened recruits
Photo By SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWSMay 2, 2013: Staff Sgt. Emily Allen, who pleaded guilty to having sex with a recruit, was sentenced to three months in jail, 30 days' hard labor and reduced to airman first class. The Air Force could move to discharge her after she is released from jail. Read more: Female Lackland trainer gets jail sentence
Photo By JOHN DAVENPORT/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWSMay 22, 2013: The Air Force says basic training instructor Michael Wladischkin had improper relationships with seven women in technical training on Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He faces an Article 32 evidentiary hearing Wednesday, May 22 at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph on allegations of indecent acts, assault, adultery and unprofessional relationships with technical training students.
Photo By Scott M. Ash/U.S. Air ForceJune 7, 2013: Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward takes over as the head of the Air Force's sexual response. She replaces Jeffrey Krusinski, a lieutenant colonel who was arrested and charged with sexual battery. Read more: Lackland critic to target AF sex abuse
Photo By SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWSApril 21, 2014: Military judge Col. Donald Eller Jr. found Airman 1st Class Nathan Wilson-Crow, a photographer, guilty of four charges and five specifications of misconduct, one of which carried a possible 15-year prison sentence. Wilson-Crow was tried making sexual contact and exposing himself to at least two girls from O'Connor High School at a youth camp in April 2013. Read more: Airman guilty of some charges in Lackland sex case
Photo By San Antonio Express-News / File photoSeptember 1, 2014: Former Staff Sgt. Luis Walker, given 20 years in the Air Force's worst sex scandal, dies in a Kansas City, Mo., hospital. He hanged himself in a prison cell at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks.
Photo By Express-News file photoSeptember 9, 2014: Following an analysis of instructor misconduct at Lackland, the Government Accountability Office reports that six recommendations have not been implemented, including one to increase the number of training instructors to 528. Read more: Changes driven by Lackland scandal not complete
Photo By JERRY LARA/San Antonio Express-NewsJanuary 29, 2015: A jury finds veteran Air Force Master Sgt. Michael Silva guilty of raping a recruit he was charged with training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lacklandin 1995. He was found guilty of twice raping the recruit, and also raping a third woman, a member of the military, in Wyoming during February 2007.
The Air Force has launched 28 investigations into instructor misconduct at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland since starting a 24-hour hotline last fall.
Lackland graduates over the past decade have been asked to report misconduct as the Air Force looks to find trainers who had forbidden personal or romantic relationships. So far, a hotline used last summer during an Air Force investigation and the one now in place have produced a total of 45 investigations.
Retired Col. Morris Davis, who led a probe into a 2003 Air Force Academy sexual assault scandal, said the number of probes launched over three months wasn't alarming given what is known about Lackland.
But retired Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Norris, a sexual assault victim who heads the Military Rape Crisis Center in Maine, said the hotline is barely scratching the surface of a much deeper problem.
"They've opened up Pandora's box," she said Sunday. "It is just the beginning because we're getting new referrals and new clients every single day, both active duty and people who are veterans, but mostly active duty."
The Air Force's training command, which put the hotline in place Oct. 15, couldn't say how many calls had been made to the hotline or provide other details. The number of cases continues to rise on an almost weekly basis, with 32 instructors under investigation for illicit conduct with 59 trainees — three of them men.
Six courts-martial have been held, with 10 more in the works. The latest trials begin today, with Staff Sgts. Eddy Soto and Donald Davis facing proceedings in different courtrooms. Soto faces life for rape and aggravated sexual assault, while Davis is accused of abusive sexual contact and assault on one trainee, and having sex with another airman, who was in a technical school.
The newest abuse hotline, 210-652-0008, fielded calls after Gen. Edward Rice Jr., head of the training command, told airmen he wanted to uncover unprofessional relationships, sexual misconduct and sexual assault in basic and technical training.
A hotline established during a command-directed investigation last summer that led to sweeping changes in basic training fielded 110 calls. Of those, 17 Air Force investigations resulted, though so far there have been no details of what, if any, actions were taken.
Rice didn't comment, but in an earlier statement said the AETC hotline allowed airmen to help "dissuade, deter, detect and prevent this type of behavior from happening again."
Davis, who headed the Air Force's judiciary in 2007-08, said he thinks heavy media coverage of the Lackland scandal may have convinced some victims to call into the hotlines or even Air Force investigators.
"There was always that cone of silence that went with rape and sexual assault," he said, adding it was "good that people are trusting the system to call in."
The Air Force hasn't said how many other victims have called military investigators as well as the hotline. So far, though, most Lackland victims have testified reluctantly, in many cases remaining silent until investigators pressed them to talk.
A recent evidentiary hearing for Tech. Sgt. Jaime Rodriguez, a Houston-area recruiter accused of rape and other crimes, illustrated the problem confronting the Air Force. Only five of 18 women agreed to testify at the hearing, which will help determine if Rodriguez goes to trial.
"For those folks that don't call that hotline, I'm afraid that part of the reason ... is because the whole thing is opening up old wounds within people that they're just now coming to terms with, let alone actually proceeding with some sort of legal recourse," said Norris, who last week told a House committee of four sexual assaults she endured, the first an alleged rape by a recruiter before she went to basic training.
"They're just barely coming to terms with what happened to them and getting validated that it's finally been exposed, so the last thing they want to do is call up Lackland and be like, 'hey, let's launch a case,'" she added.


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Cutting edge research in a new generation of solar energy technology was the furthest thing from Shawn Bourdo's teenage mind when he started to look at colleges as a senior at Cabot High School in 1997.
He was more interested in playing tennis, despite having grades stout enough to get into Marquette University and Rhodes College. But because he had come to know the UALR tennis coach, Bourdo found himself as a freshman enrolled at UALR.
Three UALR degrees later, Bourdo is a post-doctoral chemist at the new Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences, working on the Vertically Integrated Center for Transformative Energy Research – VICTER.
The project involves the development of new power electronics that will interface with the national energy grid. It is part of the $20 million investment the National Science Foundation is making in Arkansas research and development.
"That's what the Nano center offers – the ability for me to stay here potentially long-term," Bourdo said. "The growth at UALR is amazing – the research and the campus overall."
He added, "Friends and family being close helped keep me here. And just the growth the university was going through at the time, there wasn't much of a driving force to leave. I kind of planned on doing that after finishing up, and still haven't left."
Q&A with Shawn
What led you to UALR? Opportunity to both play college tennis and get quality education
What was your favorite class? Organic Chemistry
If you could spend one day anywhere in the world, where would it be? Why? Antarctica, one of the places here on earth that a person could really experience nothingness and an environment that is other-worldly.
What one word would you use to describe yourself? Easygoing


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Get your gear.(BUZZWORD)(motorcycle touring): An article from: American Rider
This digital document is an article from American Rider, published by Ehlert Publishing Group on January 1, 2005. The length of the article is 625 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after
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The Fruit and Nut surveys provide farmer and/or agri-business estimates and forecasts of crop acreage, yield, production, price, value of production, and disposition of the crop as a component of the process to estimate fruit and nut crop production levels, price, value, and disposition of the crop.
The Fruit and Nut surveys are conducted in the major production states for each respective commodity. States survey all known commercial producers of fruit and nut commodities when only a small number of growers exist. For some commodities where a large number of producers exist in a given state, the state will conduct a probability survey or contact a sample of the growers to get production data.
The Fruit and Nut surveys produce results used to publish forecasts in the Crop Production report, the Cranberries report, or the Cherry Production report. End of growing or marketing season surveys produce results used to publish the Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts reports in January and July, or the Annual Citrus report in September.
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Program Content
Farm operators provide data for fruit and nut crops including apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, berries, cherries, cranberries, dates, figs, grapes, guavas, kiwifruit, nectarines, olives, papayas, peaches, pears, pineapples, plums, prunes, strawberries, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, tangelos, tangerines, temples, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios, and walnuts being produced on the operation.
Bearing acres, yield per acre, total production, utilized production, price, and value of production are the types of information collected for each crop from the producers and/or processors. A measure of change can be obtained by comparing previous season reports to current season or comparing within season reports.
The Fruit and Nut surveys are a vital component of the estimation process for fruit and nut production estimates. The uses of the resulting publications are to provide critical information on acreage, yield, production, price, utilized production, total production, and value of production to the fruit and nut industry, growers, transportation companies, farm program analysis, and economic calculation.
Farm operators are the greatest benefactor of this data series. The estimates of production are the official, independent, and unbiased industry baseline. This kind of information is crucial in the price discovery process.
Crop production estimates are also valuable for producers and industry to plan the marketing and movement of the commodity throughout the year.
The Fruit and Nut surveys vary in frequency by commodity. One or more forecast surveys are conducted during the growing season followed by an end of growing season survey and an end of marketing season survey for most fruit commodities. Some commodities only have an end of growing season and/or an end of marketing season survey. The timing of each survey is dependent on the growing and marketing season of that particular commodity.
The forecast reference date for each fruit and nut commodity is the first of the month that the forecast report is published. Mail data collection for forecasts is to begin no earlier than the 25th of the previous month. Phone data collection begins no earlier than the 28th of the previous month. Data collection concludes between the 5th and 8th of each month depending on the release date of the publication. End of season surveys are conducted shortly after the end of the growing or marketing season.
The primary methods of data collection are telephone interview and mail out/mail back data collection. Mail is emphasized as it is highly cost effective and less burdensome. However, in narrow data collection periods, the telephone is more effective. Personal interview data collection is used on a limited basis when coordination is needed across survey projects or when requested by the respondents.
Phone enumerators may use CATI software which allows the enumerator to verbally maintain a conversation with the respondent while following the instrument question text. Reported data are entered directly into an electronic format and the software performs simple consistency checks. In many cases the enumerator relays the question to the respondent from a paper questionnaire and records the response on the paper form. These forms are reviewed for consistency, then summarized.
Related Programs
Fruit Chemical Use
Last modified: 12/01/09
Remotely Sensed Data
- C-FARE Review of the Agricultural Prices Program
- C-FARE Review of the 2002 Census of Agriculture
- Evaluation of Selected USDA WAOB and NASS Forecasts and Estimates in Corn and Soybeans
Agricultural Resource Mgmt.


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Tag: Orono
Rooming House Stabbing
ORONO, Maine (AP) – Police say they've made an arrest after two men were injured, one of them seriously, during a fight inside an Orono rooming house. Officers responded to the Park Street building after 2 p.m. Sunday. There they found a 50-year-old man suffering from life-threatening stab wounds. He was taken to a Bangor […]
Zimmerman Challenge: Honoring A Hero
A fallen Marine from Southern Aroostook was remembered over the weekend with a unique event. It was held at the University of Maine at Orono– an event which highlighted Lieutenant James Zimmerman's love of physical fitness. News Source 8's Jenna Callari has more.


text: Prev Purchase this photo Mark Webb/The Herald-Dispatch Volunteer Jeanine Stevens learns to work metal with blacksmith Charlie Bradley and Freddie Ramey during the Spring Festival at Heritage Farm Museum and Village on Saturday, May 2, 2009, in Huntington. Gallery: Heritage Farm Village Spring Festival May. 02, 2009 @ 09:04 PM 2009/The Herald-Dispatch HUNTINGTON -- The Heritage Farm Musuem and Village held its spring festival Saturday, May 2, 2009. ()


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May 21, 2009
Matador Baseball Notes in PDF Format
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. - The Cal State Northridge Matadors (23-30, 6-15 BWC) will close out the season with a three-game, weekend series on the road against the UC Davis Aggies (11-40. 3-18 BWC). All three games will be broadcasted and available via GameTracker online at www.GoMatadors.com.
Tuesday, May 19 Northridge 3, Cal State Bakersfield 0
Friday, May 22 Northridge at UC Davis Dobbins Baseball Complex Davis, Calif. 2:30 p.m. PDT Gametracker/Radio
Saturday, May 23 Northridge at UC Davis Dobbins Baseball Complex Davis, Calif. 1:00 p.m. PDT Gametracker/Radio
Sunday, May 24 Northridge at UC Davis Dobbins Baseball Complex Davis, Calif. 1:00 p.m. PDT Gametracker/Radio
Friday TBA vs. TBA
Saturday TBA vs. TBA
Sunday TBA vs. TBA
The three-game series against the Pacific Tigers this past weekend was not only the final home games of the 2009 season, but also bring about an end to the collegiate careers of four seniors. For Richard Cates (Yuba City, Calif./Yuba City HS), John Parham (Rialto, Calif./Eisenhower HS), P.J. Rousey (La Crescenta, Calif./Crescenta Valley HS), and Bryce Schoening (Glendora, Calif./Fullerton College), a pre-game ceremony highlighting the accomplishments of the senior quartet during their time at Cal State Northridge took place as they were joined on the field by various friends, family members, and teammates. To all the members of the 2009 Senior Class, Matador Baseball thanks you for all of your time, efforts, dedication, and sacrifice, and wishes each and every one of you the best of luck during your post-collegiate professional endeavors.
CSUN's four-game road trip started on a positive note with a 3-0 shutout victory at Cal State Bakersfield, a result that the Matadors would like to replicate during their stay up north.
Last season, the Matadors also ended their season with a three-game series at Matador Field against the Aggies; having lost the first two games, Ryan Pineda's grand slam help the Matadors come-from-behind to win the third game of the series to end the 2008 season on a positive note.
Having finished five games ahead of the Matadors last season, the Aggies currently sit three games behind Northridge in the Big West standings, who are three games behind Pacific themselves. With Pacific having finished their conference competition, a sweep over the Aggies will tie them with Pacific in the standings; having a better overall record and a series victory over the Tigers last weekend, the Matadors can end the 2009 season on an extremely positive note with the potential to finish the season having won eight of their last nine games.
With his .351 batting average, infielder Justin Schaefer leads his team at the plate, with outfielder Ryan Scoma and infielder Ty Kelly also performing well at the plate with their .313 and .300 respective averages. Even though the Aggies have only hit fifteen home runs on the season, Kelly has belted four of them, also leading the team with 36 RBI's this season.
In Tuesday's game at Cal State Bakersfield Matador starter Bryan Longpre only allowed three hits to the Roadrunners in his three innings pitched. Paul Tremlin, Bryan Harper, Davin Tate P.J. Rousey, Jimmy Jollicoeur and Brian Slover combined to pitch the final six innings, striking out nine batters combined. Only two batters reached base during the final six innings, both via walks for one of the most dominating relief efforts of the season.
In that same game, the Matador's earned their first shutout of the season, the most recent combined shutout performance for Cal State Northridge since April 22, 2008 when Ryan Juarez, Eric Billings, and Edwin Quirarte held the Gauchos scoreless on their own field.
Having already erased two Pacific leads in their game on May 17th, the Cal State Northridge Matadors erased a two-run lead going into the bottom of the ninth, and completed their come-from-behind effort when John Parham scored off a Ryan Pineda sacrifice fly to right field for a 10-9 victory. That game was the third occasion this season that the Matadors have been able to successfully secure a win in the ninth inning. If you include the Matador's four victories earned in extra innings, the men in red have won nearly one-third of their games this season in the latter part of the ballgame. When trailing after seven innings this season, the Matadors have been able to come through in the clutch for nine wins in 2009 (including extra inning victories), and when trailing after six innings, exactly one-half of CSUN's wins this season (11 out of 22) have occurred in the latter-third of the game or beyond.


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A Plan for Economic and Planetary Survival Hothttp://ncreview.com/images/stories/jreviews/photos/tn/300x300s/86/e7/18/_paulhellyer_1315947376.jpg
Paul Hellyer is a former Canadian Defense Minister and an astute and knowledgeable observer of the world scene. In this interview with Miriam Knight he talks about his latest book, Light At the End of the Tunnel, an insider's view of those who hold the real power and how they manipulate world politics and finance; the truth behind global warming and the source of the technologies that could save our planet. Hellyer cannot be dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. He is a global statesman of highest integrity and deeply Christian and conservative values. He presents a clear-eyed view of the urgent problems we face, and how we can turn them around.


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Secondary Majors
Launched in fall 2011, secondary majors offer students the opportunity to earn one baccalaureate degree in one program supplemented by a rich intellectual experience in a second field of specialization outside that primary program. The "secondary major" offers the option of studying two subjects from two different programs while earning a baccalaureate degree in the first major without the requirement of earning a second baccalaureate degree in the secondary major.
Specifically, this option allows a student from one degree program to earn a secondary major from a participating department within a different program by fulfilling the requirements (normally 30–36 semester hours) set forth by that participating department but without requiring students to enroll in the additional courses that comprise that other program's core curriculum. Through the secondary major option, upon graduation, a student earns one baccalaureate degree from Baylor (through the fulfillment of all requirements from the student's home college or school). Although that student will not be awarded a second degree, the student's transcript will reflect that he or she earned a secondary major in that second area of study.
Individual departments that wish to participate should design their secondary major requirements in a manner that is comparable with those of their major program while compensating, as appropriate, for the fact that students working toward a secondary major might not have fulfilled all of the core requirements of the department's college or school. A department should consult with its school's or college's Curriculum Committee as it crafts the requirements for its secondary major keeping in mind the core requirements for the other baccalaureate programs. A department's secondary major proposal will be approved through the normal channels within each school or college.
As an illustration, if an Accounting major from the Hankamer School of Business wishes to earn a secondary major in Mathematics, she will need to satisfy all of the requirements of both her Accounting major and the secondary major in Mathematics. She will then graduate with her class from the School of Business having earned a "BBA in Accounting." Her transcript will note that she earned a "BBA in Accounting with a Secondary Major in Mathematics."
Students still have the option to double major within a single baccalaureate degree program or invest the additional time required to earn a second baccalaureate degree, as currently described in the Baylor Undergraduate Catalog.
Interested students should consult with their "secondary" department as early in their undergraduate studies as possible to determine if a secondary major is available and to receive advising (if appropriate).
Click here for Frequently Asked Questions Pertaining to Secondary Majors
Click here for Frequently Asked Questions Pertaining to Secondary Majors


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A New School
The current school bulding in Mithon.
When Haiti was devastated by earthquake damage on January 12. 2010, we developed a special partner relationship to assist them in rebuilding their churches and schools.
The Diocese of Haiti is the largest and fastest-growing diocese of the Episcopal Church, with over 83,000 members, 115 congregations and communities of faith, and approximately 140 Episcopal schools. According to Bishop Duracin, the January 2010 earthquake destoyed 80% of diocesan infrastructure. Christ Church Cathedral, working with the Diocese of Indianapolis, has initiated a rebuilding partnership with St. Andre's church and school in Miton. More information about relief and development efforts in Haiti is available at www.er-d.org/haiti.
The Global Missions Commission of the Diocese of Indianapolis facilitates these partnerships in the global three-way relationship between Bor, Indianapolis and Brasilia and organizes and raises funds for partnership travel between the churches in Sudan and Brazil. More information about our global mission partnerships is available at our diocesan website, www.indydio.org.
Rebuilding the church is a priority of the Episcopal Church for Haiti, a diocese of The Episcopal Church, USA.
Congregations and individuals are encouraged to support our mission partners financially. To give, you may write a check to the Diocese of Indianapolis for Miton in Haiti. Contributions may be sent to the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis at 1100 W. 42d St., Indianapolis IN 46208. Your donations will be sent directly to our partner churches to support these programs. The Global Mission Commission of our diocese has expertise and experience to help you develop fundraising and education programs.
Students at St. Andre's in Mithon will soon attend school in a new school building, thanks to support from the Diocese of Indianapolis. In March 2013, the Executive Council of the Diocese of Indianapolis voted to use up to $340,000 of our $500,000 pledge to Haiti to build a school for the residents of Mithon. The school currently has 130 students in preschool through 6th grade. The new building is being built to withstand earthquake and heavy winds.
The school currently meets in a transitional school structure built with funds from the Diocese of Indianapolis in 2012. Once the new school is built, the community will continue to use the original building as a church and community gathering space. $21,500 of our $500,000 pledge to Haiti was used for this purpose.
The current school bulding in Mithon.
Bishop Duracin, the Dean of the Cathedral, and the Rev. Michelin from the Diocese of Haiti led a large crowd in a service of thanksgiving as they laid the first stone in the construction of the new Mithon school.
Construction proceeds on the school. The foundations have been poured and work on the walls has begun.
Construction continues on the school for St. Andre's, Mithon, funded by part of our diocesan pledge to Haiti.
The second floor has begun to rise as construction continues on the school.
For more information and the complete set of pictures in this set, please click here.
The roof is up!
January 12, 2014 marked the fourth anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti.
The Episcopal News Service has published two reports on the progress and plans of the rebuilding and the how the denomination is still responding to the crisis there.


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Songs About Food
I was thinking about songs that reference food or restaurants, and I was just wondering what food related songs are your favorites? Here are some that come to mind:
Animal Crackers - Shirley Temple
Alice's Restaurant - Arlo Guthrie
The Worst Pies In London - from Sweeney Todd
Talk is closed, but that doesn't mean the conversations have to stop!
Check out this post for a more thorough explanation, and jump onto our Facebook page or our Twitter feed to keep the conversations going!


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Long-Distance Visitation
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012
So lately I'm scrambling to get my life together for the next year-ish plus, including but not limited to:
1) Finding a job (or several part-time jobs) in private practice,
2) Finding a new apartment,
3) Finding a new preschool,
4) Sorting out the latest complicated situation in my personal life, which for once I don't feel like discussing here (hey, there's a first time for everything, right?),
5) Not attending the purse party (this one was critical), and
6) Figuring out a plan for long-distance visitation, since Tyler is moving to D.C. and Caroline and I are staying here in New England.
Yep… lots of changes happening around here.
I have several interviews and prospects lined up for number one, numbers two and three are dependent on the location of number one, number four is just depressing me and you'd probably all judge me for it anyway, number five is very much completed, and number six is undetermined right now. Which is where you people come in.
Tyler and I have always known we would eventually have to figure out some kind of plan for long-distance visitation. He is a paleontologist, and there are very few job openings for that, so he will likely always live far away from us. He'll be going from postdoc to postdoc for a number of years, but once he settles down permanently, I'll consider relocating to where he is for Caroline's sake.
Until then, I have no idea how to work this– try to stick to the current every-other-weekend schedule? Figure out several longer periods of visitation, spaced farther out over time? Who will be responsible for traveling with her, and how will we work out who covers what? I don't want to just leave it up to him and not have a plan, because I'm pretty sure he'll slowly fade out of Caroline's life… and they've gotten so much closer lately, and it's been so good for her.
(Selfish full-disclosure time: it's not just about Caroline. I'll admit that I'm freaking out a bit about the potential of going back to the solo parenting gig, because that was a tough road. I love my daughter, but she is quite the handful at this age and I need a little bit of a break. My parents are fantastic and will always help me out, but Caroline needs her father, too, and he has responsibilities that he should be fulfilling no matter where he lives. So, we need a plan.)
Any suggestions? How do you and your ex handle long-distance coparenting? And if one of you moved and you changed your visitation schedule drastically, did you actually modify your court order, or just work it out between you two as a verbal agreement?
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Tags: Caroline, Custody, Divorce, Moving, Residency, Single Parenting, Tyler, Visitation | Categories: Caroline, Divorce, Residency, Single Parenting, Unexpectedly Expecting, Work/Life Balance


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Welcome to SIHA ********* Dear Binghamton Area Hockey Players & Parents, AGES 6-17 Years Old (all students grouped by age and ability) The Sport International Hockey Academy has started preparing for it's 25th summer of hockey instruction. Our main goal each year, is to offer every player a quality hockey education, combining an even mix of […]
Welcome to the Home page of the Chenango Ice Rink!! We are excited to begin our 4th year of Hockey and skating.
Thank you for all the support and patience you have shown as we make improvements around the rink. We are excited about the progress made thus far; with heat in the lobby and restaurant areas, as well as, new carpet in the lobby. In addition, we put in new boards and glass around the rink, a newly paved parking lot, and we also hosted very successful Roller Derbies!
Thank you to all of you who patronize the bar and restaurant. We have also seen an increase in support for public skating and birthday parties at the rink. We will continue to try and do as many things as possible to hopefully make all of you want to come and spend time at the rink. You can find our schedule of events here on the website.
Please let us know how we can improve. We are always open to suggestions. Thanks again.
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2014 Summer Hockey Instruction – SIHA
by rdjlo4 on October 15, 2013 in Uncategorized