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BobbySteffen

Greetings and Salutations!

People usually call me 'Bob Steffen', although I usually let people call me what they want; that means I go by B.S., b.s., Bob, Bobby, Robert, and Robert Alan. It reinforces the fact that I am almost always an INFP: Making Life kinder and gentler. :-)

I like Robert; Robert it will be.

This is my first AYE Conference, although I am an "aged cheese" from the 1986 PSL Weinberg @ Nebraska class, and also the 1991 Software Quality Management Seminar by Jerry Weinberg when he was on the road in Chicago.

I am back to work today after a week of vacation on the Oregon Coast, and ready to cultivate relationships as we all move towards Phoenix in November. I expect to share tidbits each day, so hopefully I'll get the wiki stuff 'down pat' in order to facilitate our relationship building and cultural backgrounds.

In the meantime, the short cut to me is . (October 11, 2004)

Today's goal is to reflect on my past in order for others to learn more about me.

I came of age (computer age, that is) with punched cards; I remember registering for my first college course in 1964 - I saw the Registrar pull the sorted cards by class session, and I 'hope'd' that my class request didn't have any empty card slots! That first holiday season in college, we made those dorky "Hollerith punched card" wreaths. Does anyone else remember those? :-) Others called them "IBM Wreaths" but we serious data processors knew that Mr. Herman Hollerith created the punched card.

I also wanted to become a veterinarian, yet my high school counselor steered me away from midwest veterinarian schools. Hence I was off to the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire for my undergrad degree in the old Business Admin major and a Sociology minor. (Today - 2004 - I really, really appreicate all those Soc classes!) I was off to Milwaukee (Wisconsin) for my first job as a PL1 Programmer at North Western Mutual Life Insurance Company. It was great being a single guy in Milwaukee - heck, we even got free lunches, and after coding by hand on those darn'd coding sheets, we headed off to Sardino's Bar for free food and Happy Hour! Only to repeat the cycle the next day!

I'm going to spare everyone from such detail about the rest of my jobs. To suffice my life history - between walking the rice paddies in Viet Nam and keypunching 60 hours per week in the back of a/c truck boxes, to dedicating 30+ years of IT service to various governmental/educational agencies; the last 21 years with the IT shop at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, I approach another career change in 2005.

My last five year gig has been as the Manager of Data Center Operations for the Division of Information Technology at UW-Madison, which I successfully completed by eliminating my position from the Department. Now it is on to a stint as "teacher in training" while I prepare to enter the Consulting world, either on my own or with someone, whomever that might turn out to be.

My current supervisor, who is turning former on November 1, (the Director of Systems Engineering and Operations) has repeatedly told me that I am to "global" for most of the organization. Between seeing the wide, big picture, and trying to communicate that picture, I often get caught up in the mode of thinking that everyone is thinking like me! Wrong, Robert Alan! :-) They often don't know what I am talking about.

My partner is my wife of almost 34 years, and we have lived in Madison (Wis) since 1976. (Often known as 'that city in Wisconsin that is surrounded by reality'.) We have three grown children, one in Eugene, Oregon, one in Portland, Oregon, and one who just moved back to Madison from Scaley Mountain, North Carolina.

I expect to author some publications in the future, and I am a cancer survivor of almost four (4) years. That's me: Robert Alan. Tomorrow my goal is to summarize my expectations for attending the Aye Conference, and to read about another group of you - my fellow peers. Have a great day! (October 12, 2004)

Attendance AYE 2004

Sunday

Warm-up Tutorial SessionFour000 Buffet Supper

Monday

How To Survive, Excel and Advance as in Introvert SessionFour007 Organizational Mapping SessionFour002

Tuesday

Satir System Coaching SessionFour005 Creating and Sharing a Diagram of Effects SessionFour011

Wednesday

Building Writing Skill and Confidence: A Writing Workshop SessionFour009 Transforming Rules into Guides SessionFour001 ClosingSession

"Wisdom is what you know, but you don't know you know it!" (Esther Derby, AYE, 2004.11.09)

BobbySteffen 2004.11.12 (P.S. And I chose to put the exclamation point inside the quotations. :-))