Ron Catcheside
RonCatcheside@aol.com

Ron has been associated with user groups in Canada and around the world since the late 1970's. In his 20 year tenure as a communications professional with Digital and through the acquisitions, first by Compaq and then HP, he had direct responsibility as Delegate for DECUS Canada and was also international advisor to the DECUS Americas Council. Until taking early retirement from HP, Ron was a member of the Customer Liaison Office, the group inside HP responsible for the relationships between the company and all major user groups around the world. Ron has returned to his roots as a professional designer at his home in Apsley Ontario.

Brian Lamothe
r.brian.lamothe@sympatico.ca 

When with DIGITAL I supported the DECUS organization at the annual symposia and also as an active member. I became a member of the Board in 1998 and after the acquisition of DIGITAL by COMPAQ I left the company in 1999.  I am now self employed running a small home repair and reno business.  As for now as in the past, I endeavor to keep fast on the goals and aspirations that the user group has and will continue to support it to the best of my abilities.

Kenneth Lang
Kenneth.Lang@genyc.com

Ken has been consulting on VMS for over 25 years. As an independent consultant for the past 17 years he has been advising and installing VMS servers throughout many corporations across Canada and the USA. While on a two year project in Alaska consulting for NORAD, he has helped to set-up a wide area network for the US Air Force connecting some 29 VAXes. It was during this time which the Exxon Valdez ran into the Bligh Reef which required the establishment of VAXes to help the US Military track logistics during the clean-up.

Ken has been setting up Alphas to run with OpenSource tools such as Apache, WASD, Samba and programming with Java on Alpha. Now you can see the icon of Alphas sitting on a mixed network environment with Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Recently, Ken has helped HP Engineers test OpenVMS 8.2 and X.25 on Alpha. He is currently trying to re-establish the Users Group in the Vancouver area. If you’re in the Vancouver area, send me an e-mail.

Harry McMaster
harry@systemresale.com

In the late 1980’s the growth of Digital Computers gave birth to many new industries. One of which was the resale of quality used equipment. I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time and able to take part in the fast growth of the DEC marketplace.

As a supplier of quality used and refurbished DEC, PDP, VAX and Alpha products, I assisted start-ups and budget restrained companies and organizations afford to purchase DEC products.

Many of these users are also members of Encompass Canada. Having been on the opposite side of the desk for the last 15 years, I feel I can bring a new perspective to the Encompass Canada membership.

I look forward to serving on the Board for the benefit of the general membership.

Mahendra Rajah
Mahendra.Rajah@URegina.CA

I started working with computers when I was a graduate student at Carleton University. I manned their help desk for several years and wrote programs to run on their Sigma 9 system. I joined the University of Regina in 1979 as a support person for their Sigma 9 computer system and have maintained several VAXen, PDP-11s and Alpha systems during this time.

We currently have three Alpha servers with Tru64 Unix that are used by the university administration. The Alphas run Oracle database products and Banner software from SCT.

I joined DECUS in 1985 as an ordinary member and then became the VAX/VMS Librarian for the Library Committee in 1988. The purpose of the DECUS library was to collect and distribute computer programs to/from our members.

I am glad to be part of the new HP user community.

Dave Wilson
davidjwilson@rogers.com

I have been working with computers since 1968, when I was first introduced to a PDP-11 in my University days at Queen's. Most of the work in my career has involved Scientific Computing and High Performance. Stints with Atomic Energy, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing and the Canadian Ice Service led to my last ten years doing Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Processing.

Work with PDP-11s and VAXen led to my interest in the DECUS'83 Symposium in Ottawa. Because of my interest in finding software for the VAX, I was "adopted" by the DECUS Library Committee and participated in every symposium since then, preparing Symposia Tapes and doing committee work. Later, as Chair of the Library Committee, I was appointed to a seat on the DECUS Canada Board.

I have maintained my work on the Board through elected and appointed terms, participating in the Summits which culminated in the birth of the Canadian Association of Compaq Users (CANACU).  I am proud that, as President, I was able to shepherd the association to the point that we are being incorporated as an independent organization, "Encompass Canada - an HP User Group".  We have evolved but have also maintained our relationship with our vendor through the Digital, Compaq, and now the HP regime.