Difference between revisions of "KWNPSA Past Events"

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(→‎Monday, 14 December 2015: Added link to meeting notes)
(Added old meetings)
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Previous meetings of the Non-Profit System Administrators group:
 
Previous meetings of the Non-Profit System Administrators group:
  
 +
== Financial Software ==
 +
; Monday, 15 August 2016
 +
http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/232234165/
  
=== Monday, 14 December 2015 ===
+
What kinds of financial software are appropriate for nonprofits? What does your organization use? What work is involved in supporting it?
  
; Collaborative editing tools ([http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223909896/ Meetup.com, 14 Dec 2015])
+
 
 +
 
 +
== The CLOUD ==
 +
; Monday, 11 July 2016
 +
http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/228739922/
 +
 
 +
Every single meeting we mention "The Cloud" but it has never been a formal topic of discussion.
 +
 
 +
What do you trust on the cloud?
 +
 
 +
What do you not trust? Why?
 +
 
 +
How how the cloud made your life easier? How has it made it harder?
 +
 
 +
What criteria do you use when deciding to use cloud services?
 +
 
 +
Are there feasible alternatives to the cloud? What are their plusses and minuses?
 +
 
 +
Are IT admins who don't like the cloud dinosaurs who will be unemployed dinosaurs within a few months or years?
 +
 
 +
[[NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-07-11]]
 +
 
 +
== External Services and Consultants ==
 +
; Monday, 13 June 2016
 +
http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669505/
 +
 
 +
What sources do you provide in-house? What do you outsource and why? Office 365? Web services? Email? Phone services? Other things?
 +
What are the pros and cons of hosting these services internally versus getting somebody else to do them? What factors do you consider when outsourcing a service?
 +
 
 +
How do you deal with people providing external IT services to your organization? How do you interact with consultants and other external service providers effectively?
 +
 
 +
[[NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-06-13]]
 +
 
 +
== Acquiring Hardware ==
 +
; Monday, 9 May 2016
 +
http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669425/
 +
 
 +
Nonprofits tend to have different budget constraints than other organizations, and often different requirements. Let's talk about them.
 +
 
 +
What kinds of constraints do you deal with? What kinds of hardware do you purchase? How have those purchases changed with new technology (eg the Cloud?) Do you get equipment new? Used? Donated? What factors do you consider when getting new hardware? How long does hardware get used in your organization?
 +
 
 +
[[NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-05-09]]
 +
 
 +
== What should we celebrate? ==
 +
; Monday, 11 April 2016
 +
http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669161/
 +
 
 +
As a counterpoint to last month's terrifying meeting, let's discuss the ways that system administration has gotten easier and more effective. We can share tools and techniques that have made a big difference in our systems administration practices, and talk about our glorious utopian future.
 +
 
 +
[[NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-04-11]]
 +
 
 +
== What should we fear? ==
 +
; Monday, 14 March 2016
 +
http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669101/
 +
 
 +
Ransomware. Spear-phishing. Botnets. Dirty USB attacks. Protecting our users and data has always been scary, but things appear to be getting scarier. What threats do you worry about the most? How have you changed your approach to deal with them? What threats can we do something about? How do we deal with the threats that are beyond our control?
 +
 
 +
As always, we will be sharing experiences and stories.
 +
 
 +
[[NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-03-14]]
 +
 
 +
== Organizational Databases ==
 +
; Monday, 8 February 2016
 +
http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669340/
 +
 
 +
Many organizations have internal data that they want to track. What tools do we use to store this data? Hateful Microsoft Access? MySQL? A web framework like Django? Complicated, brittle spreadsheets? Some cloud solution?
 +
 
 +
How do we migrate data from insane database systems to better ones? How do we back them up? What are some best practices to dealing with internal databases? What kinds of databases have you dealt with, and what approaches have worked for you?
 +
 
 +
[[NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-02-08]]
 +
 
 +
 
 +
== Disaster Recovery ==
 +
; Monday, 11 January 2016
 +
http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669035/
 +
 
 +
Sometimes, disaster strikes: lightning, fire, floods or other traumas can wipe out our IT infrastructure. How can we protect against losing everything?
 +
 
 +
Have you put together disaster recovery plans? Have you conducted disaster recovery exercises? What things are most important to consider? What things are trickiest? What best practices have you learned? Bring your experiences and stories.
 +
 
 +
[[NPSA Meeting notes for 2016-01-11]]
 +
 
 +
 
 +
== Collaborative editing tools ==
 +
; Monday, 14 December 2015  
 +
http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223909896/
 +
 
: how do people work together? How do you deal with privacy concerns? What tools work and what have problems?
 
: how do people work together? How do you deal with privacy concerns? What tools work and what have problems?
  
Line 13: Line 102:
 
[[Meeting notes for 2015-12-14]]
 
[[Meeting notes for 2015-12-14]]
  
=== Monday, 9 November 2015 ===
+
== Monday, 9 November 2015 ==
  
 
; Out of band management ([http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223909851/ Meetup.com, 9 Nov 2015])  
 
; Out of band management ([http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223909851/ Meetup.com, 9 Nov 2015])  
 
: how do you manage servers when the servers are not directly accessible?
 
: how do you manage servers when the servers are not directly accessible?
  
=== Monday, 19 October 2015 ===
+
== Monday, 19 October 2015 ==
  
 
Note: October 12 is Thanksgiving, so we are deferring the meeting for a week.
 
Note: October 12 is Thanksgiving, so we are deferring the meeting for a week.
Line 28: Line 117:
 
* Migrating MS Office to LibreOffice
 
* Migrating MS Office to LibreOffice
  
=== Monday, 21 September 2015 ===
+
== Monday, 21 September 2015 ==
  
 
; Backups ([http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223908420/ Meetup.com, 21 Sep 2015])  
 
; Backups ([http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223908420/ Meetup.com, 21 Sep 2015])  
Line 34: Line 123:
 
: How do you synchronize backups across locations?
 
: How do you synchronize backups across locations?
  
=== Monday, 17 August 2015 ===
+
== Monday, 17 August 2015 ==
 
; All about VoIP ([http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223550824/ Meetup.com, 17 Aug 2015])
 
; All about VoIP ([http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223550824/ Meetup.com, 17 Aug 2015])
  
Line 43: Line 132:
 
* [[Meeting notes for  2015-08-17]]
 
* [[Meeting notes for  2015-08-17]]
  
=== Monday, 13 July 2015 ===
+
== Monday, 13 July 2015 ==
 
; Keeping remote systems connected. ([http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223189124/ Meetup.com, July 2015])
 
; Keeping remote systems connected. ([http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223189124/ Meetup.com, July 2015])
 
: This month we will be talking about how to deal with multiple locations within an organization.  We will be discussing things like file sharing setups for more than one location, communications between locations, different router types for VPN and such, etc....
 
: This month we will be talking about how to deal with multiple locations within an organization.  We will be discussing things like file sharing setups for more than one location, communications between locations, different router types for VPN and such, etc....
Line 51: Line 140:
 
* [[Meeting notes for  2015-07-13]]
 
* [[Meeting notes for  2015-07-13]]
  
=== Monday, 8 June 2015 ===
+
== Monday, 8 June 2015 ==
 
; Keeping computers up to date.  
 
; Keeping computers up to date.  
 
* [[Meeting notes for  2015-06-08]]
 
* [[Meeting notes for  2015-06-08]]
  
=== Monday, 11 May 2015 ===
+
== Monday, 11 May 2015 ==
 
; Introductions and planning
 
; Introductions and planning
  

Revision as of 19:34, 15 August 2016

Previous meetings of the Non-Profit System Administrators group:

Financial Software

Monday, 15 August 2016

http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/232234165/

What kinds of financial software are appropriate for nonprofits? What does your organization use? What work is involved in supporting it?


The CLOUD

Monday, 11 July 2016

http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/228739922/

Every single meeting we mention "The Cloud" but it has never been a formal topic of discussion.

What do you trust on the cloud?

What do you not trust? Why?

How how the cloud made your life easier? How has it made it harder?

What criteria do you use when deciding to use cloud services?

Are there feasible alternatives to the cloud? What are their plusses and minuses?

Are IT admins who don't like the cloud dinosaurs who will be unemployed dinosaurs within a few months or years?

NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-07-11

External Services and Consultants

Monday, 13 June 2016

http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669505/

What sources do you provide in-house? What do you outsource and why? Office 365? Web services? Email? Phone services? Other things? What are the pros and cons of hosting these services internally versus getting somebody else to do them? What factors do you consider when outsourcing a service?

How do you deal with people providing external IT services to your organization? How do you interact with consultants and other external service providers effectively?

NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-06-13

Acquiring Hardware

Monday, 9 May 2016

http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669425/

Nonprofits tend to have different budget constraints than other organizations, and often different requirements. Let's talk about them.

What kinds of constraints do you deal with? What kinds of hardware do you purchase? How have those purchases changed with new technology (eg the Cloud?) Do you get equipment new? Used? Donated? What factors do you consider when getting new hardware? How long does hardware get used in your organization?

NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-05-09

What should we celebrate?

Monday, 11 April 2016

http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669161/

As a counterpoint to last month's terrifying meeting, let's discuss the ways that system administration has gotten easier and more effective. We can share tools and techniques that have made a big difference in our systems administration practices, and talk about our glorious utopian future.

NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-04-11

What should we fear?

Monday, 14 March 2016

http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669101/

Ransomware. Spear-phishing. Botnets. Dirty USB attacks. Protecting our users and data has always been scary, but things appear to be getting scarier. What threats do you worry about the most? How have you changed your approach to deal with them? What threats can we do something about? How do we deal with the threats that are beyond our control?

As always, we will be sharing experiences and stories.

NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-03-14

Organizational Databases

Monday, 8 February 2016

http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669340/

Many organizations have internal data that they want to track. What tools do we use to store this data? Hateful Microsoft Access? MySQL? A web framework like Django? Complicated, brittle spreadsheets? Some cloud solution?

How do we migrate data from insane database systems to better ones? How do we back them up? What are some best practices to dealing with internal databases? What kinds of databases have you dealt with, and what approaches have worked for you?

NPSA Meeting Notes for 2016-02-08


Disaster Recovery

Monday, 11 January 2016

http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/226669035/

Sometimes, disaster strikes: lightning, fire, floods or other traumas can wipe out our IT infrastructure. How can we protect against losing everything?

Have you put together disaster recovery plans? Have you conducted disaster recovery exercises? What things are most important to consider? What things are trickiest? What best practices have you learned? Bring your experiences and stories.

NPSA Meeting notes for 2016-01-11


Collaborative editing tools

Monday, 14 December 2015

http://www.meetup.com/NetSquared-Kitchener-Waterloo/events/223909896/

how do people work together? How do you deal with privacy concerns? What tools work and what have problems?
  • OneNote
  • Etherpad and friends
  • WebEx

Meeting notes for 2015-12-14

Monday, 9 November 2015

Out of band management (Meetup.com, 9 Nov 2015)
how do you manage servers when the servers are not directly accessible?

Monday, 19 October 2015

Note: October 12 is Thanksgiving, so we are deferring the meeting for a week.

Data migration (Meetup.com, 19 Oct 2015)
  • Migrating mail servers (different versions of Exchange, GroupWise -> Exchange)
  • Migrating Linux to Windows and vice versa
  • Migrating MS Office to LibreOffice

Monday, 21 September 2015

Backups (Meetup.com, 21 Sep 2015)
How do you test your backups? Have you worked on disaster recovery?
How do you synchronize backups across locations?

Monday, 17 August 2015

All about VoIP (Meetup.com, 17 Aug 2015)
  • What combination of VoIP and PSTN lines do you use?
  • What problems does VoIP solve for you?
  • What problems does it create?

Monday, 13 July 2015

Keeping remote systems connected. (Meetup.com, July 2015)
This month we will be talking about how to deal with multiple locations within an organization. We will be discussing things like file sharing setups for more than one location, communications between locations, different router types for VPN and such, etc....
Multiple locations may mean more than one office building, or other situations like employees who work from home or other remote locations.

Monday, 8 June 2015

Keeping computers up to date.

Monday, 11 May 2015

Introductions and planning