Message from your President: Judy Cheves

Seasons Greetings from SCQAA-SF

Even though we did not have a meeting in December, your board members have not been idle this month. We are busy working on plans for 2004 and will be kicking off the New Year with our meeting on Wednesday, January 7th!

Paul Glen will be our speaker in January. He will be presenting "Leading Geeks, How to Manage and Lead People Who Deliver Technology". Steven Sample, President of University of Southern California has this to say about Paul. "Paul Glen provides excellent advice for managing geeks. But his insights apply equally well to the challenge of leading any group of specialists for whom esoteric knowledge is more important than power, and expertise more determinative of social dominance than bureaucratic hierarchy." We all either work with people who are such specialists or we are members of the geek community ourselves.

Karina Gamble, our Program & Education Chairperson, has lined up some great speakers and she has been finalizing plans to offer certification programs early in the year. This will be a great opportunity for those of you who want to become certified as a quality professional.

Some additional news for next year.beginning in January we will be charging $10 to attend our monthly meetings. This nominal charge is to help offset our costs for meetings. We were fortunate to have some start up funds from both the Los Angeles and Orange County SCQAA chapters, which allowed us to cover our costs this year.

I'm sure you will be very excited about our new Membership Program. We have developed a 2-tier membership program that will provide additional value to each of you. Details of the program are included in this newsletter.

Regards,

Judy

Quality Meetings Upcoming

Wednesday, December 17, 2003 Dominick Savo on "How money Works: An open discussion on how to be a better manager of your money.” Sponsored by SCQAA-Los Angeles. The objective of this presentation is to give you some thoughts on how to manage your money, how to stay out of debt, and most of all, how to ensure a self funded retirement by building real wealth for the future. There is no selling here. What will be presented are methods and techniques on how to become debt free and financially independent. LOCATION: American Honda, 1919 Torrance Blvd., Torrance, CA, Building 100, Corner of Van Ness. For reservations or more information, visit this website: http://scqaa.org/

Wednesday, December 17, 2003 11:30 AM – 2 PM Holiday Party and election of officers, Information Systems Security Association. Location: Les Freres Taix Restaurant 1911 West Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90026. For reservations or more information, visit this website: http://www.issa-la.org/

Dec. 19: 7 AM-12 PM PST Topic: 2003 Homeland Security Leadership Series. Sponsor: Integrity Solution, LLC. ISACA members received $45 off the $195 (2 for 1) registration price. Contact Keith Young at keiyong@integritysolution.com or call 313-867-6692 to obtain the discounted price. For more information: http://www.homelandsecurityseries.com/losangeles.htm

Thursday, January 7, 2004. Ventura Highway’s Thunderous Thursdays. Time: 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Author: wm1harris Repeat: This event repeats on the first Thursday of every month. Type: Club Event

Reminder: There are reminders set for 1 day and 4 days before this event. Location: Enrique's Mexican Cuisine Street: 159 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. City/State/Zip: Thousand Oaks CA 91360 Phone: (805) 495-1003 or (310) 748-3817 (Bill's cell)

February 22-27, 2004 SHARE Technology Exchange Long Beach, CA. SHARE is a 5-day event featuring mutli-disciplinary technical education and professional networking for IT professionals of IBM enterprise computing environments. At this event, you’ll learn real-world technical solutions from users like you to meet the IT business challenges of today, have the opportunity to influence future product development, and preview tomorrow’s solutions from IBM.

Friday January 16, 2004 7:30 - 9:00 AM Project Management Institute – LA Chapter (Pasadena). Topic: To be announced. Location: Kaiser Permanente, Walnut Center building

393 E. Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91188 For reservations or more information, visit this website: http://www.pmi-la.org/

Tuesday, January 20, 2004 5:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m Steve Kaye “Effective Meetings” Sponsored by SCQAA-Orange County. Location: Amerisource Bergen West Coast Management Center 4000 Metropolitan Drive, Orange, CA 92868-3502, 4th Floor Conference Room Free parking is available. Admission is $15 per meeting. For reservations or more information, visit this website: http://www.scqaa.com/meetings.htm

Wednesday, January 21, 2004 7:15 - 8:45 AM Project Management Institute – LA Chapter (West Valley, formerly Woodland Hills). Topic: TBA. Carrow's Restaurant - back room 18355 Ventura Bl., Tarzana, CA (Between Reseda and White Oak) 818-343-0782; Parking is free. 91188 For reservations or more information, visit this website: http://www.pmi-la.org/

Wednesday, January 21st, 2004 6:30 PM. Robert McDonald, CIA and The Institute of Internal Auditors’ 2003-2004 Chairman of the Board. Sponsored by IIA-SF. Robert will discuss his chairman’s theme, Embrace the Challenge, and share with the attendees his vision for The Institute and the profession. "Now, more than ever, internal auditing is in the limelight. We are challenged to effectively deal with questions of compliance, ethics, risk and communication whether consulting or performing traditional audit work. To meet these challenges, we continuously must demonstrate diligence and competence with an eye toward company goals and objectives." Location: Odyssey Restaurant in Granada Hills. For reservations or more information, visit this website: http://www.iia-sfv.org/

Thursday February 12, 2004 8 AM – 5 PM. Ed Robinson Seminar, sponsored by IIA-SF. PLUS 6:30 PM IIA-SF Dinner. Topics include: The Auditor as Project Manager, The Power of Influencing the Team, The Professional Auditor’s Changing Role. Location: Odyssey Restaurant, Granada Hills. For reservations or more information, visit this website: http://www.iia-sfv.org/

April 25 – 28, 2004 ISACA Spring Conference at Universal City, CA, provides affordable quality training on fundamental IDS auditing concepts and emerging technology risks, and an opportunity to network with other auditing and security professionals. Weblink: http://isacala.org/2004SpringConference/2004SpringConference.html

Our Corporate Meeting Sponsors

Serena, Corp. at 20920B Warner Center Lane, Woodland Hills, is our very first chapter Corporate Meeting Sponsor. We very much appreciate their sponsorship, which provides the SCQAA San Fernando Board with a fine workspace for our Board meetings.

Countrywide, Corp. in Simi Valley is our second chapter Corporate Meeting Sponsor, as they are providing Membership meeting space, starting with the first monthly meeting on September 17, 2003.

QAI Certification Programs

To request more information, send email to certify@qaiusa.com.

Earn CPEs

Are you a CQA or CSTE? Earn some of your Continuing Professional Education (CPE) points by attending SCQAA-SF meetings. Earn even more by helping with our committees!

Southern California Quality Assurance Association San Fernando Chapter (SCQAA-SF)

Course Schedule for 2004

Training Location: Countrywide at Simi Valley, CA. For more details, visit our website: WWW.SCQAA.US

Feb 5-6: Boot camp for Software Testers

March 4-5: Prep course for CSTE

May 6-7: Boot camp for Software QA Analysts

June: 3-4: Prep course for CSQA

QAI Certification Programs

To request more information, send email to certify@qaiusa.com.

Meet Your SCQAA

San Fernando Chapter Board

The new Board slate is composed of:

Position	Board Member	Backup Member
Chapter Chair	Judy Cheves	Shahidul Manan
Vice Chair	Shahidul Manan	John Heeg
Treasurer	Deanna Witrack	Judy Cheves
Secretary	John Heeg	Julie Borland
Sponsor/PR Chair	Bob Tabaka	Bill Hackenberg
Membership Chair	Ron Winters
Food Service Chair	Peter Reidy
Webmaster	Lenni Lara
Mail List Chair	Gerry Caruso	Karina Gamble
Newsletter Chair	Elizabeth Runyon	Deanna Witrack
Meeting Chair	Julie Borland
Program Chair	Karina Gamble	Lenni Lara
Chapter Advisor	Jim Stoumpos
PMI Liaison	Bill Hackenberg

Would you like to be a speaker and have a topic of interest to the quality community? Contact the Program Chair (karina@qainsight.com) or Chapter Chairperson (Judy.cheves@Countrywide.com) and let us know what you would like to contribute.

Would you like to contribute information to this Newsletter? Contact the Newsletter editor at this address: scqaa_sf_maillist@yahoo.com.

The SCQAA San Fernando Board holds monthly Board Meetings at Serena Inc. in Woodland Hills. If you would like to attend the Board meeting and would like to help this chapter, please contact Judy Cheeves at E-Mail (Judy.cheves@Countrywide.com ) to obtain the meeting schedule and location.

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Directions to Our Meeting Location in Simi Valley:

You might want to check out driving directions from your starting point on yahoo.com, but here is how you will finish the trip:

Countrywide Financial 2900 Madera Road, Simi Valley, CA 93065 1C Central Lobby Presentation & Video Make your way to CA-118 and go to Simi Valley Exit CA-118 on Madera Road North Go 0.3 miles then turn right on North Madera Road Go 0.3 miles past Countrywide Way to first driveway on the right: 2900 North Madera Road. Follow the driveway up and around the building on your right and park on the other side (which is actually the front). Conference room 1C is right off the main lobby.