Date:         Fri, 4 Jun 2004 16:16:27 -0400
Reply-To:     "Fehd, Ronald J. (PHPPO)" <RJF2@CDC.GOV>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Fehd, Ronald J. (PHPPO)" <RJF2@CDC.GOV>
Subject:      PharmaSUG: a debrief
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

LOL   well, as a US federal employee
I thought I lived in the Land of Bureaucracy.

Much to my chagrin, amazement,
and half-vast relief (!)
there are people who have to deal with the FDA,
-- another US federal agency --
that envy the laid-back-ness of CDC.

My mini hats are off to all those who have to trim their toenails
before they toe the line drawn on parchment
with a fine-tip pen
by the FDA.

glad I'm not there,
uniforms only on Wednesday are quite enough for me.

I really enjoyed this conference
and was quite pleased to attach a good number of SAS-L faces
to SAS-L signatures.

I attended one paper where the author described how
a company who wishes to remain anonymous
vainly attempted to corral their programmers who wished to write macros:

* float an idea to The Committee
* write the macro
* find someone to read it (bench review)
  and test it (bothersome review)
  ** testor ought not to be:
         your cell mate
     nor anyone on your hall
     nor        on your floor,
     nor        in your building
  ** how about someone in another time zone?!?
  ** better yet on the opposite coast!*!
* back to The Committee for feedback

I was going to explain
Doing The Dorfman:
* come to The Committee meeting called to Study the Problem
  five minutes late
  with the solution in hand.

but I was a New Guy on the block
and didn't want to seem tooo awfully pushy.

and here's Good News:
"PhasmaSUG Underestimates Attendee Interest"
it was a Sold-Out crowd:
they had to stop on-site registration
because the hotel didn't have enough ovens to bake chocolate-chip
cookies
for more than 570 people in one afternoon.

Ron Fehd  the hand-in-the-cookie-jar maven  CDC Atlanta GA USA
RJF2@cdc.gov