Special meeting at SNUG for hardware maintenance

[Richard Acuff <Acuff@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>]

   A group of Symbolics users in the SF Bay area has been working
together to share ideas and experiences about how to keep our machines
reliably running and supported in the most cost-effective fashion.
This has led to a series of constructive discussions with Symbolics
Customer Service about improvements and alternatives to the current
Symbolics maintenance options.  We believe these issues would benefit
from a wider airing and that the results may be seen in new
maintenance options to be offered by Symbolics in the future, or
perhaps at the symposium.

   We do not feel that the few minutes given to discussion of
maintenance topics during the symposium will be sufficient to cover
all of the issues involved, however.  Thus, we are organizing an ad
hoc session for Thursday night, 8:00pm to 9:30pm, for further
discussion of maintenance.  We'd like to get Symbolics and a number of
customers together to discuss their needs and wants, hopefully leading
to an overall better understanding by both customer and vendor of the
benefits and problems of Symbolics maintenance, now and in the future.
We think that customers can use the input from Symbolics, and that
Symbolics can use the face-to-face feedback from the field.

   We have tenative agreement from upper Symbolics management to be
present Thursday night.  We hope a significant number of customers
will be there as well, willing to help *solve* problems.

   There have been some disturbing rumors that we are attempting to
organise some sort of protest against Symbolics.  This is exactly the
opposite of our goals.  We want to see a spirit of *cooperation*
evolve out of these efforts, not animosity.  It is impossible to work
effectively with a vendor that is unliked and unliking.  I hope 
the rest of the customer community feels likewise.

	-- Rich

PS:  This time is different from the Friday afternoon time that we
originally were planning so that Symbolics will be able to attend.

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