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 A
Note From SAS Canada
It’s September already! Where did the time go? Here at SAS Canada’s
head office in Toronto our rooftop rain collectors are straining
at the seams, a result of one of the wettest summers on record.
The trade-off, of course, is that gardens and parks have rarely
looked so beautiful in the dog days of August and our tanks are
heartily equipped with plenty of rain water ready to be treated
and reused in normal building functions.
SAS Canada is committed to contributing
to environmental sustainability. In fact, it has been at the forefront
of our activities and events this past quarter. More than 50 Toronto-based
SAS employees downgraded their daily commutes for a week to reduce
carbon emissions in support of Pollution Probe. While the initiative
did result in sore muscles for some, everyone who participated
had a smile on their face for the whole week. When all was said
and done, employees saved 2,160,329 grams of carbon emissions by
parking the car and enjoying some exercise.
The sustainability theme continues
as SAS prepares to roll out the long-awaited SAS® 9.2 platform
in the New Year. Existing SAS customers have been gradually upgrading
to the initial SAS 9.2 release, and many have been opting to support
environmental responsibility. In an effort to reduce packaging
and production elements, SAS is proud to offer the SAS 9.2 upgrade
as a downloadable package, with backup physical copies also to
be made available in support of the downloads.
Users group activity continues to
accelerate in leaps and bounds. With roughly half the meetings
completed for the year, almost 3,000 SAS users have attended or
presented at meetings across the country. Executive committees
in each city centre are firmly driving the meeting agendas and
sourcing presenters and presentations from within their own rapidly
growing SAS communities. The SAS Academic Program, which focuses
on growing SAS usage in university and college settings, continues
to pick up steam as well, with almost 1,000 undergraduate, post-graduate
and doctoral students participating in SAS-sponsored conferences
and forums.
Finally, it’s the time of the year
when we seek to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding contribution
of a member of the SAS community by bestowing the Customer Value
Award on that individual. The award winner receives airfare, hotel
and registration for SAS Global Forum 2009, to be held in Washington,
DC, from March 22-25, in addition to an award presented at a special
dinner honouring Canadian users groups and customers. We need your
help to determine the winner! On this Web
site, you’ll find an
outline of the qualities the Customer Value Award winner should
possess, as well as a form to nominate someone you feel is deserving.
Here’s looking forward to a successful
and productive end of 2008 for the whole SAS community. On behalf
of the Customer Value team, we hope you enjoy the best of what
the new season has to offer and we look forward to seeing you at
a users group meeting soon!
All the best,
Wally Thiessen
Manager, Customer Value
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