Summer Picnic - Thursday, 7/31/2008 5-8pm

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SUMMER PICNIC - It's official--The annual summer picnic is scheduled for Thursday, July 31, 2008 at Ellison Park in Rochester, NY.
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Hots & Hamburgs, Chips & Beverages are included for the nominal fee:
Preregistered: $3-Single $6-Family of two or more (Such a Deal!)

Otherwise on Day of Picnic: $5-Single $10-Family

Bring a dish to pass, if you'd like, and an appetite for fun and friendship

And don't forget that we will also have a 50/50 Raffle and Prizes,
including a Free membership and other goodies.

Oh yeah, we need a logo for GVSUG and so please submit your ideas.
The winner will receive an official PharmaSUG2008 backpack with all
the goodies that were included at the conference.
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Since our webmaster (Adam Rains) is getting married on July 5, 2008
in Dallas, Texas (Congratulations Mr. Adam Rains & Ms. Kelly Clark!!!),
we will have to revert to emailing your information to either me

Joseph_Guido@urmc.rochester.edu

or our treasurer, Adam LaManna

alamanna@rochester.rr.com

Please be sure to include:

1) Your name & the names of any family members attending.

2) Whether you will be bringing a dish to pass (and what it is)

3) Your Logo idea for GVSUG (if you have one)
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Thanks and I look forward to seeing you at Ellison Park this summer!!!

Joseph Guido, Chair
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Spring Meeting was a great success!

Thanks to everyone for a great Spring Lilac 2008 Meeting! I just returned from 12 days in Texas and so I am late posting to the website, but I just wanted everyone to know that it is not too late to order books from SAS Publishing at a 20% discount. If you are interested, just let me know and I will get you set up. Email me at Joseph_Guido@urmc.rochester.edu or call my office at (585) 758-7818.

I want to thank everyone who worked on making the meeting a success. This includes the entire Executive Committee and you the membership. Thanks also to our keynote speaker, Jason Secosky. His talk on new features with SAS v9.2 was awesome. Also, I have to say that I received a THANK YOU from Jason which I think is a first for GVSUG. Here is the message.

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Joseph, thanks for having me to the GVSUG meeting a couple of weeks ago. You have a wonderfully social group. I enjoyed how you took a break for food and drinks between presentations, then meet at the bar after the meeting.
Coming from out of town, it was nice to be with the group for dinner. Thanks again for having me. I'm sure that I'll run into several of your members at future user group meetings.
Take care,
Jason
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Also, I want to thank Bill Murphy and Mike Tomb for their excellent TIPs N TRICKs presentations. Earl Westerlund did a great job of presenting NESUG and the upcoming meeting in Pittsburgh, PA this fall.

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Finally, thanks to our sponsors for the meeting. Our Gold Level Sponsor, Howard M Proskin and Associates (Howard Proskin) and Silver Level Sponsor, Bausch and Lomb (Dale Usner).

Have a great summer!

Spring 2008 Meeting -- RIT Inn and Conference Ctr

It's official that we are having our Spring 2008 meeting at the RIT Inn and conference center. The meeting will take place on TUESDAY, May 13, 2008 from 3 - 6 pm. We have some exciting presenters for you.

1) Keynote Speaker - Jason Secosky -
"A Sampler of What's New in Base SAS®9.2"
This presentation shows how coding with SAS is easier than ever with SAS 9.2. We highlight the top new features and performance improvements in DATA step, PROC SQL, and PROC SORT. Included are several "Top 10" SASware Ballot items, writing functions with DATA step syntax, and more intuitive and culturally acceptable sorting with PROC SORT. Come see what's new in the next version of Base SAS.


2) Tips and Tricks - Bill Murphy - TWO award winning presentations "Changing Data Set Variables into Macro Variables" and that old classic "Colonoscopy for the SAS Programmer".

3) Tips and Tricks - Michael Tomb - "A Macro to Re-Order Dataset Variables Alphabetically: By Name or Label"

4) Prize giveaways, finger food, beverage and a wonderful opportunity to network with friends both new and old.

If you plan to attend, please email the following:

gvsugreply@gmail.com

OR

Joseph_Guido@urmc.rochester.edu

Hope to see you there!

Joseph Guido, Chair
GVSUG


This meeting is made possible by the membership and our sponsors:

GVSUG Social on Feb 27, 2008 - 5:30pm

Note from the Chair:

Dear GVSUG Members (and our distinguished sponsors),

I am inviting you to a social get together at a City of Rochester establishment called the “Tap and Mallet”, recently reviewed in City Magazine. I must say that your Executive Committee had our monthly meeting there the other night and thought it would be an excellent place for our group to have a social.

We are planning the get together for Wednesday, February 27, 2008 beginning at 5:30pm. The Tap and Mallet is located at 381 Gregory Street, Rochester, NY (It is about half way between South Avenue and Clinton Avenue on Gregory Street). There is plenty of parking in the back of the place and/or on the side street.

GVSUG will cover the cost of the finger foods for the gathering and we ask that you purchase the beverage of your choice (wine, beer, soda, coffee, tea, etc.). Please email if you are planning to attend so that we may get an accurate count.

Thank you and I hope to see you there.
Joseph J. Guido, Chair GVSUG

A New Year Starts with Details from the Last

Happy New Year to All GVSUG Members and Blog Lurkers!




On Wednesday October 17th, GVSUG had our fall meeting at the RIT Inn and Conference Center at 3:00pm. Over 30 people came to see our key note presentation: Introduction to SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 for Statistical Analysis given by Charles Hallahan from the USDA Economic Research Service department. After his talk and some audience participation, we had some giveaways as well as an informal networking session in the hospitality room, along with food and drink.
When we resumed, Joseph Guido from the University of Rochester Medical Center gave a talk on Guido's Guide to PROC FREQ: Enterprise Guide Edition. We had a small break to give away some more prizes, then we held out GVSUG Annual Executive Committee Elections. All executive committee officer positions were filled with the same people, and our executive committee at large positions welcomed one new member--Adam Rains--and said goodbye to one of our longtime members--Steve LaLonde. Thank you, Steve, for all of your help. We finished up with 2 Tips and Tricks Sessions. Both were on Enterprise Guide & SAS Learning Edition. Steve LaLonde started it off talking about the SAS Learning Edition, what is included, and what can and can't be done with it. Michael Tomb wrapped it up talking about shell extensions.
After the meeting ended, a few members had a SAS and SUDS get-together at the in-house restaurant with our key note speaker, Charlie.

Please keep coming back to the GVSUG website to get updated information on what we are doing and when our next meeting will be. Feel free to drop us a line and tell us what you would be interested in seeing for this years meetings.

Thanks to Everyone

I just wanted to say "Thank You" to everyone at the GVSUG meeting today. A special thanks goes out to our Keynote Speaker, Charles Hallahan who gave a great talk titled "Introduction to SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 for Statistical Analysis".

Now for each of our Executive Committee members I say "Thank You". Thanks to our Emcee, Scott McNitt who did a great job. Thanks to Adam LaManna (registration, accomodations, etc.) and Sue Greenberg (registration). Also, Kudos to our Vice-Chair, Mike Tomb for all the assistance with sponsor advertising, TipsNTricks presentation, etc. Thanks to Janet Albright for her assistance with the break. Thanks to Steve Lalonde for his TipsNTricks presentation and for serving GVSUG for many years on the EC Board. As he steps off of the board we say Thanks to Adam Rains who has just joined our EC Board.

A Special Thanks goes out to All of You, our members, especially those who attended the meeting today. I apologize for the technical difficulties that happened during my presentation and promise that your EC Board will take steps to minimize these types of problems in the future. We will keep you informed of updates through email and our GVSUG website http://www.gvsug.org/

Of course we cannot forget to say "THANK YOU" to our sponsors for this meeting who are
Howard M Proskin and Associates who are at the GOLD LEVEL, Bausch and Lomb who are at the SILVER LEVEL and for Croop-La France and Informaticaecs who co-sponsored our breaks today.

Joseph J Guido, Chair
GVSUG

Meeting Tomorrow- It's the Place to Be

Are you ready for the Next GVSUG Meeting ?
If so, register here at this link.

If you never have used SAS® Enterprise Guide, this is your chance to see what you are missing

Here's the Full Agenda:

• Introduction and announcements


• Key Note Presentation:
  Introduction to SAS Enterprise Guide 4.1 for Statistical Analysis
  Charles Hallahan
  USDA Economic Research Service
  
• Break (and Giveaway!)


• Guido's Guide to PROC FREQ: Enterprise Guide Edition
  Joseph J. Guido
  University of Rochester Medical Center
  
• GVSUG Annual Executive Committee Elections
  (Nominate Yourself Here!!!) ***
  
• Networking Session and Break
  
• Tips and Tricks Sessions: Enterprise Guide & SAS Learning Edition Tips and Tricks from:
  Patricia Boss
  Michael Tomb
  Steve LaLonde
  and Audience Participation
  
• Final Prize Giveaway
  
• SAS ‘n SUDS (following the session)
  Informal Get Together After the Talks

*** Please note, if you nominated yourself for a GVSUG Executive Committee position prior to October 3, 2007, we may have lost your entry, please re-submit it using this link