I'm not sure that there is that much in common or that much to distinguish
government from non-government users.

The 2003 NESUG conference was held in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of
Washington. The conference organizers set up a Government Applications
section (http://www.lexjansen.com/cgi-bin/nesug.php?x=nesug03&s=nesug#gv),
but I would say that the content did not really validate the concept.

I've been a member of the steering committee of the Washington DC SAS
Users Group for many years. The group has a heavy representation of
government users, but we have rarely if ever sensed a demand for distinct
government-oriented programming. Basically, government users are
interested in the same things as other users.

That's my sense of things. Even though I'm no longer in government
service, I'll be interested in any contrary findings.

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 15:43:36 +0100, Phil Mason <phil@WOODSTREET.ORG.UK>
wrote:

>I am doing a long contract for a UK government department and it strikes
me
>that many government SAS users have a great deal in common. I was
wondering
>if there are any user groups or mailing lists of government SAS users? If
>so, are these based within a country (US, UK, etc.)? Or cross-border? If
>there are none (as I imagine) then would anyone be interested in exploring
>starting one?
>
>
>
>My client is the Office of National Statistics (UK) who are doing a lot
with
>SAS 9. They have learnt many lessons about implementing SAS 9 BI
>architecture and I get the impression they would feel most comfortable
>sharing their insights with other government organisations - particularly
if
>they are UK government.
>
>
>
>Thanks
>
>Phil Mason

That's interesting, I get a different sense here in California.  The
SAS programmers seem to be in camps, for example contrast government
SAS programmers with pharmaceutical company programmers.  The work is
very different and they tend to attend different specialty tracks at
conferences. Of course the foundations are the same everywhere.

Maybe "government" is too broad, I have worked for many years in Health
and Welfare agencies, and I know certain groups of programmers have to
deal with similar sets of information, in my case for example ICD and
CPT coding and Medicaid or Medicare claims systems.  There are also
certain relationships between the feds and state or state and counties
that are germane only to government programmers, whereas federal
reporting requirements on the pharmaceutical companies are only
relevant to their programmers. The natures of the businesses are
different; in the state we have our fiscal budget cycles, legislatively
mandated reporting, and continual cycles of government program
development and evaluation which create very specific skill demands
that may not be of interest to non-government employees.

The differences in user groups are often along geographic lines - in
Sacramento we have a majority of state government SAS users, so the
Sacramento Valley Users group has that flavor. In the Bay Area the
corporate programmers dominate, and so the BaySUG is like that.

In terms of Phil's question regarding users groups, my observation has
been that local user groups suffice very well, because of the natural
geographic concentration of users with similar interests.  Some other
good sources of contacts are via shared large data centers, such as CA
DTS here in CA state government, other associations such as the
Sacramento Statistical Association chapter of the American Statistical
Association, regional conferences such as WUSS, and SUGIs when they are
local.  Oh yes, and don't forget SAS-L!  :)

regards -

Paul Choate

I work in state government in public health..while i can somewhat see
the utility in having industry specific groups such as (PharmSUG for
pharmaceutical ind..etc), where insiders can swap tips, i personally
would find it useful to be a fly on the wall at such meetings since i
often find the utility of there methods cross industry lines..For
example, i have found proc expand to be useful in my public health
work, which i understand is primarily a financial tool..

thanks, nevin