COMMON Americas Advisory Council

Community » COMMON Americas Advisory Council

The COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) is a small, diverse group of individuals that represent IBM customers of varying sizes and industries. It was created to act as the liaison between IBM and COMMON in order to gauge the community reaction to strategic IBM decisions and future direction. CAAC members are encouraged to pool their expertise and know-how to gather requirements from the user community and pass them along to IBM.

Current CAAC Members

Andy Buchholtz
Innovative Software Solutions inc

David Gillespie
Suncast Corporation

Sayi Gottumukkala
New York Life

Karl Haggart
OneMain Financial

Cecilia Howlin
Pyramis S.R.L.

Carlos Irigoyen
Louisiana Legislative Auditor

Ulises Jimenez
CDS Americas

Jasmine Kaczmarek

M.R. Williams

Pete Massiello

Massiello Holding Corporation

Mike McArdle
Western Technical College

Marina Schwenk
Innovative Software Solutions inc

Gregory Simmons
P.C. Richard & Son

Todd Stewart
Heartland CoOp

Jack Woehr
The Seiden Group

Advocacy

As part of COMMON’s advocacy program, you have an opportunity to provide feedback to help IBM enhance its systems. After your requirement is accepted, it will be visible in the system for review.

Current Openings

If you represent a company that uses IBM i as its primary computing platform and have interest in joining CAAC if an opening develops, please submit an application.

Organizational Structure

The maximum number of individuals on the CAAC is sixteen.

Up to four people on the CAAC can be business partners, ISVs or consultants.
- Their role is to represent their clients, not their business
One person on the CAAC will represent the IT education community
Remaining CAAC members represent their own company
- The individual’s company uses IBM i as its primary computing platform
- This group should have a balance of business, management, hardware and software skills
A maximum of two members of the CAAC may also be on the COMMON Board of Directors

Term Limits

CAAC members serve a two-year term
After two years, the term is renewable once based on active participation throughout the current term and with approval from the CAAC and the COMMON Board

Membership

When recruiting new members, the CAAC looks for individuals with the following characteristics:

General IT knowledge
General business knowledge
Leadership qualities
Vision for the future in IT terms

The following are the list of CAAC membership requirements:

Have 3+ years of experience in App Dev, Sys admin or Database/IFS
Be a current member of COMMON throughout CAAC term
Approved for membership in CAAC by the CAAC membership and the COMMON Board
Sign a Feedback Program Agreement (FPA) between employer and IBM
Attend at least 1 of every 3 consecutive COMMON conferences
Participate in CAAC meetings, both Face-to-Face and conference calls
Attend at least 2 of every 3 consecutive CAAC Face-to-Face meetings with IBM – usually in Rochester, MN
Self-fund or have your company fund travel to Rochester for the in-person meetings.
Attend monthly CAAC business meetings – typically the first Tuesday of the month
Participate in at least one CAAC RFE Subgroup (AppDev, Db2IFS, SysAdmin) – these meet monthly
Be an active team member, willing to learn, ask questions, and give feedback to IBM
Represent and advocate for the IBM i SMB community in America
It is COMMON’s discretion, including the COMMON Board and/or the CAAC, to review and interview all applicants before final determination is made for each applicant. The list of selected candidates and their applications will be submitted to IBM for final approval.