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Lark Ritchie's Profile


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I like to discuss organizational management issues...


William Lark Ritchie
821 King St.
Porcupine, Ont. P0N 1C0
Telephone: Home: 1-(705)-235-5544

Highlights

30 Years of Experience In All Areas Of Information Systems , Various Organizational Cultures
Computer Operations, System Analysis, System Design, Programming, End User Product Support, Skills Analysis, Course Development, End User Training, Document Production, Total Quality Management, Continuous Improvement, Micro Support, Employee Coaching, Performance Reviews, Team Building

Active personal track record of career and personal service-oriented activities, demonstrated leadership and problem solving abilities, with consistent focus on product quality. and on transfer of knowledge to customers, an emphasis towards end user support and training, with experience in software development areas.

Summary Past Experience:
Process Modeler/Analyst (Aris Toolset, Palos Bay Leadership, ABC Plus, ABC Technologies, Ernst & Young Methodologies, Oracle Designer/2000 Process Modeler, etc)
Internal Quality Auditor (ISO 9002)
Sr. Analyst/Programmer , Custom Materials System with ORACLE CASE Tools.
Chairman, Methodology and Procedures Working Group.
Leader, Continuous Improvement Team

Systems Analyst, using Yourdon/DeMarco structured methodology. Analyzed, specified, evaluated, selected, installed 2000 employee human resources, payroll, supported materials management and purchasing systems controlling inventory value of 38 million dollars .

Leader of system development, conversion and installation teams for payroll, human resource, and customer service systems.

Supervisor, Leader and Coordinator of I.S. End User Support groups of up to five persons, I.S. Department Training Coordinator. Designed, created, authored, sourced, selected and acquired, and supervised publication of customer and I.S. staff procedures and manuals, training programs and materials, and documentation for mainframe and micro applications. Experience in employee skills analysis, identification of training requirements, training plan design, course development, delivery, user support and help desk roles dealing with all levels of management , staff and field personnel.

Managed an information center lab,
installed a 300-plus micro network, installed E-mail, evangelized for Macintosh. Designed and Implemented Help Desk Systems.

Managed and supervised computer operations of up to 17 employees; experienced in physical planning, hardware/software selection, disaster planning. Experience covers IBM 360, IBM 370, IBM S/38, DEC 2060, DEC VAX 6500, Networks, Macintosh and PC's, etc.

Owner, Co-Owner in Tourist Business, and Business Consulting/Training Service
Past President of the Northern Ontario Chapter of DPMA,
Past Chairman of the Northern College Business Administration Advisory Board,
Co-President of Porcupine Minor Hockey Association.
Past President of the Whitney Minor Hockey Association,
Past President Chapleau Snowmobile Club
Have dealt with public, chaired meetings, work and planning groups, and conflict resolution sessions; organized, coordinated, presented, seminars and workshops etc.

Management (and related)Training Courses
- Internal ISO Auditor (Denis Artur, 1994)
- Continuous Improvement Methods (Conway Associates, 1993)
- Interpersonal Relations (U. Laurentian 2nd yr. Comm.)
- Effective Interviewing (U.L. & ASI)
- Supervisory Skills (U.L., ASI, Kidd-training program)
- Team-Building (Woods Gordon)
- Problem Solving (DPMA Mgt. Assistance Program)
- Defining Goals and Objectives (DPMA Mgt. Assistance Program)
- Writing Standards And Procedures (IAT)
- Effective Job Training (Northern College)
- How to Design Effective Training Programs (The Training Clinic)
- Computer Operations Management (IBM - Toronto)
- Managing Computer Operations (IBM - New York)
- Basic Statistics (U.L.)
- Planning Techniques (Woods Gordon)
- Psychopathology (U. Laurentian, Timmins Campus 1990)

Technical Training Courses
- Oracle Designer/2000 System Modeling Tools (Oracle, 1997)
- Oracle Designer/2000 Building Applications (Oracle, 1997)
- Oracle Designer/2000 Building Database Objects (Oracle, 1997)
- Oracle SQL and SQLForms (Oracle, 1993)
- Continuous Improvement Methods (Conway Associates, 1993)
- Oracle Case Designer (Rapid Development Project 1992/93)
- Rapid Business System Analysis & Design (PeopleWare Technologies, Toronto, 1992)
- Writing Standards And Procedures (IAT, 1985)
- Systems Analysis and Design (IAT)
- Structured Analysis (DMR)
- Advanced Structured Analysis (Yourdon)
- Structured Design (DMR)
- Basic Statistics (U.L.)
- Precedent Network Diagramming (Woods Gordon)
- Planning Techniques (Woods Gordon)
- S/38 Trng Series: Introduction... through Implementation-1 (IBM)
- AppleShare/AppleTalk LANS, ELANS (Apple Canada)
- Computer Programming (BMTI, Toronto, 1967)

Special Skills
- event promotion and advertising
- fund raising event coordinator
- photographer, 35 mm slides, stills, videotape
- video, slide productions & presentations
- hunting, fishing and nature guide
- training of outdoor guiding skills
- desktop publishing

Personal Life Accomplishments
• 1994-98: Facilitator, Post Adoption Support Group.
• 1991-93: Member Timmins Minor Hockey Association. With three other Hockey Association presidents, developed new policies for Timmins-wide 800+ member Minor Hockey program and design of new association structure and roles
• 1993: Co-President, Porcupine Minor Hockey Association, administering 250+ minor players. (Amalgamation of Whitney and South Porcupine Associations)
• 1991-93: President, Whitney Minor Hockey Association, managing and administering of 147 players between the ages of four and sixteen on nine hockey teams. Successfully negotiated amalgamation of two rival Minor Hockey Associations to form Porcupine Minor Hockey Association, now administering 250+ minor players
• 1992: Guest Speaker, Family Studies Program, Roland Michener High, South Porcupine; Topic - Mid Life Reflections
• 1991 - 93: Mentor, Student Co-op Program, Timmins Board Of Education
• 1986-91: Adviser, consultant, and training support to small businesses and organizations using IBM PC, Macintosh and related hardware/software
• 1988-89: Junior Achiever Advisor for student Junior Achiever Company, Timmins
• 1985-86: Advisor and member of Parents Group for South Porcupine Nursery School. Presented deputations to Timmins City Council to continue support of municipal school funding. Headed Community awareness campaign which increased school registration from 60% to 100% with a waiting list
• 1983: Co-Chairman DPMA/Society of Mgt. Accountants Computer Show/Conference
• 1982-83: Chairman, Northern College Bus. Admin. Advisory board, Produced Document "Analysis of Student Computer Requirements" resulting in a front-runner installation of TRS-80 III teaching system linked to Corvus disk system
• 1982: President of DPMA Northern Ontario Chapter
• 1981: Vice-president, DPMA Northern Ontario Chapter
• 1978 - 1981: Director and Program Chairman, DPMA Northern Chapter
• 1976 - 1978: Scout Leader, 1st United Church Troop, Timmins
• 1976 - 1977: Member of Board of Directors, Timmins Rate payers Association
• 1971 -1972: President Chapleau Snowmobile Club, developed a race track and regularly scheduled competitions. Promotional campaigns attracted competitors from as far as Michigan, Thunder and Quebec
• 1969 -1970: Director of Chapleau Snowmobile Club, Winter Carnival Committee member
• 1969 -1970: Member of Chapleau Winter Carnival Committee.
• 1965 - 1968: Chapleau High Year Book Photographer/Layout Designer
• 1961: Grade Eight Yearbook Photographer
• 1963 - 1993: Annually, I outfit and guide 5-15 American hunters on Safari Style Black Bear Hunting Expeditions during my vacation period

Detailed Employment Experience
1974 - Present - Various Positions
1992 - Present: Analyst, Process Modeler, Quality Auditor, Help Desk Coordinator
Oct. 1992 to Present: Sr. Systems Analyst/Programmer, Oracle, CASE tool methodology, Concentrating and Refining Plants Custom Materials System manages ores and metal material information intended for selection, processing and billing . HP900, Model 750.

Recent Special Assignments:
Mar.- Jun. 1993: Leader, 7-person Continuous Improvement (QM) Team: Report and recommendations to manage I/S project backlog produced.
Aug. 1992 - Feb. 1993: Chairperson, 6-person Methodology and Procedures Working Group, Delivered specs for design, format, and a Core Document titled "I.S. Methodologies and Procedures" and Idea submission program for department improvements.
Jun. 1992: Quality Assurance Research, Methods & Measurements for Information Systems. Produced a summary paper on Total Quality Management for Kidd I.S. including steps for program introduction.
1988 - 1992 : Co-op Student Placement Mentor for Timmins School Board Program. Have taken on two week to four month assignments working with students from Waterloo and local high schools annually since 1976.
1989 - 1992: Materials Management Representative Responsibilities included specification and design, maintenance and development of Materials Management System and interfaces to related systems using 4th GL Today Language; System runs on a VAX 8500, 6410, 2000 cluster with 150 networked user terminals, featuring real time materials issuing, quotation generation, requisition and purchase order creation, materials receiving, for a multi-site warehouse inventory value of 38 million dollars.
1986 - 1989: End-User Services Coordinator Responsible for 1 End User Support Analyst and 1 Help Desk Operator. Group provided Micro Hardware/Software Support Services for a Five-CPU, multi-site, IBM S/38, DEC 2060, VAX 8550/6310 clustered network, and $1.4 million networked fleet of 350-plus Macintosh and PC Microcomputers using E-Mail, and office productivity software.
Designed/implemented a Multi-Station Hotline Management System, Micro Products Inventory and Support database to manage the micro hardware and software fleet.
Supervised design and publishing of User Guides, Documentation, developed training courses,; trained for over 600 users in various micro products and software, and IBM S/38, DEC2060, and DEC VAX main frame applications.

Personal and Support Group responsibilities and activities:
• Assessed user needs, recommended hardware, software based on interviews,
• Reviewed, recommended, and approved purchase requisitions, allocations, and reassignments of microcomputer products and provided a current inventory of microcomputer units at Kidd Creek.
• Evaluated potentially useful microcomputer hardware and software
• Researched, selected, plan, installed and supported approved Office Automation products and networks within the Kidd environment.
• Hardware/network/software installation, upgrading, user problem determination and resolution

November 1985 - 1986: User Services Supervisor
Reported to the Mgr. of User Svcs at CDC, Toronto. Responsible for Team of:
• 2 computer system trainer/documentation specialists,
• 1 production analyst, and
• 2 co-op student-programmers.
Conducted employment interviews, work planning, salary and performance reviews, employee development program, guidance, discipline and team building.

We provided user support and mainframe application development project support such as:
• Procuring and scheduling of I.S. employee training and development,
• Documentation services for system development/installation teams
• End-user training in mainframe applications,
• Integrated System Testing during Implementation Phase
• Production Control for newly-implemented systems

Other Personal Accomplishments:
• Designed on-line user help system covering system documentation, problem tracking, reporting and resolution
• Designed, implemented IBM S/38 RPG III-based On-line Hardware, Software, Textual Inventory for Information System
• Designed on-line Training Planning and Scheduling system for Information Systems and users for the two-division, four location installation
• Designed training plans, manuals, materials, exercises, and presented multi-media end-user courses such as:
Introduction to Computers,
Intro to Macintosh,
Microsoft Excel,
Multiplan,
Microsoft File,
Microsoft Chart,
Microsoft Word,
Macwrite,
MacDraw,
Macterminal,
Filemaker Pro
Using PC/DOS
LOTUS 123
dBASE III Plus
IBM Query Facility
IBM 5291 Wrkstn Trng
IBM 3180 Wrkstn Trng
Intro to IBM S/38

Introduction to I.S. for New Supervisors


March 1984 - November 1985: Support Coordinator
Reported to the Manager of User Services at CDC Corporate, Toronto Responsible for Information Systems staff training and development, user applications training and documentation as described above.
• Project leader for documentation pilot project, Accounting system user and operations guides. Team consisted of two technical writers, four corporate and divisional computer operations members, one trainer, and user personnel from two development projects.
• Established extensive training programs for 32 corporate and 50 divisional I.S. personnel for the 1984 implementation of IBM S/38 at Toronto and Timmins sites.
• Coordinated courses of study, scheduling, and administered Federal and Provincial training subsidy programs.

July 1982 - March 1984: Project Leader, Payroll System
Team leader for 2 user representatives, 4 programmers, and lead operator. Tailored and installed Cyborg payroll system and in-house interfaces to accounting and materials management systems. Planned and completed conversion from former system, responsible for ongoing system maintenance and support after conversion.

1979 - 1982: Systems Analyst
Developed system requirements and specification for 3000 employee Human Resources/Payroll system including benefits administration, health and safety records. Headed software evaluation project resulting in selection, negotiation of contract terms, and acquisition of Payroll system. Performed analysis and requirements specification of concentrator production statistics reporting system.

1974 - 1979 Operations Supervisor, On-line IBM S/370 135 DOS/Vs
Managed $50-75,000.00 annual operating supplies budget. Responsible for manpower planning, supervision employee evaluations of computer operations, data control, and data entry staff. Created job positions/descriptions as section developed from staff of 8 to 17.


I live In Timmins, Ontario, Canada

Family Profile/Household Tasks, etc.
My daughter and son do their own laundry, maintain their own bedrooms, and help with setting and cleaning the table after meals. Our guests would be expected to do the same.

Social Freedoms
We have no firm rules in regards to actual number of nights out. Our children are involved in several team sports activities which, during the autumn and winter occupy the evening hours anywhere from 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. It is rare that either of them are out later than 10:30 on a school night for other than this reason. On a daily basis, we expect that they would be home on a regular basis shortly after school for meals. Should they be delayed, we would question their activites and their whereabouts. School work is normally completed before other activites may be entertained. Although it is acceptable to be out on school nights for sheduled events, and to be with their friends, we would also be concerned if they were to return later than 9:00 p.m. without valid reason. We allow personal freedom, but within these bounds.

Home and Neighbourhood
We live away from the commercial centre of our community, approximately 3 kilometres from the nearest shopping centre, and 15 kilometres from the business section. Public transportation is available within 400 metres, however much of the time, we drive our children to and from events which they attend. The neighbourhood is quiet, with approximately 60 homes. We have a cross section of young families, families with teenagers, and retirees. Most homes are situated on lots about 20 metres by 40 metres. Our own home is a two story dwelling, with basement. Our first floor consists of a kitchen, dining room, guest bedroom, living room, three piece bathroom, and a bedroom which we use as an office. The second floor holds three good size bedrooms, a common area, and a three piece bathroom. Our Basement area is used for storage, and is sometimes used by our children and their friends when listening to music or playing games.

Way of Living.
Both parents work outside the home. Each weekday morning, we leave before or at the time the children awake. They prepare their own breakfasts most mornings, and prepare their own lunches for the noon meal before taking a school bus to their classes. They usually return home by 5:00 p.m. for a prepared dinner. During dinner, conversation is usually about the daily and upcoming events. The evening activites are devoted to school work, team sports, a favourite television show, and private time. At times they may invite friends to supper and an evening of companionship. Weekends may include a sleep over. Topics of discussion may range current events, personal development, arguments on how each of us views the world, sports, and local issues. Shared activites as a family are restricted to long weekends where we either visit with relatives, or spend the time about the house.


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