If you aren’t familiar with SAS-L, now’s a good time to take a look at it. It’s another information channel where SAS users go to ask and post answers. At SAS Global Forum 2009, SAS-Lers continued its tradition of honoring those who’ve contributed most significantly during the past year.

“There are many ways in the SAS community to ask questions and get help,” said Rhoads. “SAS-L is probably the oldest, but I think it continues to be a very valuable source of interaction and technical discussion. SAS-L: The original social network.

The presentation of SAS-L awards was held during the SAS Global Forum SAS-L BOF Monday, March 23. This year’s MVS (Most Valuable SAS-Ler) winner, data null, was the SAS Global Forum 2008 MVS winner. In accordance with SAS-L rules, data null’s 2009 award was upgraded to SAS-L Hall of Fame. The SASLROY (SAS-L Rookie of the Year) award went to Joe Matise.

For a complete description of the awards, please visit the SAS-L BOF Wiki page.

“We have an online nomination and voting process,” said Mike Rhoads, a SAS-Ler and member of the voluntary planning committee. “Anyone who has contributed to SAS-L throughout the year can go online and vote for the MSV and SAS-L Rookie of the Year. We’d like if they left also some comments in support of their nominee.”

According to Rhoads, he, Larry Hoyle and other SAS-L volunteers manage the voting process, host the SAS-L BOF and post the results online.

Although there are four categories for which a SAS-L member can be nominated, nominations were made to only two categories for SAS Global Forum 2009: MVS and SASLROY.

MVS nominees:
Robin High
Mary Howard
Daniel Nordlund
Michael Raithel
Arthur Tabachneck
Nat Wooding
data_null_

SASLROY nominees:
Scott Bucher
Joe Matise
Akshaya Nathilvar
Ajay Ohri
Karma Tarap