While I understand the response to the concerns about travel budgets - as a state employee, few have felt the tightening of travel budgets more than I - I wonder if this is a short-sighted reaction to a temporary condition. As the economy slowly starts to improve, many employers, even mine, are starting to release travel funds again. And after years of freezes on training budgets, they are finding that there is a huge backlog of unmet needs that they are now trying to meet. Cutting a significant training opportunity during this may be bad timing.

I am also concerned about the implication that the cuts in RUGs will result in growth of LUG budgets. While there has been a slight increase in offering for LUGs, as a LUG leader I face a much more significant cut in resources if my RUG were to disappear. Many regionals offer grants and other support to keep the LUGs afloat. If the RUGs disappear, will SAS make up the difference. Everything I've seen so far indicates no.