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MECC - Munich Electronic & Computer
Consultants
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Purpose
To discuss matters of common interest: fiscal, technical,
professional, job opportunities etc, among Computer &
Electronic Engineers/Developers/Technical Freelance
Consultants etc.
MECC Is For
Munich Computer & Electronics Contractors/Consultant
Developers etc, but we also welcome employee engineers whose
interest in the industry &/or business continues to
remain strong after five o'clock 
MECC Is Not For
Engineers whose interest in technology turns off at five
o'clock, end users, random girl friends, boyfriends,
husbands, wives, relatives, drinking/sports friends etc.
Diluting MECC with non MECC-qualified people would damage the
purpose of MECC. There are plenty of better groups for
general socialising, EG GEA.)
Language / Sprache
- English / German ? No German translation of this
page exists. The language of the computer & electronics
industries is English. If you can't listen in English, you
will have serious problems conversing at the Stammtisch, but you can readily reply in
German, & sometimes we discuss things in German too. We
are engineers, not linguists, interested in exchanging
technical (& financial) ideas. Grammatical mistakes are
of minor importance. Please do not let grammar difficulties
deter you from coming along, it's your technical ideas &
a decent technical vocabulary that counts.
- Deutsch / English ? Obwohl ich schreibe meine
Posts in English, Deutsche Sprache ist auch OK, mindestens
teilweise, (aber, nicht zu vergessen dass die Industrie
Sprache ist English). MECC is a forum for Munich Electronics
& Computer Contractors/Consultants, English/Deutsch
Grammatik ist, einen relativ unwichtig neben sache also Schau vorbei, &
kein groesse Angst fuer die Grammatik !
Intro
- Stop press. [Many now work out of town, Or too
lethargic ? Or desperately working all the hours the customer
will pay for ;-) So ] We will now meet 4 times a
year, (unless Email List says
otherwise), so mark your diary & come on: Tuesday: Feb
12, May 13th, Aug 12th, Nov 11th 2008; venue will be
announced on Email List.
- Advance reminder of monthly meetings
is sent by email.
- Web page is at http://berklix.com/~jhs/mecc/
- We have no membership fees, assets, formal procedures
etc.
- We are not an "Eingetragene Verein"
- We do not campaign for something or other, etc.
- Started by Julian
Stacey & Martin Collins . First meeting Thursday 26th
November 1998, Kapuziner Platz 5
- No Annual Or Other Membership Charge.
- Got lots of of time consuming questions before you come
to Germany ? Don't mail us, you'll get a quicker answer to
contractor-in-germany questions here
We meet monthly for a beer & /or
meal in Gaststattes & beer gardens.
Location(s)
- Best phone Julian or Gary J to check who
is coming, the venue's still on etc !
- We tend to use Restaurant with a
No Smoking area (The author is tobacco
allergic, & other regular MECC attenders also dislike
smoke.
-
SUMMER
Our fine weather &/or summer default (unless
otherwise announced on Email List)
is Paulaner
Beergarden @ Kapuziner Plz Kapuzinerplatz 5, 80337
Munich. Tel 544611.0
In suddenly bad weather - look
for us inside the Paulaner Bräus building, in summer
/ warm weather - look
for us in the self service part of the beer garden
adjacent, run by the same management.
Kapuziner
Directions etc : Paulaner Brauhaus, Kapuzinerplatz 5,
80337. Line map http://berklix.com/jhs/gifs/kapuziner.gif
U Bahn 3 & 6, Goethe Platz. 1 block South East on
Kapuziner Str, or South on Haberl Str, merging at
Kapuziner Str, Then half a block South East on Kapuziner
Str, & left into beer garden.
If bad weather, then inside, (one can take stuff in, if
weather degrades). In middle room which is non smoking,
towards back, further from smoking areas..
-
WINTER
Our winter cold weather default in months when
beergardens are impossible
: http://www.weisses-brauhaus.de/
Before 2008.010.01: Upstairs the whole place is non
smoking. Hopefully somewhere away from stairs as smoke
drifts up.
After 2008.01.01 new Bavarian non smoking law: Still
upstairs, as downstairs, the chloroform & nicotine
etc will still be in walls & soft furnishings,
returning to the air, & may be crowded, noisier, more
tourists etc.
- Yes we're still meeting in 2008 (though this page doesn't
get updated that often to indicate it).
- Those who will go, feel no need to commit to to not
changing location &/or cancelling without notice, if/
when no one else bothers to say they'll join us. So do mail a
quick "I'll come" to our Email
List.
- By default: Second Tuesday in each month, 19:30
(Moved from last Wednesday , as
contractors busy getting hours in later in month).
-
Here's a calendar reminder entry for Unix computers:
$HOME/calendar or ~/.calendar/calendar
* Tues+1 Advance Warning: MECC next Tuesday.
* Tues+2 MECC, Second Tuesday in month.
crontab -e
# /var/cron/tabs/my_name managed via crontab -e
# Min Hour DayInMth Mth DayInWk Command (1=Mon,7=Sun)
0 0 * * * calendar
(older Unix systems do not support "-2" syntax, Ref. man calendar)
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The date will normally be confirmed on the Email List a few days before, if any important
dates collide with the default, please send a warning to
the Email List, where alternate dates
can be discussed, subject to:
- Needing 4/5 day's notice, to allow receipt of
warning, agreement of new date, post of new date, receipt
by those away incommunicado on business, so that no one
turns up to a cancelled Stammtisch.
- Julian is
totally un-interested & unaware of football matches,
so do not rely on him avoiding date clashes, clashes Will
occur unless you inform him to arrange an alternate
date.
- To enhance your evening, why not phone a MECC
oriented friend & ask them too ?
-
If you expect to be there, please help our seat
reservation by phoning one of us, or emailing both:
Phone numbers & email addresses for Julian & Martin
available on request.
- Occasionally someone phones round
reminding/recruiting people to latest Stammtisch ,
anyone is more than welcome to do this, if you want
to make your phone number available to other MECC
people, put it in the comment field of your
subscribed email address via
majordomo@berklix.NON_SPAMMERS_ERASE_THIS.org
Whoever phones round could tell Martin or I their
seat sub-total, to save individual calls.
-
Other Resources
-
`Dead Beat Customers' ie Suspect you
customer may not be Zahlungsfaehig ? (& remember that
doesn't necessarily mean they wont pay anything, they may
just bugger around & pay late, after 3rd reminder or
court summons, or they may make spurious accusations the
work wasn't good enough, any excuse to try to wangle a
discount or delay payment, or justify delaying the already
overdue payment longer, etc. Some customers are golden,
& pay properly on time for work done, a few other
customers are occasionally best summarised in harsh 4
letter angle Saxon. Stay in business long enough &
you'll meet both ends of the spectrum.
Translators have the same worries too. Here's URLs from a
publication aimed for them, not us:
-
News groups of possible interest include:
- muc.markt.arbeit Munich
- misc.jobs.contract Loads of mainly USA
- de.etc.beruf.selbstaendig Much general discussion
in German about local laws, taxes,
promoting business, etc
- Berufsverband
Selbstaendiger in der Informatik e.V. Elbestr 51, 48145
Muenster.
- http://www.expatengineer.net
- VSI verband der
Softwareindustrie Deutschlands e.V. Seitzstr 17 80538
Muenchen
- DMMV Deutscher Multimedia Verband e.V. Osterwaldstr,
80805 Muenchen. I find no working URLs - jhs 4.2005
- Gesellschaft fuer Systems
Engineering Die GfSE ist der deutsche Zweig des
International Council on Systems Engineering ( INCOSE , dem Internationalen
Fachverband fuer Systems Engineering mit ueber 4000
Mitgliedern weltweit.
- Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer
Luft- und Raumfahrt
- http://www.cray-cyber.org -
Access to historical supercomputers - Munich base.
Magazine
There's a magazine called Freiberufler info we're not
associated in any way, but it may be of interest to people
looking for jobs. Martin plans to ask them for a free entry
in their list of Stammtisch Venues (& if they don't have
a list, to start one).
- I believe resumes should be in reverse chronological
order, Here's my
reasons.
- You'll doubtless have your own resume already, if you
want to look at mine for interest, welcome.
- More questions ? Don't mail me I'm busy, time is money !
Come join us at the monthly - Stammtisch & ask over a beer, & get
multiple opinions, not just mine.
Alle Angaben Ohne Gewaehr ie Don't Blame Me! These agents
may be good, bad, or indifferent.
Do come to our Stammtisch & tell us if you have
particularly good or bad experience with any, & then
send me a follow up email to confirm
name of company for praise or deletion. Some of these are
just companies who asked to be mentioned. At a single
complaint from MECC members, I'll remove bad agents, being
listed does not mean they're necessarily good, just
unknown.
Worst Agents, Non/ Late/ Under/ Arguing etc bad
customers.
Of course there are some, We don't discuss the latest
rotten scenarios in public forums, (may be contentious,
possibility of litigation, & too time consuming to
maintain a web page), (nor does this author have time or
interest to answer mail about it, so don't ask, come to our
Stammtisch to discuss such & other stuff there.)
Worst Agents - Criteria
Clearly some agents are better than others, multiple
criteria to judge by, (eg Worst rates, bad payment
timescales, too intrusive, evil `screw you 25K Euro without
authorisation by independent arbiter, eg Judge' clauses,
etc ) but it might be possible to split the above "Random
Job Agents" into "Reccomended" & "Not Reccomended" or
similar. To that end, nominations for worst agents are
possible, present them at stammtisch or to author. Primary
criteria: worst rates per hour, worst payment delays but
perhaps other criteria too. For each agent name in "Worst"
category we could merely set a table record with 2 items
being pointer without comment to contractor's own web page
in which you explain your nomination, & a 2nd item
being for pointer to a rebuttal page from agency if sent.
No inclusion of 3rd party text, that'd be your
responsibility to maintain & publish on your page, be
you contractor or agent. But yes, there are rogue agents,
rogue contractors, & rogue customers, I've seen 'em
all, though few readily discuss or admit all exist.
Low Rates
A frequently heard quote from an agent:
"As we work on a fixed percentage of the rate it is
not in our interest to artificially drive the rate
down."
Not True! Newbies might believe this, but it's not in the
interests of experienced contractors to let this go
uncorrected. Agents generally push Down market prices (from
customers as well as to contractors). Why:
-
Turnover is the motivator. If an agent works on fixed
commission, there's some reason to keep individual
prices up, but a bigger reason for individual agents to
drive rates down: much increased sales volume for
individual agents achieved at some reduction in price
per consultant sold.
(Same as in selling houses: Consider if an
owner sells a house worth eg 200K: If there are 3
agents, the first agent to persuade owner to sell
under market rate at 170K gains 3% of 170K. The
seller loses 97% of 30K. The agent who sought fair
market price of 200K for seller loses totaly, 3% of
200K. Agent who pushed market price down wins
repeatedly in short to medium term; albeit they
depress the market, but with the hight turnover rate
of job agencies, & people within agencies, long
term maintenance of market rates is not worried
about. )
- Some agents work in tandem: eg a UK agent recruits
for a Munich agent for a Munich job. Both are reluctant
to accept a halved normal commission, so raise the total
commission prior to splitting, by further reducing
contractor's hourly rate from what customer is prepared
to pay; it can sometimes still be worth it though.
- Some contractors do benefit from agents (no, not all
contractors use agents (eg this author does not
trust most agents & works direct). Some agents can
get a noticeably higher rate from a customer than a
contractor could, negotiating direct. Few agents can
achieve a willingness from a customer to pay an hourly
rate for a contractor, that more than exceeds the lost
commission, negotiating direct, so again, the agent needs
to force down rates.
The worst agencies & customers offering the lowest
rates, create 3 rods for their own back:
- They will recruit a combination of the worst &
most desperate contractors.
- The new recruited contractors will be the first to
go, with least compunction, when, realising how severely
underpaid & ripped off they are, they abandon ship
for the first of many jobs available at less than extreme
rip off rates.
- Same recruiting costs per head for agents, per less
month's commission earned.
- Higher percentage induction/ lost time costs while
newer contractor settles in, before he sooner leaves
& dumps badly paying customer.
If you want to know what a low rate is, don't trust many
agents who will say "This is a good rate", some will be
truthful, & many not, often enough it'll be a poor
rate. Ask your fellow contractors at the Stammtisch for
their opinion. (Don't ask this author by mail though he
doesn't have time to answer)
A Few Big Local Companies
Some companies with a presence local to Munich are marked here
Professional &/or Industry groups we know of in the
Munich area
- Faraday
Group (local arm of UK IEE (Institution of Electrical
Engineers))
-
- Maybe the BCS, British Computer Society might
have local representation ? Anyone know ?
- The RAS, Royal [Astronautical ?] Society has a branch
here
- BIM: Berkeley In
Munich: A BSD-Unix group is being created in
Munich.
- Are there perhaps also German speaking groups with
similarly informal aims ? If so please let Julian know, so he can
update this page.
Here's a simple line drawing (click on map for
larger).
(sure a `real' map would be nicer, but all maps I've seen
are copyright. There's various web map services available,
Here's a
list.
As all above is in English, to help balance, here's a couple of jokes, one in in German, &
one at expense of contractors.
P lease do not email the author of this page, asking for job
agency phone numbers etc, as he is far too busy, doesn't
normally use agents, & needs his time left un-consumed,
to find his own work, direct ! Instead look above.
Author can be contacted here.
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