Dear Reader,
With three children under 11 years old, sleeping late hasn't been an option in our household for a decade. But even I was surprised when my alarm clock went off at 4:30 a.m. last Friday. Before the echoes of those irritating beeps had faded, my wife – who will admit she's not much of an early riser – had sprung out of bed, woken our two girls, and had positioned the three of them in front of the TV.

If you haven't figured out by now why most of my family had gotten up before the sun, I'd like to thank you; it means that I am not, in fact, "the only clueless person in the world who didn't realize April 29th was 'The Big Day'." (Yes, that's an actual quote from my youngest.) My wife and daughters had decided to join the almost 3 billion others on the planet who watched Prince William wed the soon-to-be Princess Kate.

My wife has always been fascinated with British royalty and their fairy-tale weddings; I've never gotten it. Didn't we organize a revolution so we didn't have to get up at 4:30 a.m. to watch their royal weddings? I mean a self-inflicted 4:30 a.m. wake-up? Must we?

But when I asked my wife where the dedication came from, she explained it this way: "I feel like I've grown up with the royal family. I was a young girl when Princess Diana married; I followed her life as a young adult; and was saddened by her death. Watching her son get married is just a happy day for me."

OK, that makes sense. In fact, in many ways, the affinity and loyalty my wife feels to this "relationship" is similar to what I saw on display at last month's SAS Global Forum. SAS users, especially longtime users, are so appreciative of the relationships they've developed with SAS over the years. They love sharing how the software has "changed their lives" – and for a service organization like SAS Education, it's particularly rewarding to hear their stories.

Let me give you an example. While staffing a booth in the Demo hall, I had a conversation with a gentleman who, after taking our SAS Programing 3 course, was able to write a SAS program to map out customer relationship through account affiliation for his organization. The program, he explained, ran in only three hours, and with better results than they'd ever gotten before. To me, three hours seemed like a long time – until he told me that the SAS program replaced a manual process that usually took around 720 hours. The conversation actually ended with a hug – yes, a hug.

In this month's issue of SAS Training Report, we're confident we'll further cement our relationship by offering an insightful recap of SAS Global Forum; introduce you to a couple of new classes; and share a few tips, tricks and blogs that will help you become a better SAS user.

And best of all: No 4:30 a.m. wake-up call.

Thanks for reading,
Larry LaRusso
Editor, SAS Training Report