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Use it, or Lose it! 10 Ways of Getting the Most SAS Value from my Retirement…

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To me retirement only means not earning a salary from my SAS programming, which will, from now, become a pure hobby. However, to program in SAS AND to be able to get access to all of its components, including Enterprise Guide, batch processing, and the Program Editor, the SAS licence has to be paid for. For me this would amount to paying around GBP 3,000 a year, and so I have drawn up a list of ways that you can contribute to that total, but at the same time benefit from my 40+ years of SAS programming, and 30+ years as an independent SAS consultant, working in the banking, insurance, IT, pharmaceutical, HR and marketing business sectors, and on IBM mainframe, OS/2, VAX, Unix, Windows and Linux.

Any excess income will be used to extend my SAS licence into the following year. I’m planning to use this income from September 2024, so we now have a few months to raise sufficient funds.

137Days remaining 19Hours 25Minutes 25Seconds

The following are grouped into group¹ (for companies or collaborating individuals) and individual² options:

For Companies or Collaborating Individuals¹:

No.1 = 1/2 day SAS training, including digital training materials, for GBP 1,800

No.2 = 1 month of confidential online support with unlimited questions for GBP 720

No.3 = 1 day of remote SAS programming for GBP 600

No.4 = 1 hour of 1-to-1 SAS video discussion for GBP 100

  • Book your hour of SAS video discussion.
  • Video discussions use Jitsi Meet, which is limited to 100 participants.
  • Topics include:
    • Base SAS syntax
    • Base SAS functions
    • Base SAS formats and informats
    • Base SAS procedures
    • Data step merging
    • PROC SQL syntax
    • PROC SQL merging
    • PROC SQL updating
    • Macro introduction
    • Macro syntax
    • Macro variables
    • ODS Graphics introduction
    • ODS Graphics procedures
    • Enterprise Guide introduction
    • SAS/Studio introduction

For Individuals²:

No.5 = 1 confidential remote question for GBP 72

No.6 = 1 ebook copy of course notes to one of my SAS courses from GBP 11

  • My SAS course notes are published as ebooks on Lulu.com, who, unlike Amazon, etc., do not take massive commissions, so I receive most of the published price.
  • See my Book Table for more details.

No.7 = 1 ebook copy of one of my SAS books directly from my blog site for GBP 12.50

  • “Saving Time and Money using SAS” is no longer sold in softback, but you can download the ebook directly from my blog site.
  • See my Book Table for more details.

No.8 = 3 months of subscription to the SAS Programming Forum, including access to my online SAS course collection, for 3 x GBP 5

  • Details of what the SAS Programming Forum is can be found here.
  • See how to subscribe to the SAS Programming Forum, including my online SAS course collection, here.

No.9 = 1 copy of one of my SAS softback books from a reseller from GBP 25

  • Although these options appear to be lower in the list than expected, I receive very little from softback books sold, because I received an advance when they were published.
  • See my Book Table for more details.

No.10 = 1 copy of one of my SAS ebooks from a reseller from GBP 3

  • Although these options appear to be lower in the list than expected, I receive very little from ebooks sold by resellers, because I received an advance when they were published.
  • See my Book Table for more details.

New advice when registering as a blog member

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Remember to use your full personal name, not a business name (unless you’ve asked me first), and a full last name is expected and required to complete registration, not “X Y” where your user information is considered to be hiding your identity. If you supply a name like “X Y” then your profile will be set to Pending, which will be deleted automatically after 1 month if not corrected.

NEW: An activation email will be sent to your registered email address to confirm that it is valid. If you do not receive it within a few minutes, then please contact Philip Holland at phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk, as your email address may not have been accepted, but can be corrected.

It is also recommended that you do not use an email address as, or include your company name in, your user name, because user names cannot be changed, but your email address or company might change in the future!

You can register for Free blog membership here: Join Now Button

Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA in April 2024

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
NetherlandsSAS RCM/IRM consultant permanent positionsSkywaves Rise
USASAS DI developer permanent positionsBECU
EuropePharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
EuropePharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
PhilippinesPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 02May2024 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent37.6%150
2UK23.1%92
3The Americas22.3%89
4Europe10.5%42
5Rest of the World6.5%26

VIEWS News 75 (2024Q1) has been published!

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VIEWS News issue 75 has now been published.

Supporting all Foundation SAS programmers, this newsletter continues to bring you information to make the most of SAS 9. This newsletter issue includes examples of how to make chloropeth maps using ODS Graphics from LeRoy Bessler, and Richard Carson continues his discussion about configuring of SAS processes without editing them in the fifth and penultimate part of a series of articles about KT. As usual I have publicised some more SAS‑related events for the next few months, and I have also added more SAS formats, options and functions that you may, or may not, have come across before, but you might find interesting, and even useful.

Note that LeRoy Bessler and I will be having an Authors Discussion Lunch in Milwaukee on 26Jun2024, or, more accurately, LeRoy and I will be having lunch in Milwaukee, and you are welcome to join us. A link for more details can be found in the Diary section.

If you would like to contribute an article, to re-visit and improve an existing article, or just discuss the possibility of doing so, please feel free to send an email to me at view-uk@hollandnumerics.org.uk or phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk. Publication deadlines are the 14th day of February, May, August and November each year.

To be able to read this and all previous issues you will need to follow these steps:

  1. If you have not already registered on this blog site, go to blog.hollandnumerics.org.uk and register for free membership.
  2. Once successfully registered, click the menu item [Subscriptions for Forums and Features] > [Request access to the VIEWS UK forum] to request free access to the VIEWS UK forum, then add your name and email address to the form before clicking [Send].
  3. On receipt of a request for an existing blog member I will register them for free access to the VIEWS UK forum, and then send them an email to confirm this.
  4. The next time they log onto the blog site they will see VIEWS UK in the forum list, where you will find the latest issue of VIEWS News, forum topics to find the backissues, functions and formats in every published issue, and a tag cloud covering every forum on the site to which you have access, including VIEWS UK and the VIEWS News issues.
  5. They will also be automatically informed of any VIEWS UK updates.

Enjoy!……………..Phil

I am presenting a Hands-on Tutorial at PharmaSUG 2024 (19-22 May 2024) in Baltimore MD

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I am an Instructor at PharmaSUG 2024!

I am presenting a 1-hour Hands-on Tutorial at PharmaSUG 2024 about defensive SAS programming. The tutorial will actually be in 3 parts:

  1. Defensive SAS Programming – how to program, even if you don’t know exactly what the input data will look like.
  2. Writing Reusable Macros – how to write SAS macros that don’t mess up the rest of your code.
  3. Validating ODS Graphics – how to design the data rendered by ODS Graphics, so your QC programmer can validate the data, instead of trying to match your output.

PharmaSUG 2024 will be held from 19-22 May 2024 in the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor, 401 West Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD, USA. I don’t know when I will be presenting yet, but it won’t be on 22 May (the last day of the conference).

I am hoping to have published a new SAS-related book in time for PharmaSUG, which should be available to purchase from me as a paperback or ebook at the conference. It is currently being reviewed.

Finally, and I do mean finally, this will be my last conference representing my company, Holland Numerics Limited, as I will be closing that company at the end of August 2024. After that date I will just be an individual presenter (if anyone really wants me to speak!).

I can also call myself a Presenter at PharmaSUG 2024!

Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA in March 2024

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
NetherlandsSAS RCM/IRM consultant permanent positionsSkywaves Rise
USASAS DI developer permanent positionsBECU
EuropePharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
EuropePharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
PhilippinesPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 04Apr2024 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent37.6%147
2UK23.5%92
3The Americas22.5%88
4Europe10.0%39
5Rest of the World6.4%25

Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA in February 2024

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
USASAS DI developer permanent positionsBECU
EuropePharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
EuropePharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
PhilippinesPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 08Mar2024 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent36.4%139
2UK24.1%92
3The Americas23.0%88
4Europe10.2%39
5Rest of the World6.3%24

If you think I am a Curious Thinker, then please vote for me in the SAS Customer Recognition Awards

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If you think I am a Curious Thinker, then please vote for me in the SAS Customer Recognition Awards. Note that, once you have opened this link, you will need to log in to you SAS Profile to vote by clicking Like! Voting will take place between 22Jan2024 and 02Feb2024. Please do not try to vote after 02Feb2024, as your vote will not be counted.

Here is the link: https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Customer-Recognition-Awards/2024-Customer-Awards-Holland-Numerics-Ltd-Curious-Thinker/cns-p/911492

I first used SAS 79.5 software at the University of London Computer Centre in 1981.

I enjoy helping my clients and encouraging new SAS programmers, but what I still love doing is SAS programming. After over 40 years of SAS programming I can now think in the SAS language, so, if I can sort out a solution to a problem in my head, I am able to write out a rough draft of an entire program!

In 2017 I won the first Lifetime Achievement Award from SAS UK, and my wife congratulated me by saying that it meant that I could retire then. It has taken me 7 years to agree with her, but until then I will still be doing my interim measure of freelance SAS programming!

43 years working with SAS software has been my working lifetime. 43 years working with SAS software has been an achievement, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. The only part I am missing would be an award!? (Maybe?)

Thank you if you do vote for me, and I will forgive you if you do not. 😉

At some point in December 2023 my WordPress Blog Site decided to have an automatic Early Spring Clean!!

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Some time in December 2023 the internal WordPress user list became out-of-sync with the Simple Membership list that is used to control access to paid-for features on the site. It has taken me until now to identify, notify and remove from the Simple Membership list those members that are no longer known to WordPress. The estimated membership loss was 480 from a membership total at the beginning of December 2023 of 856!

The regional breakdown of registered blog members at the beginning of December 2023 was as follows:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent36.9%313
2The Americas22.8%193
3UK19.6%166
4Europe14.2%120
5Rest of the World6.6%56

Now the regional breakdown of registered blog members looks like this:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent35.7%134
2UK24.5%92
3The Americas23.2%87
4Europe10.1%38
5Rest of the World6.4%24

There are a number of reasons why the specific members may have been retained or lost, but I can’t confirm or refute these theories:

  • Only 6 of 480 members lost had registered for VIEWS UK forum access.
  • Most of the retained members regularly visit the site.
  • UK and The Americas have a bigger share of the members, and UK has overtaken The Americas (probably because VIEWS UK access is more prevalent in UK members!).
  • All of the shares of the other regions have decreased.

As a consequence, all new members are automatically given access to the VIEWS UK forum, where the VIEWS newsletter can be found.

Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA in January 2024

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
USASAS DI developer permanent positionsBECU
EuropePharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
EuropePharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
PhilippinesPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
UKSAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
UKGraduate SAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 08Feb2024 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent35.7%134
2UK24.5%92
3The Americas23.2%87
4Europe10.1%38
5Rest of the World6.4%24

VIEWS News 74 (2023Q4) has been published!

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VIEWS News issue 74 has now been published.

Supporting all Foundation SAS programmers, this newsletter continues to bring you information to make the most of SAS 9, which, according to SAS Explore 2023, still has a long life ahead of it. This newsletter issue includes examples of how to make heat maps usable from LeRoy Bessler, I have asked ChatGPT to write another SAS program and Richard Carson continues his discussion about configuring of SAS processes without editing them in the fourth part of a series of articles about KT. As usual I have publicised some more SAS‑related events for the next few months, and I have also added more SAS formats, options and functions that you may, or may not, have come across before, but you might find interesting, and even useful.

If you would like to contribute an article, to re-visit and improve an existing article, or just discuss the possibility of doing so, please feel free to send an email to me at view-uk@hollandnumerics.org.uk or phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk. Publication deadlines are the 14th day of February, May, August and November each year.

To be able to read this and all previous issues you will need to follow these steps:

  1. If you have not already registered on this blog site, go to blog.hollandnumerics.org.uk and register for free membership.
  2. Once successfully registered, click the menu item [Subscriptions for Forums and Features] > [Request access to the VIEWS UK forum] to request free access to the VIEWS UK forum, then add your name and email address to the form before clicking [Send].
  3. On receipt of a request for an existing blog member I will register them for free access to the VIEWS UK forum, and then send them an email to confirm this.
  4. The next time they log onto the blog site they will see VIEWS UK in the forum list, where you will find the latest issue of VIEWS News, forum topics to find the backissues, functions and formats in every published issue, and a tag cloud covering every forum on the site to which you have access, including VIEWS UK and the VIEWS News issues.
  5. They will also be automatically informed of any VIEWS UK updates.

Enjoy!……………..Phil

Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA in December 2023

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
USASAS DI developer permanent positionsBECU
EuropePharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
EuropePharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
PhilippinesPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
UKSAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
UKGraduate SAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 03Jan2024 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent36.9%313
2The Americas22.8%193
3UK19.6%166
4Europe14.2%120
5Rest of the World6.6%56

My SAS courses in LMS now have downloadable certificates

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My SAS courses are made up of sections containing SAS-related topics, with new topics posted over time. The LMS versions of these courses can be accessed using the menu: Forums, Features and Subscriptions > LMS Courses + Certificates (if you are logged in with a Programming membership) or Online SAS course – Home page (to view the topics when you are logged in).

Note that the courses with certificates below are not available to registered members with Free membership, so to upgrade to Programming membership for only GBP 5/month please click here. It is certainly possible to complete all of these courses in a single calendar month while you are a Programming member.

Please feel free to post these certificates on your favourite social media platforms to show that you have completed my SAS courses.

When you click the LMS Courses + Certificates link a new page will open showing the available courses.

If you have not yet started a course, then the page will include [Course Overview] and [START COURSE]. However, when a course has been completed the web page will look like this:

  • Clicking on [Course Overview] will display the topics in the course.
  • Clicking on [VISIT RESULTS] will open the Course Completed web page:
  • This page includes the topics in the course.
  • Clicking on [FIND MORE COURSES] will open the Courses Overview web page.
  • Clicking on [VIEW CERTIFICATE] will open your downloadable certificate in a PDF file like those below:





Free advertising for active recruiters globally! SAS-related Jobs from Recruiters in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA in November 2023

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Looking for a SAS-related job?

There are a number of SAS-related jobs in the SAS Jobs Listing this month in the UK, Europe, India, Philippines and the USA and the links are open to all site visitors:

CountryJobs AdvertisedFrom Company
USASAS DI developer permanent positionsBECU
EuropePharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
EuropePharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical contract positionsClinChoice
UKPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
PhilippinesPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice
UKSAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
UKGraduate SAS consultancy permanent positionsPazikas Group
IndiaPharmaceutical permanent positionsClinChoice

Please use the links in the SAS Jobs Listing to apply for these positions. All recruiters have contact details and links to their web sites on each job post.

Recruiters looking for candidates

I’m always looking for new recruiters to post SAS-related jobs on this site covering India, UK, the Americas (particularly USA), Europe and the Rest of the World.

If you have a regular supply of SAS jobs in any of these regions, then there is a free trial which is open to all recruiters, but with 2 simple rules:

  1. The free trial will be extended by an additional calendar month only when a job is posted, and will expire automatically if no job has been posted in a calendar month.
  2. The posted jobs must be in some way SAS-related.

Please register for Free membership, and then send your jobs to phil@hollandnumerics.org.uk before 06Dec2023 to be included in this post next month! You will be manually upgraded to a Recruiter member if you’ve never taken part in this free trial before.

The current regional breakdown of registered blog members is as follows, but note that the SAS Jobs Listing is open to all site visitors:

PositionRegionPercentage of MembershipMembers
1Indian Sub-continent36.8%312
2The Americas22.8%193
3UK19.6%166
4Europe14.2%120
5Rest of the World6.6%56