Search results matching tags 'PASS' and 'PASS Community'

PASS Elections 2011 Update: Board Voting Closes Tomorrow!

andyleonard — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:48:00 GMT

Introduction

I am following the PASS Board Elections 2011 process, blogging about the people and events. You can find a list of all my posts on the topic here.

Board Elections Update

According to the schedule, Board elections remain open until tomorrow, 20 Dec 2011. Election results are scheduled to be announced 28 Dec 2011. Check out the PASS Elections 2011 portal for more information.

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PASS Elections 2011 Update: Board Voting is Now Open!

andyleonard — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Introduction

I am following the PASS Board Elections 2011 process, blogging about the people and events. You can find a list of all my posts on the topic here.

Board Elections

According to the schedule, Board elections opened yesterday and remain open until 20 Dec 2011. Check out the PASS Elections 2011 portal for more information.

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2011 PASS Board Applicants: Adam Jorgensen

andyleonard — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Introduction

I am interviewing 2011 PASS Board Nominee Applicants. As listed on the PASS Board Elections site the applicants are:

Rob Farley
Geoff Hiten
Adam Jorgensen
Denise McInerney
Sri Sridharan
Kendal Van Dyke

I'm asking everyone the same questions and blogging the responses in the order received.

Adam Jorgensen is next up:

Interview With Adam Jorgensen

1. What's your day job?

I am currently the President of Pragmatic Works Consulting (http://www.pragmaticworks.com). I also participate with our non-profit foundation that provides free training and placement services for under and unemployed folks in the Jacksonville area. My role includes strategic and technical oversight of our specialized services division. I’m responsible for technical and managerial rollup for our team and their efforts. I also lead our internal core team of experts to make sure that we are constantly scaling to meet the demands of an increasingly complex SQL Server and SharePoint ecosystem for our clients and the community.

2. What motivated you to run for the PASS Board of Directors?

(Apologize in advance I know this is longer than the other candidates responses)

I believe that PASS is a business whose clients are the community members and the product is the community they create, offer and manage. One of the topics in my board interview was the concept of business vs. community and with a 5-6 million dollar budget; PASS is no doubt a business. Without full non-profit status it is even more important that the business part of the organization is managed efficiently. PASS needs folks who are accustomed to managing rapid change. I feel that I’m one of those individuals and can add more value in this critical time due to my unique background and experience.

That being said, since PASS is not in business to make huge profits, they have a unique opportunity to give back to those who need them the most. PASS has strategic alliances they are not leveraging well. One example is:

Pragmatic Works, with our limited reach, can drive over 600-1000 attendees to webinars every Tuesday and Thursday, but the virtual chapters drive very low attendance (often less than 20 people). We have made sure that our days don’t conflict with these events to the best of our ability. These are the same speakers and topics so why are they not coming? I co-chair the BI Virtual Chapter and cannot speak highly enough of Amy Lewis who ran the chapter by herself and has poured her heart into it, only to see lackluster attendance. Microsoft could lend great speakers to these events without much effort, so why isn’t this happening? I know they are willing to do it in my conversations with folks at MS who are engaged with PASS.

I also believe that PASS is growing very fast, and while this is exciting, being a volunteer run organization, this will be even more difficult to manage. I help lead a company that has gone from 3 to 80+ employees in 3 years and I can tell you growth is fun but scary and needs to be managed. There are many things that PASS wishes to do include international expansion, improving chapter participation, expanding Summit and rally offerings and more! These are all great goals but need to be carefully controlled both from a planning and fiscal perspective. Clear goals need to be set and if not accomplished then perhaps that goal needs to be set-aside for something more feasible. The recent gains in transparency will help us do this.

International Growth

Much of the concern over international expansion is in paying for it and getting the right people engaged so they can really get something going in a new region for PASS. The real issue here is there already are many exciting things going on and folks may not want to be a part of PASS if we don’t have a good message for them. We need to take an approach that can be carefully controlled and where we can measure success. Initially I would recommend something like this.

1. Leverage the success of the competition for SQL Rally 2012 and have interested regions compete for a 2 year funding and mentoring package.

2. This accomplishes a fixed investment (controlled) and an experienced committee of folks who have great success in the US to help the leadership in that region drive success. (managed)

3. Their goal should be defining success as an event such as a regional summit that would drive revenue to help fund the local organization for the following year. Then PASS can step down funding and step up funding in another area.

For international expansion it’s critical to get those regions generating enough revenue and on a sustainable model through events to cover their needs in a set amount of time or PASS will not be successful in the expansion.

Get better at serving the community at large and thereby increase PASS membership and exposure

There is no doubt there are exciting opportunities for PASS abroad, but we have huge challenges and opportunities here in the US. While our market segments are growing, the economy continues to struggle and folks who have been out of work for any period of time find it incredibly difficult to get placed without references. One of the greatest ideas I have heard came from Julie Smith, and Atlanta based SQL consultant (@JulieChix) when she asked me why PASS could not expand on the concept of what we do with our foundation and provide real world projects that folks could work on, get a reference and perhaps offer some training guidance and tracks to get folks quickly ramped up on new technology. We could partner with national staffing firms and supply top candidates that they could now confidently promote with recent experience.

Those are the folks you will never see at the summit, they don’t have new laptops to run the fancy demos we push out for them to download and are often looked over in our hubris about how awesome we are as a community.

PASS is perfectly positioned to meet these people at their point of need and provide solutions to these challenges. Not all will take advantage but I have volunteers lined up to begin getting this together. This is incredibly exciting and a tremendous idea! Another great contribution example from an outstanding PASS member.

What is PASS?

I have watched current PASS BOD and committee members struggle to articulate the PASS mission and what we do as an organization in a concise way. This is especially important when someone says “What does PASS do for me?” This tells me the focus is not clear. When asked to describe what your organization does, if it takes longer than 15 -20 seconds It’s not a clear message. This is indicative of a lack of consensus on tactical vision.

Where’s Waldo (Waldo=PASS) PASS <> Relevance

I have felt passionate about the above things for a while now but what put me over the edge to run was an experience I had recently at the SQL Saturday in Orlando. I was fortunate enough to run the PASS table with Bonnie Allard (Chapter Leader for Space Coast User Group) and I was dumbfounded that most of the folks passing through the main area where we were positioned had no idea who PASS was, that their user group was PASS affiliated or that PASS was involved with SQL Saturday. There are two user groups in Orlando (MagicPASS and OPASS) That tells me that PASS is lacking relevance in today’s data professional’s life.

I asked around and many folks agreed. As I’m writing this I am sitting in a training session in Redmond for National Partners on Denali content with a room full of the best and brightest from major SQL and SharePoint integrators. When asked how many had heard the announcements from PASS Summit or attended the Summit I was the only one out of 60 that raised my hand. This is very telling. None of these major contributors are invested in PASS. We’re missing the boat by not adding and showing existing relevance to the day-to-day lives as a community service.

Social Media

The advent of Twitter, and hundreds of awesome niche social media apps require us to rethink the way we view community. The SQL community now has it’s own 24 hour news cycle and we’re still a little too much like Ron Burgundy (Please tell me you’ve see Anchorman, the movie). This needs more direct focus and not just hashtags. PASS should have a clear and ever growing social media strategy. How do we handle social media at events, how do we recommend/provide solutions to smaller events to leverage social media. How do we keep in touch with the community over social media?

All of these items, while they do cross over these interview questions, are critical to why I feel it’s time to have my voice heard on the board. I want to cut through delays and help the board become more tactical, focusing on what’s most important.

3. What is PASS's largest challenge right now?

The largest challenge is managing growth, message and the community. Choosing investments and not overcommitting is critical. I mentioned more about this above, but there is tremendous opportunity for a great expansion and tremendous potential to get 75% of everything instead of several key wins if it is not executed correctly.

4. What is PASS's greatest opportunity right now?

The greatest asset PASS has is the people at its disposal. Volunteers, Microsoft folks, community experts, user group leaders, and corporate sponsors are all invested in PASS. This strength is not being leveraged to help those who are not in this group or outside of PASS. The only way to grow the summit and other revenue generating events is to get more people in the cycle who would love to get interaction at this level. This includes adding folks internationally, but also focusing on those in the US who would love to participate if they could only get a job first. We need to help those who are willing to work to get ahead!

Process:

1. Grow community through investments in helping others

2. Those folks add value to events

3. Events value can be applied to more of #1 J.

4. Additional value can be applied to international relationships.

5. Complete this sentence: "If I only get one new thing accomplished while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

… put structures and tactical approaches in place to make sure PASS’ message is clear, our approach is consistent and we are reaching others outside our normal scope of influence. That includes new folks that we work to bring into the PASS community and international expansion for adding value to already exciting SQL communities around the world.

6. Complete this sentence: "If I only get to change one existing thing about PASS while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

.. put more focus on setting clear goals, communicating them clearly and reporting on progress. I want to set goals that will make PASS more relevant since it’s obvious to me that many folks in our industry are not engaged because they don’t see the value. We can offer that value and improve the quality of the offerings we have now. It takes prioritization and focus.

7. Share something interesting about yourself!

I am a VERY avid watersport guy. I’m a big scuba diver(technically I’m a big anything J.. ) I have travelled all over the world to work, dive and sightsee and enjoy aspects of many cultures. SQL has been a passion of mine for over a decade, but the real excitement is in seeing it add so much value to firms with even minor investments.

I am blessed to have a wonderful fiancé (wedding is August 2012 so everyone keep your eye out for the invites). I am blessed to have good friends and a wonderful family including my two kids (ladybird and Mac, my 3 year old chocolate lab and my new 14 week old golden retriever). Please DM me (@Adam_Jorgensen) for questions about my candidacy and check out the election forums on the PASS election website at SQLPASS.org

Special thanks to Andy Leonard for doing thisinterview process. It helps all of us articulate our goals and vision.

2011 PASS Board Applicants: Kendal Van Dyke

andyleonard — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Introduction

I am interviewing 2011 PASS Board Nominee Applicants. As listed on the PASS Board Elections site the applicants are:

Rob Farley
Geoff Hiten
Adam Jorgensen
Denise McInerney
Sri Sridharan
Kendal Van Dyke

I'm asking everyone the same questions and blogging the responses in the order received.

Kendal Van Dyke is next up:

Interview With Kendal Van Dyke

1. What's your day job?

I'm a Senior Technical Consultant with Insource Technologies (http://www.insource.com/) in Houston, TX (but I work from my home office in Orlando). The title is a formality though - essentially I'm a production DBA. I help Insource's clients with installations, HA & DR assessments and implementations, performance evaluations, and anything else that will help keep their SQL Servers healthy and our clients happy.

My other job is as chapter leader for MagicPASS (http://magicpass.sqlpass.org/), the PASS chapter for south Orlando.

2. What motivated you to run for the PASS Board of Directors?

I answered that in this blog post http://www.kendalvandyke.com/2011/11/why-i-running-for-pass-board-of.html but here's the section that's most relevant to this question:

Going back about six years ago, I had no idea who or what PASS was except that their logo was on the SQL 2005 system views poster from SQL Server Magazine. In 2006 I moved to Orlando and a coworker introduced me to Andy Warren (Blog |Twitter). That introduction opened the door to start attending OPASS, speaking, and blogging. Between then and now I went from being a consumer - your everyday average DBA who gets the job done - to being a contributor by speaking at SQLSaturdays, User Groups, and the PASS Summit, starting a User Group (MagicPASS), helping plan a brand new conference (SQLRally) bearing the PASS brand, and most recently was recognized as a Microsoft MVP.

Along the way I've had the chance to open doors for people in the same way that Andy opened the door for me. There is an incredible sense of pride and fulfillment in seeing the same spark ignite in someone the way it did for me. PASS has been an enabler for me to get where I am today and I feel like I'm ready to pay it forward by helping to give as many other people those same opportunities as I can. So with that in mind I'm running to help carry the torch forward - to help PASS do what it does even better.

3. What is PASS's largest challenge right now?

PASS is experiencing rapid growth in many areas: membership, conference attendance, new chapters, number of speakers, and expectations. At the same time there is a publicly recognized effort to expand globally. Growing is hard because no matter how much you may not want to you must change how you do things and that change can be simultaneously exciting and painful. There's also an element of risk in growth; too slow and you don't gain or build on any existing momentum, too fast and you risk burning out both people and resources.

The challenge for PASS is to manage it's growth at a pace best benefits everybody in the organization - members, sponsors, speakers, etc. I've personally been through it at three companies and it's not easy.

4. What is PASS's greatest opportunity right now?

I believe the potential for growth is also PASS's greatest opportunity. Thanks to SQLSaturday and social media like Twitter more people than ever are discovering the value in participating in PASS in some capacity. I routinely meet other database professionals who aren't aware that there's a user group nearby or, like me not too long ago, who PASS is. PASS could easily double its membership base in the US alone if we can figure out how to reach out to more people and convince them there's value in becoming a member.

5. Complete this sentence: "If I only get one new thing accomplished while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

...establish a speaker bureau. With so many people who want to speak and so many events to participate we need a good tool to keep track of it all. It's long overdue.

6. Complete this sentence: "If I only get to change one existing thing about PASS while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

This question makes me feel like I should be searching for something that needs to be fixed, but in reality I'm pretty happy with the direction that PASS is headed and I honestly can't think of any glaring issues that I want to make it my mission to tackle. The organization has momentum and I'm looking to build on it, not change it.

7. Share something interesting about yourself!

Something PASS related - I'm one of a handful of people who can say they were at both the first ever SQLSaturday and SQLRally.

Something personal - I had my pilot's license before I had a driver's license. It was fun to tell people that I could take them up for a flight but I needed a ride to the airport first.

2011 PASS Board Applicants: Denise McInerney

andyleonard — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Introduction

I am interviewing 2011 PASS Board Nominee Applicants. As listed on the PASS Board Elections site the applicants are:

Rob Farley
Geoff Hiten
Adam Jorgensen
Denise McInerney
Sri Sridharan
Kendal Van Dyke

I'm asking everyone the same questions and blogging the responses in the order received.

Denise McInerney is next up:

Interview With Denise McInerney

1. What's your day job?

I'm a development DBA at Intuit. Intuit provides financial software and services to small business and consumers. Some of our best known products are QuickBooks and TurboTax. I manage the databases that support one of the company's eCommerce web properties. My primary responsibilities are database design, T-SQL coding and query tuning.

2. What motivated you to run for the PASS Board of Directors?

I've been a volunteer for years. I served on the Program Committee for four years, I got involved with the Women in Technology luncheon in 2004 and led the founding of the WIT chapter a couple of years later. I've spoken at user group meetings, SQL Saturdays and the Summit. I've served on the nominations committee. Through all this I've come to understand the organization, both its strengths and challenges.

I'm running because I have more to contribute. I think my extensive PASS experience combined with my leadership skills and ability to see the "big picture" put me in a strong position serve the membership well as a Director.

3. What is PASS's largest challenge right now?

PASS has seen a lot of growth and expansion of events and activities in recent years. The addition of SQL Rally, a bigger Summit, the big growth of SQL Saturday and adding local chapters are all good things that advance PASS' core mission. I think the challenge for the Board is to manage this growth so that it is sustainable. We need to make smart choices about where PASS' time and money are allocated so we can continue to provide our members with the high-quality events they expect.

4. What is PASS's greatest opportunity right now?

PASS has a remarkable pool of dedicated, talented and energized volunteers. Volunteers have always been they key to the success of the organization. There is an opportunity to give our volunteer leaders more space to drive execution in their given area. If we do this well we will accomplish more and grow a broader layer of leadership in PASS.

5. Complete this sentence: "If I only get one new thing accomplished while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

I have several ideas, but if I had to pick one right now I'd say: "increase PASS' outreach to college students." I'm not sure what form this would take. Maybe it would be resurrecting the scholarship program, or marketing to university students in the Summit host city, or offering a special Summit registration rate for students. I think there is an opportunity for PASS to establish itself with the next generation of data professionals.

In a few days I will be attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. A significant number of attendees at that conference are university students. I'm very interested to learn more about what the event offers them.

6. Complete this sentence: "If I only get to change one existing thing about PASS while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

Increase the empowerment of volunteer committees and drive the focus of the Directors toward strategy and long-term planning.

7. Share something interesting about yourself!

One of my interests outside of work and PASS is dogs. We have a rescue dog who came to us with some issues. Through working with him I've learned a lot about dog training, especially positive reinforcement methods. He's improved so much that now we compete in a sport called "Rally", which is a type of obedience work. It's fun to compete and get to know other handlers and their dogs. And it's been very rewarding to see a dog that had been written off become a well-trained and happy dog.

2011 PASS Board Applicants: Geoff Hiten

andyleonard — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Introduction

I am interviewing 2011 PASS Board Nominee Applicants. As listed on the PASS Board Elections site the applicants are:

Rob Farley
Geoff Hiten
Adam Jorgensen
Denise McInerney
Sri Sridharan
Kendal Van Dyke

I'm asking everyone the same questions and blogging the responses in the order received.

Geoff Hiten is next up:

Interview With Geoff Hiten

1. What's your day job?

I am a Principal Consultant for Intellinet, a business technology consulting company based in Atlanta. I work in our Infrastructure practice and specialize in SQL and Virtualization (not necessarily together). I live in Johns Creek, Georgia (the state, not the country) just outside of Atlanta. I like being a consultant because I can see the impact of what I do, not just technically, but for the people I work with. Fixing tough problems not only helps businesses but can seriously improve the quality of life of folks who are no longer spending too many work hours limping along with broken systems.

2. What motivated you to run for the PASS Board of Directors?

I am running for a full term on the PASS Board after serving an interim (one year) term. Last year I ran because I wanted to make the field more competitive and give the community multiple choices for each open seat. If elected I want the PASS Board to remember to serve the “lone dba” who is out there with little support and lots of responsibility. MVPs can take care of ourselves, it is the guy who shows up to the User Group or Virtual Chapter meeting to maybe learn more so he doesn’t have to work 70 hours a week or to find a better position that needs our support. As anyone who has met me in person knows, I am also prone to ask tough, fundamental questions. I want to be sure that our efforts are focused on providing the best SQL educational and community experience possible, whether that be Summit, local chapters or any other PASS event.

3. What is PASS's largest challenge right now?

After a year of seeing things from the inside, I have to say that PASS’s biggest challenge is to adapt its board structure from “Hero startup” to “Operational continuity” mode. The current portfolio-based system means each director has to reinvent a lot of process and structure as they ramp up into their role. We are currently discussing (at length…) a different structure based on standing committees rather than individual portfolios. This would reduce the impact a director transition causes. We are also vulnerable to a director “going dark” for short or long terms. We are all volunteers with day jobs and families that sometimes preempt our PASS volunteer time. Again, a different structure mitigates that risk by pre-staging someone to hand off responsibilities to when necessary. Sounds terribly boring and probably is, but we are no longer a startup but an ongoing concern that needs an appropriate strategic leadership structure.

4. What is PASS's greatest opportunity right now?

PASS’s greatest challenge is its greatest strength; the army of volunteers that makes our community and events so great. Helping, coordinating, encouraging and growing this group is the key to PASS’s future. Without this group, we have no national event, no user groups, no SQLSaturdays, no PASS. My personal challenge as a Director is to live up to the work and passion that all the volunteers put into the organization and be a good steward of our volunteer resources at PASS.

5. Complete this sentence: "If I only get one new thing accomplished while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

… convince Andy Leonard to run for the Board. Actually, that is a specific case of my general answer, which is to find more ways to leverage our volunteers’ efforts to better serve the SQL Server community as a whole. This last year has shown me just how our volunteer group, both at local and national levels, makes the SQL PASS organization unique. No other technical community has what we do and it is the volunteers that make it that way. Using volunteers wisely, finding and encouraging new volunteers, and growing volunteers into future PASS leaders is our biggest challenge.

6. Complete this sentence: "If I only get to change one existing thing about PASS while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

…transform PASS Director portfolios to a more appropriate managing structure where PASSHQ, Directors and Volunteers work together to achieve our strategic goals. We have a great model for this in our Program Committee. Let’s take that model and apply it to the whole organization. Management structure transformation isn’t as much fun as Summit or SQLSaturday, nor as interesting as “where do we hold the Summit?, but I believe it is necessary for PASS to continue to grow and thrive.

2011 PASS Board Applicants: Sri Sridharan

andyleonard — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Introduction

I am interviewing 2011 PASS Board Nominee Applicants. As listed on the PASS Board Elections site the applicants are:

Rob Farley
Geoff Hiten
Adam Jorgensen
Denise McInerney
Sri Sridharan
Kendal Van Dyke

I'm asking everyone the same questions and blogging the responses in the order received.

Sri Sridharan is next up:

Interview With Sri Sridharan

1. What's your day job?

I work for VHA as a Data Architect. I am responsible for 3 main goals.

· Responsible for Data Governance initiatives in the company.

· Provide consult/advisory services for various projects in the company as a Data Architect, including data modeling, database design, operational help, performance tuning etc.

· Help the Data Management Team on day to day activities related to DBA tasks and key initiatives.

Apart from this, as the President and the Chapter Leader, I have the overall responsibility for North Texas SQL Server User Group and have the individual responsibility as the Director of Marketing.

2. What motivated you to run for the PASS Board of Directors?

As an active volunteer in the SQL Server community, I enjoy spending time meeting and getting to know other SQL Server and BI professionals and helping them on things that can impact their careers. At a grass root level, I want to make sure that every member of a chapter or PASS is able to articulate the value PASS is providing and how it has benefited them.

About 4 months back when we had our SQLSaturday, a person walked up to me and said, "I just got out of college and thanks to the career and networking opportunities with the chapter (NTSSUG), I was able to get a job as a junior DBA and jump start my career.” That made my day. It made it all worth it.

I want every member to be able to tell that PASS has influenced their careers and they are more successful today because of PASS, whether it comes in the form of education and/or networking. Some of that is already happening but there are some gaps and the message is not strong and consistent and I want to strongly influence that. This is one of the key reasons I want to run for the PASS Board of Director position.

3. What is PASS's largest challenge right now?

In my opinion, PASS as an organization is now going through its teen-age growth spurts. It is growing rapidly across various frontiers, viz. international chapter growth, growth in local chapter member base, growth of various SQL events like SQLSaturday, SQLRally etc., growth in the Summit attendance and its visibility via the social media network. This is a time to nurture that growth with the correct long term vision, strategy and direction. You simply just cannot apply a one solution fits all approach or just concentrate on one growth item and let the others figure their way out. Each portfolio deserves a lot of attention and the right solution that fits its need.

4. What is PASS's greatest opportunity right now?

With vehicles like SQLSaturday, 24HOP, PASS is very well positioned where it can significantly impact the careers of SQL Professionals in an unprecedented manner. Kudos to the current PASS Board members, much of the work related to this is already happening but there are some gaps that once gets filled, will change the perception of the member about PASS and will take the organization to new heights and horizons.

5. Complete this sentence: "If I only get one new thing accomplished while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

I feel that there is a disconnect between the PASS organization and its chapters. The members of the chapters don’t get ‘PASS’ and there is not much motivation for them to care about it. I want people to think of PASS as an organization that helps with their SQL careers. If I can get one thing accomplished, I want to put the right strategy and execution process in place that creates this motivation for the member of the chapter to care about PASS. Once this happens, the rest will automatically fall in place.

6. Complete this sentence: "If I only get to change one existing thing about PASS while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

I want to…. transform the culture of the organization, to be more feedback and community driven. I want people vested in PASS to really play a big role to in shaping the organization. I am not talking about the person who attends the PASS summit once a year and vanishes. I am talking about people like you (the reader of this blog who cares about who is elected to the PASS Board), people who organize events like SQLSaturday, SQLRally, Chapter Leaders, Regional Mentors , MVPs take on a bigger role in shaping the next gen PASS.

7. Share something interesting about yourself!

I can read and write in 4 languages and partially know 3 more. So while my English might not be perfect, I take pride in the fact I can converse with more than 1/3^rd of the people in the world.

2011 PASS Board Applicants: Rob Farley

andyleonard — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Introduction

I am interviewing 2011 PASS Board Nominee Applicants. As listed on the PASS Board Elections site the applicants are:

Rob Farley
Geoff Hiten
Adam Jorgensen
Denise McInerney
Sri Sridharan
Kendal Van Dyke

I'm asking everyone the same questions and blogging the responses in the order received.

Rob Farley is first up:

Interview With Rob Farley

1. What's your day job?

I run LobsterPot Solutions out of Adelaide, Australia. We're a SQL & BI consultancy, and were the first Microsoft Partner to have the Gold Competency in Business Intelligence anywhere in the world. I say that as if it's really significant - but actually it was just that we made sure we were ready when the Partner Program switched across to the Partner Network last year. You can read more about the company at lobsterpot.com.au.

I'm semi-technical in the company. Obviously I need to run the business, but I also end up being involved in many of our projects and in 'pre-sales' kind of activity. We don't have any salespeople - all our work comes through word-of-mouth, but that doesn't negate the need for developing leads into clients, which is where a lot of my time gets spent.

2. What motivated you to run for the PASS Board of Directors?

It would be wrong say "It's Stockholm Syndrome", but Stockholm is definitely involved.

I've been involved with PASS (to a certain extent) for many years. I've run the Adelaide user group for over six years, and helped foster what I see as a healthy community here. I've also been involved in the 24 Hours of PASS events and presented at a number of user groups, both in person and remotely around the world. But it's not just PASS I have a heart for - it's the SQL community as a whole. I've made a couple of trips out to the UK for SQLBits events, and know the organisers well.

A few months ago, I was asked to visit Stockholm for some meetings to discuss the globalisation of PASS, and there got asked to be a non-voting advisor to the board of directors. This has given me an insight into the workings of the board, and opened my eyes to some of what PASS needs. I'm not suggesting it needs me, but I do feel that I could help PASS achieve some of its potential better by being a voting director. And that's what has motivated me to run. I'm also really pleased that there are a number of other excellent candidates running, and I'm confident that even if I don't get elected, that PASS is in excellent hands going forward. It's going to be really tough to replace some of the people that are stepping down from the board, but the current bunch of candidates are people who are full of energy and enthusiasm to help PASS be more effective than ever.

3. What is PASS's largest challenge right now?

I'd like to say the globalisation aspect, but I although I see that as a challenge, I don't know that it's the main concern they face. The SQL community as a whole is stronger than ever, and not just in North America. SQLBits is moving from strength to strength in the UK. Twitter and the blogosphere are ablaze with SQL experts who are making their voices heard. In a few days your own initiative SQL People is hosting an event in New York, and Red Gate have run their SQL in the City event around the world. This shouldn't be a concern to PASS, but I know PASS has a desire to grow and develop the wider SQL community, and therefore encourage and support any SQL community event, whether it's PASS-affiliated or not. However, I imagine this will be a significant challenge in the time ahead. I would like to think PASS is capable of being the primary supporter of all SQL communities, but I can also imagine it could end up being a proper-sized challenge, and PASS may need to bridge a few gaps to be able to fill that role.

4. What is PASS's greatest opportunity right now?

Surely every challenge reflects an opportunity. I think PASS has become more transparent than ever, and is positioning itself to become more effective than it has ever been. I would imagine that if PASS can see some of its vision for getting supporting the wider community, and becoming less "PASS-focused", then I think it has huge potential to impact the SQL world in new and exciting ways.

5. Complete this sentence: "If I only get one new thing accomplished while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

I'd like to see PASS get into the more regional areas, and support the local leaders better. They're already making this happen, so I'm hoping to be able to help support this initiative and do what I can to convert it into a reality.

6. Complete this sentence: "If I only get to change one existing thing about PASS while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to..."

I don't know that I want to change PASS much. I'd like to see PASS adapt to the changing needs of the SQL community, and be able to lose any remaining pride so that it can get behind things like SQLBits and SQL People. I want PASS to be accessible and available, become closer than ever to the SQL community and be the vehicle that I think the SQL community would like it to be.

7. Share something interesting about yourself!

I guess everyone knows that I play guitar, and wrote a SQL-related song, which I performed in front of over 3000 people in the Friday keynote. But I'm really not very good on guitar, and I don't write songs well at all. I grew up playing the piano, although I stopped having lessons too early, so I know plenty of people who are way better than me. I got a guitar when I figured I wasn't going to be able to take the piano with me when I left home, and have never had proper lessons. I only really strum, enough to be able to play in my church most weeks. But I've never been happy with songs that I've tried to put together, and that's mostly words. Words don't come easily to me. I can speak words easily, but I'm lousy at crafting lyrics. And the idea of performing in front of that crowd was terrifying. I always get ridiculously nervous and before any speaking engagement, and I've never sung and played my guitar in front of a crowd that's even close to a tenth of that before. So... the interesting thing about myself that people don't know - I'm a complete fake! People see me as confident on stage, but I'm never relaxed until a few minutes in.

PASS Elections 2011 Update: Board Applications Close Tomorrow!

andyleonard — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Introduction

I am following the PASS Board Elections 2011 process, blogging about the people and events. You can find a list of all my posts on the topic here.

Board Applications Update

According to the schedule, Board applications will be accepted until tomorrow 19 Oct 2011. If you are interested in running for the PASS Board of Directors this year, you’d better get your application in soon! Check out the PASS Elections 2011 portal for more information.

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PASS Elections 2011 Update: Board Applications Are Open

andyleonard — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Introduction

I am following the PASS Board Elections 2011 process, blogging about the people and events. You can find a list of all my posts on the topic here.

Board Applications

According to the schedule, applications are now being accepted to run for the PASS Board of Directors. The applications process will remain open until 19 Oct 2011. Check out the PASS Elections 2011 portal for more information.

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