SQL Server, PASS, and other data mishaps
Volunteer
Last Chance to volunteer for the 2011 PASS Summit Program Committee
Feb 21st
Today is the last chance if you wanted to lend a hand to the 2011 PASS Program Committee. I wrote about all the gory details two weeks ago here. If your interested please get the survey filled out today before 9PM PST. You might as well do it now though, no sense in putting it off until the last minute!
PASS needs you
Feb 9th
Help wanted Needed!!
This year my portfolio within the PASS board is “Summit program and speaker management” Ive been involved with this portfolio for at least the last 4 years. This year, I’m going to be transitioning into yet a different roll within the committee. Ill still be heavily involved but, I’m turning the majority of the day to day decision making over to Lori Edwards (Blog|Twitter) She was hugely involved last year, and I have no doubt she will work her magic again this year!
Program Committee Changes
This year, there are going to be some changes to the processes in the program committee, Ill detail some of those in a later set of blog posts. For now, Ive decided to split up the groups of volunteers in the program committee to hopefully enable some of the future process changes.
Help Wanted
For this year we’re going to need help in many areas
Abstract Review Teams (led by Lori Edwards)
- DBA/Cloud/BI/AD/PD
Speaker Review Team (led by Tim Ford)
- This group will review speakers independently of their abstracts
Speaker Enhancement team (Wes Brown & Grant Fritchey)
- This will probably stay a small group and work on updating sample abstracts, selection info, generating info for new speakers etc.
PPT/Abstract Editing review/approval (Led by Tim Martin)
- This group will be working on sessions after they are accepted (lots of new ideas here)
Special Projects (Led by AJ Mendo & Lance Harra)
- This group will be working on finishing the Speaker Evaluation tool, coordinating changes to the Summit online tool as well as a few other projects that are envisioned.
Cutting edge
Its been said that what we do in the Program committee is on the bleeding edge of what PASS does in organizing groups of volunteers at the national level. That is to say, we need lots of help but, sometimes things dont always work out quite how we (I) had expected. I say this only to set expectations that its not always a smooth ride but, rarely is it not interesting.
We developed an online survey to help us capture all of the relevant info about everyone who wants to volunteer. Don’t worry, its not a job app and it shouldn’t be resume quality, we’re primarily looking for general information
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BSJTXJZEA/
Please consider this a personal invitation from me to join us in making the content at the PASS Summit 2011 the best ever!
Please PASS the Awesomesauce
Sep 24th
Recently, the 3 of you that read this stream of (un)consciousness may have noticed a lot of posts about PASS and the Board of Directors elections. I was pleasantly surprised to see the news last Friday that I had indeed been elected to a 2 year term on the PASS board.
I’d like to start by thanking everyone who voted, even if you chose not to vote for me. We need more community involvement in all things PASS, and voting is a very important part of that!
This election was not without its fair share of controversy and while overall it was a difficult process for the community to go through, I think a lot of good can result from it. I hope that everyone who had an opinion about the “process” stays involved. Staying involved & interested is the easiest way the community can shape the future of the organization.
I’m very excited to have the opportunity to serve the SQL Server Community in a larger role than in the past. As always, if you’ve got ideas feel free to send em to me. I cant make any promises except that I will read and respond but, Im a fan of stealing borrowing others ideas for PASS and making them happen.
Other recent PASS info
Weve had a literal whirlwind of activity in the program committee leadership in the last month+ So, I thought I’d list some of the stuff thats been happening
Some highlights
- We gathered a large group of volunteers to proofread abstracts before publishing in the program guide
- Also, we hammered out all the details for 3 new session types for the Summit : Chalk talk sessions, Best of sessions, and lightning sessions
- Published a Session preferencing tool to help us build a good schedule (awesome data gathered here!!)
- We built the summit schedule – this is always fun, if you have any complaints, its on me
- We gathered a team of volunteers to review session powerpoints so I wont be doing them alone on the last day (YAY!) in doing this we updated the review guidelines to be more relevant/current
- I had hoped we would nail down the Microsoft speakers & sessions a little better (earlier) this year but, it seems like we’ve been getting more changes & cancellations than Id have liked.
- We worked on Coordinated with VC’s & pre/postconference speakers to try and setup livemeeting previews of their sessions — Marketing & free community education –thats like Bacon wrapped Bacon Win-Win!
- Lots of discussions with our Summit software vendor about availability of ppt updates, demos, etc during the summit. Updates soon
Upcoming releases
- The Summit Schedule builder *should* go live on Monday the 27th Also, realize this is an expected date but things occasionally happen so dont scream too much if its a lil late (or someone will let me know their displeasure with my tipping of the due dates)
- Community experts summit session lists – we’ve asked some experts for their opinions about which sessions to attend, I cant wait to see what these lists look like!
Other Interesting Discussions happening
- Whether we’re going to record/stream a session room at the Summit and what we’d do with those recordings
- Whether we should switch back to 2 days of Preconference sessions or stick with 1 day pre and 1 day post
- Whether we should be providing desktops in the session rooms for speakers (most don’t seem to use them)
- PASSion award & expanding PASS’s recognition of outstanding volunteers at all levels
Of Procrastination and Voting
Sep 9th
If you are reading this, you probably haven’t decided on who to vote for in the PASS Board of Directors election. You’re not alone! Here’s a secret [Shhh: don’t tell] I haven’t decided who I’m going to vote for either. Have no fear though, for the first year in the history of PASS, there is a literal plethora of information on the PASS Elections Site about the candidates and their stances on “the issues”
So, consider this to be my personal invitation to you to follow my lead and stop procrastinating!! Go now to the PASS elections site, read about the candidates. If you want to know something about us, use the forums, and ask. I know at least 1 candidate that will answer your question. Once you’ve done all that come back here, Ill still be waiting. Now, do what I’m going to do: I’ll be finding the PASS BOD email ballot, then Ill be selecting the link and clicking on “Allen Kinsel” & 2 other candidates then hitting submit!
I’ve never been known to be the subtle type, so I figure no sense in starting now. If you need a little more subtlety about why I think you should vote for me, look here. The #1 thing though, is you, PASS Member, you need to vote. It matters a great deal to our SQL Server community, even if you must vote for someone other than me [I disagree but, understand]..
5 things I want to change while on the PASS Board
Aug 31st
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the last 3 or 4 months about “why” I wanted to run for the PASS Board. I think I have finally come to the point where I can distill it down into a list of 5 specific things that I will work to make happen while on the PASS Board
5. Pass Summit location. I believe that we can reach more of our membership by moving the location of the annual summit. I like the idea of a 3 year rotation in Seattle.
4. Transparency. I plan to continue the push for as much release of information as the community wants. Particular things I’d like to see: full disclosure of individual BOD votes, more exposure of the Executive Committee “election process”
3. Better Chapter Support. We need to do a better job at giving our chapter leaders what they need, some of the most frequently requested things on the chapter “needs” list could be completed more easily than many think if I can succeed with item #1 on this list. I don’t necessarily want to “own” chapter support but, I think I can provide help to this group, especially where it lends itself to my strength in PASS : speaker management.
2. Professionalism. I want our association to become more professional. That is to say, to begin offering more than education as the primary benefit to membership. I think there should be more benefit to being a PASS member than education & networking .
1. Community Involvement. I want to get our volunteers engaged in as many processes and tasks as possible. I’ve done what I consider to be a pretty good job at getting as many people involved in the program committee processes as reasonably possible, Id like to expand that same involvement into all areas of PASS. I wrote a lengthy reply on the PASS election forum about this subject, let me know what you think.
If you believe in these changes and you like how I communicate them, consider voting for me. I’m running for the PASS Board of Directors, and I need your help to make a difference. Click here to read about why I’m running.
