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Hanania and Kinsel Win PASS’s Top Honor

Volunteers Receive PASSion Award for Hard Work, Dedication to PASS and SQL Server Community

SEATTLE, WA – November 4, 2009 – The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) today presented its most prestigious honor to volunteers Charley Hanania and Allen Kinsel during the 2009 PASSion Awards ceremony at the organization’s PASS Summit 2009 conference in Seattle.

The PASSion Award is presented annually to a volunteer who demonstrates exceptional dedication to and enthusiasm for PASS and the SQL Server community. PASSion award recipients are nominated by PASS board members and volunteers and selected by the Board of Directors and the Volunteer Committee.

“This year, PASS was fortunate to have two volunteers whose hard work and commitment to PASS embody the spirit of the PASSion Award,” said PASS President Wayne Snyder. “Charley and Allen are tireless advocates of PASS and the SQL Server community, and we’re a stronger organization because of them.”

Hanania, winner of the International PASSion Award, is Sr. Database Specialist at QS2-Quality Software Solutions and leads the Swiss PASS Chapter. As 2009 Organization Committee chair for the PASS European Conference, PASS’s second largest event, he was responsible for all conference activities. Charley invested more than 600 hours in what colleagues said was a “selfless gift of his time” to produce the biggest European Conference yet and to develop a model for success internationally going forward.

“He invested all of his energy to make the conference a success,” stated one of the nomination letters. “In the end, we had our first profitable year in our history—in the worst economy ever.”

Kinsel, winner of the North American PASSion Award, is Lead Database Analyst at American National Insurance and has been a volunteer with and “wonderful ambassador” for PASS for 5 years. He was Program Manager on the Program Committee this year, as well as serving on the Volunteer and Nomination committees. As Program Manager, he selected volunteers for each track’s abstract selection team, compiled the teams’ results, and created the list of community sessions for the largest PASS Summit program ever. Allen was also responsible for setting up the new Abstract Submission and Review sites before PASS announced its 2009 call for abstracts.

“[Allen] put together one of the best programs I've seen at PASS—it looks amazing,” said one of the nomination letters. “Knowing a little of what Program Committee members have to go through, they have the most invisible, thankless job—yet one of the most important.”

PASS also recognized four outstanding volunteers for their contributions over the past year:

  • Tim Ford, for his work on the Program Committee and hosting of the popular Special Interest Goups (SIGs)/Virtual Chapters Quizbowl at the PASS Summit Welcome Reception.
  • Grant Fritchey, for his editorial leadership in relaunching The SQL Server Standard magazine as an online area of premium content on the PASS website.
  • Amy Lewis, co-leader of the Business Intelligence (BI) Virtual Chapter, for her focused efforts in growing the chapter from one large chapter to four active focus groups.
  • Jacob Sebastian, PASS Regional Chapter Leader, for leading PASS’ s successful member outreach in India, setting up multiple chapters, and organizing a TechEd on the Road event that drew over 200 attendees.

For more information about PASS and the PASSion Award, see www.sqlpass.org.

About PASS
The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) is an independent, not-for-profit association dedicated to supporting, educating, and promoting the Microsoft SQL Server community. From local user groups and virtual chapters to Webcasts and the annual PASS Summit—the largest gathering of SQL Server professionals in the world—PASS enables knowledge sharing, in-depth learning, access to the Microsoft SQL Server team, and the ability to influence the direction of SQL Server technologies. The PASS mission is to empower the global SQL Server community to connect, share, and learn. For more information about PASS and the benefits of becoming a member, visit the PASS Web site at http://www.sqlpass.org.

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The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) is an independent, not-for-profit association, dedicated to supporting, educating, and promoting the Microsoft SQL Server community. From local user groups and special interest groups (SIGs) to webcasts and the annual PASS Community Summit � the largest gathering of SQL Server professionals in the world � PASS enables knowledge sharing, in-depth learning, access to the Microsoft SQL Server team, and the ability to influence the direction of SQL Server technologies. PASS was founded in 1999 by Microsoft and CA and continues to enjoy executive level endorsement from both organizations. As the number one user community for Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft looks to the PASS community for valued feedback, input, and inspiration. PASS Mission Empower the global Microsoft SQL Server community to connect, share, learn and be inspired through networking, knowledge sharing, peer-based learning, and the ability to influence the direction of Microsoft SQL Server products and services.