It's official -- voting has started!

Ballots were sent out this morning at 9am Pacific Time to all PASS members who joined on or before May 1, 2010. Since the mail-out is quite large, they will be sent out in batches, therefore it may take a couple of hours for you to receive your ballot.

Voting will be open from September 1 to noon Pacific Time, September 15. A reminder with a link to your ballot will be sent out on September 13. If, at any point, you think you are eligible to vote but have not received your ballot, please email Hannes at HQ, but please check carefully first!

You will be allowed to pick up to 3 from the following 5 candidates for PASS Elections 2010:

• Allen Kinsel
• Andy Warren
• Douglas McDowell
• Geoff Hiten
• Mark Ginnebaugh

You'll find details about your candidates on the Candidate Campaign Space. Also, don't forget to read the candidates' answers to some excellent questions from the community in the PASS elections discussion forums. And, of course, there's a lot of additional information and debate in the community blogs listed on the Discussion page.

Results will be announced on PASS Blog by Wayne Snyder, Immediate Past President of PASS and NomCom Chair, at noon Pacific Time on September 17. The announcement will also be posted on the Elections Home page. Thanks to everyone for participating in the 2010 PASS Elections, and good luck to all the candidates!

Hannes Bezuidenhout
PASS HQ - Governance
 

Hopefully you’ve heard by now that PASS is launching a new event format called SQLRally in May 2011 in Orlando. It will be a two day conference, preceded by one day of seminars. Because it’s a new format, we can – if we choose – build a new process for how we pick these seminars. I wrote the draft below after reading some notes about the Summit process and some conversations with Jack Corbett and Kendal Van Dyke, trying to make it more open, more democratic, but still recognizing the fiscal realities of picking seminars. We will be paying these speakers, and in turn attendees will be paying to attend these seminars. That means we may have to exclude some topics that lack broad enough appeal, and that is ultimately a value judgment.

My hope is that we can do this and announce the five seminar speakers at the Summit at the same time we open registration. The reason for that is to generate some buzz around the event, to give potential attendees something to show the boss while we work on the really hard part, selecting the speakers for the conference. That means we’ve got a short timeline if we want to make that goal.

As I write this I’m struck that it’s hard to figure out where to start. Who gets to write this draft? Who approves it? As we’ve modeled SQLRally it’s a partnership between PASS HQ, the Board of Directors, and the local chapter, so I think ultimately it’s fair to have them make the final decision. But we don’t want to make that decision without a discussion with the community, so that brings us to this post today.

I hope you’ll comment on this process, and try to see it not just from one view point. Eventually we’ll settle on something, we’ll try it, and then we’ll revisit it afterwards to make changes for the next time. I don’t expect we’ll get it all right the first time, but it won’t be for lack of trying!

And now, the draft….

PASS SQLRally

Pre-Conference Seminar Proposal

Note: This is a draft. We encourage those interested in submitting a proposal to begin work based on this draft, understanding that there may be changes as we go through the discussion process.

Introduction

PASS is accepting applications to for three full day (7 hours each) seminars and two half day (3.5 hours each) to be delivered on May 10, 2011 at the Marriott World Center in Orlando. Applications will be reviewed by the selection committee and winners notified not later than October 29, 2010, with the official announcement of accepted seminars being made at the 2010 PASS Summit.

Intent

Our biggest goal is to select a set of seminars that will be interesting to a broad set of main conference attendees and that will be perceived as worthy of the additional expense. The second goal is to grow the next generation of seminar speakers for the Summit (Note: being selected for a SQLRally seminar does not imply or guarantee acceptance as a seminar speaker at the Summit).

Qualifications

Presenters must meet the following requirements to be considered:

• Have not been selected to present a pre/post seminar at the 2010 PASS Summit
• Be available to present the seminar on May 11, 2011
• Be available to attend the entire conference on May 12-13, 2011 and deliver a one hour presentation (subject to session acceptance)
• Meet at least one of the following:
  • Be a current SQL Server MVP
  • Have been selected as a primary or alternate speaker at the 2009 or 2010 PASS Summit or similar sized event
  • Have taught a full day course on SQL Server previously
  • Submit a complete application prior to the deadline by midnight on Sep 30, 2010 (Pacific time)
  • Agree to the confidentiality provisions of this document (not complete)

Compensation

Presenters will be paid $2000 for presenting a full day seminar, or $1000 for a half day seminar, and will be granted complimentary admission (non-transferrable) to the main conference. Presenters are responsible for their own expenses.

Abstract Review Process

The selection committee will be comprised of one representative from PASS HQ, one representative from the PASS Board of Directors, one representative from the SQLRally partner Chapter, plus three community members. Each abstract will be review to make sure it meets the qualifications listed above, those that do not will be declined and the submitter notified. Eligible abstracts will be scored using the criteria in Appendix A. The top three abstracts in each category will be selected to proceed to the community voting round.

Note: We have not decided on how to choose the three community members. One method would be to randomly select a chapter leader, a previous pre-con speaker, and a community member from a pool of applicants. Too bulky?

Selection Process

PASS HQ will announce the candidate abstracts/presenters by October 7^th and open community voting for a period of 2 weeks. The abstract with the most votes in each category will be selected as the winner. Ties will be decided by the Selection Committee.

Winners will be notified by email and required to confirm their final acceptance within 7 days. In the event that any winner cannot be contacted, the Selection Committee may void the selection and pick the abstract from that category with the next highest number of votes.

Abstract Submission

Abstracts must be prepared using the provided form and submitted to PASS HQ not later than midnight on Sep 30, 2010 (Pacific time). Candidates may only submit one abstract for consideration. Candidates who submit multiple abstracts will be disqualified. Candidates are encourage to put as much detail in to the application as possible, it both aids the Selection Committee and provides a strong basis for building the advertising material that will be used to market it if accepted.

Summary

It is our intention to stick as closely as possible to this document for the selection process, but this document does not cover every eventuality. In the event that the Event Team decides to deviate from the process outlined above, they will explain at the time the winners are announced why the change was necessary.

Appendix A – Seminar Scoring

NOTE: Huge gap here, looking for help!

1. Speaking qualifications

2. Community name recognition

3. Overall quality of application

4. Broad Community Interest in Topic?

5. Community Participation

6.

7.

Appendix B – Seminar Application Form

Part 1 – Presenter Data

1. Full Name

2. Mailing Address

3. Email Address

4. Primary Phone

5. LinkedIn URL

6. Twitter Handle

7. Blog URL

8. Biography (300 words max)

9. Is MVP

10. Is MS Employee

11. Basis for qualification

1. Current MVP
2. Past Summit presenter
3. Teaching experience

12. Details of presenting experience (list event/topic/paid or free)

13. Links to video demonstrating presentation skills (minimum 1 required)

14. Details of community participation not listed in item #12 above

15. References

Part 2 – Abstract

1. Title

2. Length

a. Full Day

b. Half Day

3. Summary (300 words)

4. Suggested pre-requisite knowledge, if any

5. Skill Level

a. Beginner

b. Intermediate

c. Expert

6. Category

a. BI

b. DBA

c. Developer

d. Misc

7. List 5 skills that attendees will take home

8. Seminar outline

a. Broken down into one hour modules

b. List high level discussion points

c. List planned demos

Andy Warren,

PASS Board Member

Cross posted from SQL Server Central

Our most recent board meeting was in Nashville on Aug 19, 20. We had originally discussed meeting in Seattle/Redmond/Vancouver, but by the time we scheduled the August meeting a few of us had already committed to attending the SQLSaturday in Nashville, so it just made sense to have it there. I think that worked out well, and hope that we’ll try to do this more often. It’s a chance for Board members to mix more with the community, and for those of us that attend these events often, it’s nice to have one trip instead of two.

The minutes will be published in the next few days, so I’m just going to share notes on stuff I found of particular interest and/or had added to the agenda.

The first area was marketing for the SQLRally (coming to Orlando in May 2011). Right now we essentially have a 12 month marketing cycle for the Summit, and the concern has been that marketing the SQLRally takes away from the Summit. It’s a fair concern in many ways, but if we’re going to run multiple events per year (in whatever format), then we have to figure out how to do overlapping messages in an effective way – effective in making sure everyone gets news on both, but we don’t just send them twice as much email. Much of the marketing for the SQLRally will be grass roots and hopefully less intrusive. The net was the Board supports doing what we need to do to make our first SQLRally successful.

Next was transparency and I’m going to paste my raw notes at the end of this post, and you’ll notice I don’t have all the answers. Still, I felt like it was a good discussion and good support for taking the next step of moving much of our internal monthly reporting to posts on the PASS blog. I don’t think we’re there yet, but I’m thrilled at the progress we’ve made, the conversations about transparency are now about how to do it and not about whether to do it.

On Friday we spent a lot of time brain storming where we want to be in five years. I’ve had people over the years tell me a five year plan is just dreaming – and they are right. That’s exactly the point. When you look at what you want to do in a year, or during your elected term, those define things in a way that make you look at what you know you can do, you want to finish things, you know you have finite resources. A five year plan is a chance to ignore constraints and focus on vision. We ended up talking about two areas; global development and Summit improvements.

For global development, we have more questions than answers, and that’s a result of having a Board that is largely North American. If we want to do more in —insert country of choice here—, what can we do to help, and what should the governance model? I’m condensing a long and interesting conversation to about a line, but the net was right now, without understanding all the details, we think that each country or region probably needs to be their own entity, setting their own agenda, managing their own funds. The other part is we have to figure out how to make all that work together. Should we give country X as seat on our main board? Should PASS global get a seat on country/region boards? How do we make sure we work together yet still allow self direction?

The other part was how to make the Summit better. One big part of that talk was that bigger doesn’t necessarily equate to better. Anyone that has been to TechEd and walked half a mile to get to the next session knows that at some point the technical value remains, but the social/networking value seems to drop. We talked a lot about networking, we really see it as one of the big ways we can make a difference, and we listed a lot of ideas we’re going to investigate more. Some of that is tactical, but the real value was trying to understand what a really big 5 year win would be. If it’s not something concrete like doubling attendance, what is the goal? No final answers on that either.

That kind of work is hard, maybe the hardest. You don’t get to finish the topic with a firm sense of ‘did something’, there is no deliverable to show off, but it’s the way that a shared vision evolves, everyone tugging and pushing on a problem until a shared understanding results, even if the result in realizing there are a lot more questions to ask.

Finally, as you might expect, the recent election slate announcement was often a topic of conversation. I mention that not to restart that debate, just to tell you that we did discuss it, often in heated fashion. Mostly healthy debate, but it did add strain, and at least for me, was both tiring and a source of frustration. It was a hard conversation at best.

Transparency Notes
-We’ve made progress on our minutes, but if you just read the minutes, that shares very little of the work that is ongoing and the thought behind the decisions.
-Goal is to not to be 100% transparent, but rather in general to be translucent, fully transparent in some areas, opaque in some, and in between on most
-Why?
–Builds trust in the community, they have to believe we are working in their interest, very few secrets
–Shows we trust them enough to share thoughts, take the risk that they may not agree
–It showcases what we do, all of us. How can we be an organization about community if we can’t share what we do?
–It showcases us, it’s really the way that we ‘get credit’ for the work we do
–It’s a chance to get feedback outside the core group, reducing the risk of group-think, and shows that we are interested in getting opinions
-Challenges
–Risk that we publish something that is "secret". We learn to manage that by tagging things as NDA, and understanding that we have few real secrets – salaries, launch dates for partner products come to mind as real secrets.
–Risk that info/opinions is incorrect or heavily biased, and contrary to "official" views of PASS
–Risk that community will sharply disagree with a decision, or even a few vocal members, and that could escalate
–Not all our volunteers are comfortable sharing, writing, making the decision about what is ok to share
-_BOD has to believe in this for it to work
-We have to make decisions that are right for PASS, but also sensitive to perception. It IS politics

–How to move forward
–PASS blog is primary method for sharing our activities
–Ever Board member writes a monthly update (or more frequently) for posting to the PASS blog. Any NDA items will be forwarded to the Board separately. I propose eliminating the PDF monthly report and only maintaining the blog report. We time these to release at staggered points. Absolutely ok to cross post to their own blog. Clarify what can be published as a board member vs a ‘plain old member’.
–We also require that HQ staff (maybe a subset?) post on their activities monthly
–We build a short document that explains our info policy to volunteers, something in the range of 1-2 pages. They also post to their own blog at any time, also send to us and we’ll post if we thinka appropriate.
–We need to teach our volunteers to write (including BOD) and to understand that even if they don’t think it’s interesting, just showing that volunteers are working benefits both them and the organization. We will have some that cannot write, so we need some ghost writers to make sure that their work is captured
–We need a process for dealing with ‘bad’ posts/conversations. This means we have to teach how to avoid being defensive, how to end a conversation, how to find the good in even the worst exchange. also making sure that BOD monitors.
–Open discussion at Summit as last year, also encourage all board members to hold a discussion at any SQLSat or chapter meeting if attending (have to ask leaders for a slot/space)
–Make sure our event leaders are publishing summaries, lessons learned, and get that on the PASS blog too.
–Tag posts as "official", "BOD", "cross post" —-but who can post? Do we link/discuss negative items?
–volunteer profiles, could probably do one bi-weekly?

How do we measure success?
–Survey of trust/openness
–# of comments on posts?
–Name recognition/task recognition
–# of blog posts
–Score each volunteer on #posts???

Andy Warren,

PASS Board Member

Cross posted from SQL Server Central

Why would you stay up until 4am working on a presentation and then drive 8 hours to speak at a SQLSaturday when you aren’t getting paid? Why would you spend hours and hours making tables full of food for people you don’t really know? Why would you cruise Nashville in the middle of the night to make sure the folks you were with saw the Grand Ole Opry before they left?

Then again, why would you spend hours debating the injustices of a decision you don’t agree with on Twitter, blogs, and Facebook? How about taking on a second unpaid job volunteering? Or paying your own expenses and using up your precious holidays to attend PASS Summit?

The answer is Community. Community isn’t just a group of people—it’s a living entity that can grow, wither, get sick, heal, die, and be reborn. Being part of a community can be phenomenally rewarding, very challenging at times, and always interesting.

Spending last week in Nashville for a PASS Board of Directors meeting and the kickoff for SQLSaturday #51 was been both phenomenally rewarding and very challenging. But at the end of the day, I feel more a part of the SQL Server Community than I have in a long time.

Although I was emotionally and physically exhausted at times from working through some tough issues, what I will take away from the experience is a sense of awe that Allen White cares enough to drive down from Ohio to Nashville to make his presentation. That Rachel and Kevin Kline would make more than 20 dishes and open up their beautiful home to host the SQLSaturday kickoff. That Robert Cain and Barry Ralston took the time to drive Andy Warren and myself around Nashville at 11pm to show us the main drag and let us hear the Country music blaring out of the bars, get a glimpse of the Grand Ole Opry, and see the bizarre but fantastic Nashville Parthenon.

Like tending a garden or raising a child, there are a lot of differing views on the best approach for running PASS and meeting the needs of the Community. To me, what’s most important is that people care and that they work toward the goals they are most passionate about.

Last week, I met and interacted with so many people that care, and I am confident that our PASS Community is in good hands. The PASS Community is active, it has a powerful voice, and it will continue to shape its own evolution.
—Lynda

Lynda Rab,
PASS Board member
 

Just a quick note to watch out for an imposter Twitter account purporting to represent PASS HQ PR. Today, the account began posting inflamatory messages under the guise of PASS. We want to assure the community that this account is in no way related to PASS; its management firm, Christianson & Company Event Management Ltd.; or representatives of PASS or C&C and does not speak for PASS or C&C. The only account that speaks for PASS is @sqlpass.

We have posted messages to this effect on Twitter to our loyal followers. Thanks to Andy Leonard and others who brought this to our attention and who are spreading the word  to unfollow the account and to not retweet any of its messages. We are working with Twitter to report the account as an imposter and have it removed.
--Kathy

Kathy  Blomstrom
PASS Communications

Surprisingly enough, the PASS Summit is less than three months away. Many of you are in the process of deciding whether to sign up for the pre/post conference sessions and, if so, which ones to sign up for. The Program Committee is encouraging the speakers from the pre/post con sessions to present ‘preview’ webcast sessions through the virtual chapters. These, as always, are free webcasts and would give PASS members a glimpse of what would be covered during the pre/post con sessions. We hope that all of the speakers take this opportunity, but we wanted to let you know what is lined up so far.

The Nominations Committee met last Thursday, August 12, to pick a slate to present to the PASS Board of Directors. The Board came together on Monday to discuss the slate with the Committee before voting to approve it. And with that, the candidate slate is set!

Congratulations to the following 5 candidates for PASS Elections 2010:

• Allen Kinsel
• Andy Warren
• Douglas McDowell
• Geoff Hiten
• Mark Ginnebaugh

The Candidate Campaign Space goes live at 5pm Pacific today (August 18). You'll be able to compare candidate applications and platforms there.

If you're curious to see the Committee's average total scores for all the interviewees, click here. The procedural documents used by the NomCom are available here. A summary of the NomCom's meeting to discuss the interviewees will be posted soon.

Our social media portals have been abuzz in the past few weeks -- thanks to everyone for staying involved! Keep your eye on the Discussion page for new elections blogs in the coming weeks -- you can catch Andy Leonard's interview series with the applicants there. Also, voice your opinions on the elections discussion forum, which launches at 5pm Pacific today (August 18).

Stay tuned for your email ballot which will be sent out on September 1. Voting will remain open until noon Pacific, September 15.

 For more information about the process, click here. For more important elections dates, click here.

This year the Program Committee decided to try something different to increase community involvement with the abstract selection process for the annual summit.  We decided to allow any registered PASS members to vote on the final  4 community sessions to be presented at the Summit in Seattle this year.  With our historically low turnout in surveys of our membership, I turned to the team at PASSHQ with a simple question about whether or not we could use the same voting tool that is in place for the upcoming Board of Directors election.  Considering our surveys have traditionally resulted in 300-500 results , at the time I put a personal goal on the survey response rate of 500, anything greater than that and I would consider the time and energy It took to put it together a win, anything less and well, we wouldn’t be doing any more exploring in the use of public voting for Summit Sessions.

I’m VERY pleased to say that by all indications, the voting process was a great success, sure we will always aim to do better but, for now, having over 1100 people vote on what they want to see at the Summit is a huge win for PASS as an organization.  In the App Dev group, the winner was declared by 2 votes.   2 votes out of 600 is pretty outstanding, if you didn’t take the time and vote, you could have been the vote that swayed the result!!  Don’t miss your chance next time!!  The winning sessions can be found here. 

I want to take the time to thank each and every member of the awesome PASS Community who voted.  As well as Jeremiah Peschka (Twitter|Blog) & Lori Edwards (Twitter|Blog) for dealing with my crazy ideas on putting this together, and keeping me in check.  Andy Warren (Twitter|Blog) for helping me get the voting tool he built for pass working for this use.  Id also like to give a huge thanks to Hannes, Wesley and Elena at PASSHQ for helping bring all of this to PASS (pun intended)