The PASS 2011 elections season is officially upon us with today’s opening of the call for Nomination Committee (NomCom) applications.

The NomCom is at the heart of the elections process, ensuring that each applicant for the four open Board of Director seats in this year’s general election possesses the characteristics and attributes necessary to lead the world’s largest independent, user-led organization for SQL Server professionals. This year, the PASS community will select three of the NomCom members, who will join me and another Board member on the 5-person committee.

To be eligible for the NomCom, candidates must have a demonstrable track record of volunteering with PASS, such as serving as a Regional Mentor, Chapter Leader, Virtual Chapter Leader, Program Committee member, or speaker (at PASS Summit, PASS SQLRally, SQLSaturday, or 24 Hours of PASS) or participating in other volunteer capacities.

If you meet the eligibility requirements and would like to serve on the NomCom, I encourage you to submit an application by August 19. NomCom voting will run from August 24 to September 9, with all PASS members as of June 1, 2011, eligible to vote. The top three vote-getters will be elected to the NomCom and immediately get down to the business of managing this year’s general election process.

Note that the NomCom is an essential part of the PASS Board of Directors elections process and requires a substantial commitment of time and effort. By applying for the NomCom, you are agreeing to the time commitments of the entire general election process – including a lengthy applicant interview process currently set to start in late November or early December.

Serving on the NomCom, however, is also an extremely satisfying experience and one of the most important ways you can give back to the PASS community. If you’re interested in running for the NomCom or know someone who would make an ideal candidate, please review the details on the PASS Elections website, which includes a complete timeline for this year’s elections process. And make sure to follow and join in the discussion on twitter using the #passvotes hashtag.

Thanks for getting involved!
--Wayne Snyder

Earlier today I mentioned that this session was full - and it is... However Lynda Rab has spoken with Mike Ruthruff and Prem Mehra - they have graciosly agreed to do a repeat of this session. It will be on Friday, November 21, @ 2:30 - 3:45 pm in Room 6E.

Thanks so much doing the repeat...

This morning the first day keynote for the PASS conference began at 8:30.  Before I introduced our speaker Ted Kummert, I announced some growth numbers for this year. This has been the biggest growth year in PASS history - by all measures. While there has been growth in all areas, right now I'll mention the Summit growth. The total number of delegates there is, at this moment is 2464, which is an astounding 62% growth over last year. Add to that the influence of the down economy when many conferences are seeing drastic reductions in attendance - PASS is growing by leaps and bounds. Truly amazing in this economy.

I just heard that Mike Ruthruff and Prem Mehra's first session this morning filled up 20 minutes before the session began.  That's a record also.  With 150 sessions, if you attend during each time slot, you'll only get to see about 8% of the sessions. Don't worry,  summit delegates will be able to see Prem's session, plus all of the other recorded sessions  as soon as they are posted.

Ted Kummert talked about the future of SQL, and spent time on Kilimanjaro. We saw high scalability demonstrations where a single data warehouse query was spread across 192 processors, searching through a 1 trillion row fact table, using commodity hardware.  We're going places!!!!