(Reposted from my blog; read the original post here.)

Do you know someone in the PASS Community who is a hidden hero? Perhaps a chapter leader who is doing terrific work to help the SQL community. Maybe it's a member who is putting in 110% to organize a SQLRally, a virtual chapter leader who is organizing great sessions, or perhaps it's a speaker you’ve seen go above and beyond and speak at multiple chapters/virtual chapter events this month. There are so many people who contribute and make the SQL community so vibrant that finding those who stand out is tougher than ever!
 
These people are the lifeblood of the SQL Server community. They freely give of their time to make PASS the premiere SQL Server association, and it's about time we start recognizing them!
 
Since I've been volunteering with PASS, one thing that has always struck me is how rare it is that PASS actually recognizes outstanding volunteers. When I first joined, we only had the PASSion Award, which is awarded yearly at the Summit to the single volunteer who had the “most” outstanding contributions. In more recent years, we’ve done a better job of recognizing additional people who are outstanding volunteers through the outstanding volunteers presentation at the Summit. However, these volunteers all come from the PASSion Award nominations, and those nominations are only open just prior to the Summit.
 
I’ve always thought that we should recognize volunteers across the organization in a more consistent way, and not revolve that recognition around the Summit. Luckily, the opportunity to do something about this lack of recognition knocked earlier this year, and we’ve made progress. In last week's Connector, there was an announcement about nominating volunteers to be recognized as outstanding volunteers of the month. The initial intent is that we’ll accept email nominations during every month for any volunteer who has made outstanding contributions to the community. Those submissions will be reviewed on the last day of the month, and recognition will follow the next month. Initially, we are planning to recognize these outstanding volunteers with a nice certificate and highlight them in the Connector newsletter. It's not much compared to what these people do day in and day out, but with success over time, hopefully we can expand this a bit more. For a start though, I think this is a good first step down the right road.
 
We intend to have the first recognition cycle start in March, so that means that submissions are due by 2/29. Please, take a moment and send us an email with as many details as possible about the contributions of an outstanding volunteer who has made an impact in the SQL community. As always with these types of things, the more details the better!

(Condensed from my Community Pollination blog – read the full version here.)

This past weekend, there were two SQLSaturday events: #108 in Redmond and #103 in Curaçao. I heard all the “Oh sure, tough choice there” comments, but my plans early on were to attend the Curaçao event.

The original vision for my new role as PASS Community Evangelist was to get to one first-time venue each month to talk to attendees who might not be familiar with PASS. My being onsite to assist with some logistics and last-minute details at these events helps out the first-time organizers as well. Plus, I can see what areas I need to make sure I’m mentoring on before event day. 

This trip was only 3 hours from Miami. I was greeted at the airport by event leader and local PASS chapter leader Roy Ernest [blog|twitter]. Roy went out of his way to not only pick me up, but to also pick up each speaker who came from over from the US. None of us arrived at the same time, so it wasn’t exactly convenient for someone already with so much stress of his approaching event. SQLSat #103 had three non- local speakers - Bill Pearson [blog|twitter], Rob Volk [blog|twitter], and Tim Radney [blog|twitter] - and two local presenters: Roy and volunteer and co-worker Rohan Joackhim [twitter].

Friday evening’s speaker appreciation dinner was at a great Indian restaurant - one of many in a renovated fort called Rif Fort. From the outside, it looked like a castle, but when you walked in, there were all kinds of restaurants on several levels, all with open seating. You could look out in one direction and see the beautiful crystal-clear, aqua-colored ocean and then look inward around the fort at all the entertainment, from drummers and bands to folks dancing in the open center area. It was really a unique setting; the only downfall was that the band was so loud, it was hard to hear even someone sitting directly across from you.
 
The event had two tracks, DBA and BI, and was held at the University of the Netherlands Antilles, courtesy of the head instructor, Rinnus Felipa. It’s always nice to meet those who help make a SQLSaturday happen, and kudos to universities such as this, which offer their venues for free to the IT community. It was obvious that the success of this day was important to Rinnus - he was onsite all day and meticulous about details that the university was responsible for, such as lunch. On the lunch menu was “Steak de Wea,” a local combination of rice and steak covered in a savory sauce, with fresh green beans and salad. It was delicious, and I enjoy trying something local and new to my taste buds. SQLSat #103 didn’t charge attendees for lunch, and the university kept the cost very reasonable (I believe each plate was around $7 per person).
 
The morning of the event, there were 95 registrants, including those who opted out the week prior. Actual attendance ended up being around 60 - so as typically seen at SQLSaturdays, about a 30%-35% drop-off. The event had only three sponsors: PASS, Redgate, and O’Reilly. But even with the little budget he had to work with, Roy managed to put on a great event for his community. As I talked with attendees during breaks and addressed the group as a whole at the end, many comments rang a common tune - they want to see another SQLSaturday… and most don’t want to wait another year for it (hint, hint, Roy!). As always, I stressed to the attendees that they should work on becoming presenters themselves for the next SQLSaturday event, and they could start sharpening their SQL and presentation skills by speaking at their local user group.

This post would not be complete if I failed to mention another key Curaçao volunteer: Surenda Djaoen [twitter], another of Roy’s co-workers and someone he is mentoring to become the new leader of the Curaçao SQL Server User Group. With Roy doing so much running around on Friday, and still prepping his own presentation for the big day, Surenda took on a lot of the last-minute details for the SQLSaturday. One of the highlights of the trip for me was getting time to talk with her about running a user group and some tips on growing the local speaker pool. It’s always rewarding to see volunteers’ eyes light up with excitement as their minds start racing with ideas. That’s all it takes - just plant a few seeds, and watch them grow!
 

Jennifer Moser, Microsoft SQL Server Senior Marketing Manager and PASS Director, spoke with PASS Marketing Vice President Thomas LaRock again to discuss more about the upcoming virtual launch event of SQL Server 2012 on March 7, 2012.

Thomas: Last time we spoke, you told me about the SQL Server Virtual Launch Event, are there updates you can share?
Jennifer:  Absolutely! As you know on March 7, 2012 we will be hosting the first ever Microsoft SQL Server online launch event. We opened registration for the event in late January and the community seems very excited about this event!

Thomas:  Wow! That’s great news. What do you attribute to your success so far?  
Jennifer:  A couple of things. First, we’ve developed a compelling track of sessions that appeals to our core audience, our IT implementers. We’ve created approximately 30 sessions which focus on the new features and improvements of SQL Server 2012 and our vision for the future. Plus we’re showcasing customers who have already implemented SQL Server 2012. It’s one thing to hear how great SQL Server 2012 is from us- but when you hear directly from customers who have already had success, it has a lot more impact. I’d also attribute our success to our community. Our SQL family has really stepped up to help share the exciting news with their inner circles. We couldn’t have had this kind of success without them.

Thomas:  That’s great to hear! I also hear PASS is giving away some goodies as well. :)
Jennifer:  Yes, you’re right! We’re doing a PASS sweepstakes where if you visit the PASS booth in the Expo Hall on March 7, 2012 you will be entered to win one of six PASS Summit 2012 Recorded Sessions DVD sets, or one of three grand prizes - a full-conference pass to PASS Summit 2012! 

Thomas:  Can’t wait! Looking forward to it. 

Register today and join the 14,000+ that have already signed up.

Our budgets tend to be fairly conservative and we try to budget at break-even or a small profit.  After accounting for additional costs we’re roughly estimating a 10% profit for fiscal year 2012.  Over the last two weeks the Board approved a number of motions that used some of this windfall to increase our budgets in key areas.

First, anything that we don’t spend will eventually end up in our reserves.  Our goal is to spend less than $200,000 of our profit and allow the remaining $300,000+ to flow into reserves.  The downside of allocating that money to reserves is that we’ll be taxed on any profit for FY2012.  PASS is a not-for-profit but isn’t tax exempt.

In the PASS budget, the vast majority of our revenue comes from the Summit and that’s where we spend most of our money (Our revenue was higher than projected for Summit 2011 hence the profit we’re seeing for fiscal year 2012).  It’s always a challenge to carve out meaningful contributions for our community programs.  When we do have additional money available one of the first places we look is to our community.  We allocated over $100,000 to support chapters, SQL Saturdays, international events and the 24 Hours of PASS. 

This breaks down as follows:

• We increased our Chapter portfolio budget by $40,000.  I’m expecting Allen to blog in more detail about where he expects that money to go.
• We added $30,000 to support SQL Saturdays.  Much of this will go to sponsoring additional SQL Saturday events.  This program also has a long shopping list including laptop stickers, DVD giveaways, and table skirts that they’ve been talking about for a long time.  We’re hoping they can get to a few of these.  I don’t know exactly how Kendal will prioritize this but you should keep an eye on his blog for more details.
• PASS regularly sponsors non-PASS events – especially internationally.  The huge growth in international events has depleted our funds in this area.  We approved an additional $30,000 to support these events.
• The Board approved $7,200 to support closed captioning to 15 languages for the upcoming 24 Hours of PASS. We have high expectations for this and I’m anxious to see it in action.

We also allocated money to areas that aren’t as publicly visible.

• We try to have three in-person meetings each year in addition to a brief meeting at the Summit.  In the final approved budget we removed the third in-person meeting to balance the budget.  We added back the $30,000 to support the third meeting.   
• We allocated another $20,000 for Board travel.  This is an area I felt needed additional funding.  I want the Board members to get out to SQL Saturdays, chapter meetings and maybe an international event.  I want them to talk to people they don’t know and see what’s going on in places they wouldn’t otherwise get to.  I’m planning to pick a SQL Saturday where I don’t know anyone and attend.  I think that’s one of the best ways to find out what’s important to our members.
• PASS continues to look at ways to change our governance structure to better support the international organization we are becoming. Our global governance team is meeting in late March at SQLBits to continue discussions about what these changes might be.
• We looked at a variety of locations for this meeting and found that most of the people we wanted would already be there. We allocated an additional $10,000 for travel expenses to support this.
• We approved $10,000 for marketing for video production. At the Summit we show videos right before the keynotes. These are produced on site and we try to cram as many faces into them as we can while highlighting all the great events from the previous day. They’re great for seeing your friends but not always a great tool to convince someone to attend the Summit. You can see these and a hundred more PASS videos on the SQLPASS channel on YouTube. We plan to use this video as marketing for the Summit. We hope to use it as pre-roll for existing videos, chapters, SQL Saturdays and any other events where it may be appropriate to show it.

If you add all these up you get to $177,200.  We think there may be additional spending around governance changes related to becoming a more international organization and we wanted to leave room for that.  And of course, if we don’t spend it then it goes to reserves.
 

(Crossposted from Rob Farley's blog)

Hooray – we’re ready to announce the details of the 24 Hours of PASS event that’s coming to an internet connection near you on March 21st! Read on for the day’s schedule, some of my thoughts on the 24 Hours of PASS concept, information about the platform, and an announcement which I think is really quite a big deal and worth making a fuss over.

24 Hours Straight
So – March 21st. No overlap with any other days, just 24 Hours of PASS, squeezed back into a single day. The last few events have been split over two days, running from noon to midnight (GMT), which conveniently fits in daylight hours of the Eastern United States. To help with the current push for internationalisation (and there’s more on that later in this post), we’re starting at midnight GMT (which is a perfectly reasonable 8pm in New York on March 20), and running through to the following midnight GMT (which is the next 8pm in New York, strangely enough). I’d like to be able to give prizes to people who attend all twenty-four, but I’m not quite that keen. Tell you what though – I’ll cheer on Twitter and my blog for anyone who tells me they’ve made it through all of them. I know people have done it before, and hopefully plenty will again.

VC involvement
The Virtual Chapter portfolio isn’t mine. It’s Denise McInerney’s. She’s doing a brilliant job, and we both see a strong correlation between 24HOP and the VCs. There are likely to be lots of people who tune in to 24HOP who haven’t really noticed that there are virtual chapters that meet, providing excellent online meetings, several times every month! We’ve roped in many of the VC leaders to help choose the sessions, host the sessions, and more. In fact, I suspect that many of the sessions that were submitted but not chosen could well be getting selected for the Virtual Chapters in the weeks and months to come. The Virtual Chapters are one of the best things about PASS, and it’s great that 24HOP can be showcasing them this time around. Most of the VCs are represented, including Performance, Data Architecture, PowerShell, Professional Development, and the larger ones like BI and AppDev. Even the newly forming BigData VC. The Oracle VC isn’t. Sorry, Scott.

Platform
LiveMeeting is such a great product. If you haven’t tried it out, you really should. It’s been our platform of choice here at 24HOP for ages now. Unfortunately, 24HOP seems to have outgrown it. People who have tuned in to recent events will have noticed that the video hasn’t always streamed as nicely as we’d like, and although we really do love LiveMeeting, we’re going to try a different platform – called IBTalk. This thing looks really impressive, and has some really cool features too. Most importantly, it should scale well. And record nicely. And allow eval forms nicely. And make coffee* (*feature list may not be completely accurate).

Internationalisation
I know you’ve already read about how the event is going to be 24 hours straight, ignoring the fact that numbers may well be lower while the US sleeps. But that’s not the only way in which 24HOP is becoming more international...

During the event, the IBTalk people are going to provide Live Closed Captioning. So you can get subtitles during the event! But there’s more...This captioning will be available in fifteen different languages!

English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, German, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai. You want subtitles in Thai? No problem. Watching with a Turkish friend? Sure, no worries. Even if you’re just more comfortable in Dutch than English...

PASS is serious about trying to reach people around the world. With these languages, I think most people are covered. There are a few gaps, such as not having Swedish or Bangla – but apparently just about everyone in IT in those areas speaks English anyway (so I’m told).

The platform also has an amazing feature that translates questions, so if you're more comfortable asking a question in Russian or Portuguese, you can do that. The presenter will see the question in their own language, and the attendee will read the answer in theirs.

The Schedule!
Read the full schedule at http://www.sqlpass.org/24hours/spring2012/SessionsbySchedule.aspx and http://www.sqlpass.org/24hours/spring2012/SessionsbyTrack.aspx. And while over at the 24HOP site, register for the sessions you’re interested in. But in the meantime, check out that list! I’m sure you’ll recognise plenty of the names, but probably not all. You’ll also notice there are plenty of speakers from different parts of the world, including the UK (like Mark and Neil), Australia (like Julie), and Israel (like Ami).

It’s going to be a massive event. Get registering soon!

The PASS Board recently concluded their two day Board meeting in Seattle.  The minutes will be published here later this week or early next week. The minutes for a two day meeting run to nearly ten pages and need to be approved by a majority of the Board prior to publishing. While the minutes cover all the topics in detail, I want to focus on six items that I feel are important to share: 

Information Technology. Three years ago the PASS IT department had one individual trying to keep up with office support, rolling out web sites and custom writing applications to support our business. We had many competing priorities and were struggling to make progress. Today we have three individuals and they’re providing outstanding support to the organization. Our internal support is efficient and we are quickly able to rollout event web sites. We’ve also started making significant improvements to the SQLSaturday web application. One huge win has been Orator, our custom developed tool that manages speakers and abstract submissions for conferences. Orator is already starting to reduce workload at HQ and amongst our various event program teams and has improved communication with speakers. 

PASS SQLRally. The selection process for the PASS SQLRally 2013 will be starting up in the next couple of weeks. This year we expect to have a room block approved to broaden the base of possible host cities. We’re also going to have HQ more involved in helping the cities with the logistics side of their proposal. We discussed various ways to involve PASS members in the selection process: either selecting the final city from a short list or having a vote earlier in the process that simply counts as one component of the selection process. Whatever form this takes will be clearly outlined in the application process. With PASS Summit 2013 on the east coast, our hope is to balance out our geographic footprint with SQLRally 2013. 

PASS Summit. We’ve grown so big that for this year’s Summit we will be using both the North and South sides of the convention center. The biggest change? The dining hall will move over to the North side and will be accessible via the sky bridge. We’ll likely have to move a few session rooms over to the North side as well – which means larger capacity rooms! We also brainstormed on new ideas/formats for this year’s Summit and discussed the possibility of having only 2 keynotes this year. What do you think? Let us know. The Summit selection process for 2015 and 2017 was also touched on. 

Board Appointments. The Board spent 90 minutes discussing Board appointments. I briefly covered this in a blog post last week. The discussion covered a variety of topics with the entire Board participating, and the bottom line is that we stand by our recent appointment decisions. However, we know we need to improve our communication around how the appointment process will work next time. 

Global Growth.  In an effort to manage the explosive growth of SQL Server events and membership outside of North America, we’ve set up committees to look at various ways we can better support our global membership. The Event, Event Content, Communications, Chapters and Governance committees all provided updates. Some highlights: we will temporarily un-gate all PASS recorded sessions currently on our website, we’re going to implement a new Connector newsletter look and feel, and we’re exploring different models of PASS governance structure.  I’ll be writing more about our  governance discussions and ideas in a future newsletter.

The next in-person Board meeting will be in Dallas in conjunction with PASS SQLRally 2012, which will also be attended by the Board. I hope to see many of you there!

The PASS Board meeting wrapped up on Thursday in Seattle, and as promised, we discussed the Board appointment process for close to 90 minutes. We gave careful consideration to the membership feedback received over the last couple of weeks and reviewed all opinions. We understand and respect that certain of our members disagree with our decision. However, the Board members who voted in favor of the appointments of Kendal Van Dyke and James Rowland-Jones stand by their decision.

As PASS President, I erred in not clearly communicating how the appointment process would work. I should have been clear whether I would automatically recommend the runners up or choose from a broader pool for my recommendation to the Board. In the future, if we have known appointment openings prior to the start of the election process, I will clearly, and publicly, articulate how I plan to approach the appointment process.

In the next PASS Connector newsletter, we will provide a roundup of our latest Board meeting and will do so for every subsequent in-person meeting. I’m also encouraging PASS Board members to blog about their Board meeting experiences. We do publish the Board meeting minutes, but I recognize many of you do not have the time to review these lengthy public documents, so we’ll summarize as best as possible and publish the information in our bi-monthly newsletter. This will help us do a better job articulating and communicating PASS Board discussions and decisions.

Jennifer Moser, Microsoft SQL Server Senior Marketing Manager and PASS Director, recently talked with PASS Marketing Vice President Thomas LaRock about the upcoming virtual launch event of SQL Server 2012 on March 7, 2012.

Thomas: I understand Microsoft is celebrating the launch of SQL Server 2012 with a Virtual Launch Event.  Why online?

Jennifer:  On March 7, 2012 we will be hosting the first ever online event to officially launch SQL Server 2012. We wanted a place where anyone, anywhere in the world could simply log-in and be a part of this exciting experience. There are so many reasons why hosting an online event made sense to us this year, but the biggest reason is that hosting a virtual launch event allows our customers to consume content at their own pace while still experiencing all the benefits of a live event.

Thomas:  Appreciate the focus on the international community.  What can we expect from this experience?  

Jennifer:  We are excited to have over 30 sessions that introduce customers to the new capabilities of SQL Server 2012. Attendees will hear from industry experts + Microsoft executives and be able to connect with peers from the #SQLFamily. We will also have an expo hall and networking lounge – just as you would have in a live event. One of our favorite features about launching SQL Server 2012 online is the community aspect. Attendees can connect, share, and learn from their peers all from the comfort of their own home or office. Customers can also win badges and hundreds of cool prizes throughout this virtual launch.

Thomas:  How is PASS participating in the SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event?

Jennifer:  We are very excited to have PASS participate in the SQL Server 2012 Launch Event with a PASS booth in the expo hall area. PASS will have videos, links to content, and live chats with board members, local chapter leaders and PASS HQ. Part of the experience will include three live streaming keynote sessions in US, UK & EMEA, and Asia Pacific time zones to reach the maximum number of people. Our goal is to make the event as friendly to people across the globe as possible and we are especially excited to highlight regional & local PASS leaders throughout the experience.

Thomas:  Where do people go to register for the Virtual Launch Event?

Jennifer:  The SQL Server 2012 Virtual Launch Event registration has just gone live. Visit www.sqlserverlaunch.com and register today. We’re really excited see you all on March 7th to experience the SQL Server 2012 launch!
 

The blog post below is written by James Rowland-Jones (JRJ) in response to feedback surrounding the recent board appointments. The post reflects his personal views.

In the Autumn of 2011 I started several journeys. One of them was to be invited to support and share my knowledge of the international community with PASS. As a Board Advisor I picked up roles for governance, chapters and steering sub-committees reporting into the “Global Growth” portfolio. This work didn’t just constrain itself to international endeavours either I also had to get to know PASS as an organisation. My role in the community to date has not been related to PASS at all. SQLBits has historically been my primary focus for community endeavour. Speaking of which I also had to play my part in the successful execution of SQLBits 9 and in parallel we also launched plans for SQLBits X. This has been no small undertaking. If you haven’t seen we have worked closely with the local Microsoft UK subsidiary and Microsoft Corp to secure SQLBits as the UK Technical Launch event for SQL Server 2012 – a feat that the whole organising committee can feel rightly proud of. 

Before I knew it the elections were upon us. I had a decision to make. It felt very close. We really needed to kick-start the Global Growth portfolio and I was still feeling my way into my position as Board Advisor. I don’t think we had fully bottomed out the scale of the task before us when the elections came around nor the significance of the changes. SQLBits was also taking up an inordinate amount of time and then that meddlesome day job was also getting in the way.

Therefore to summarise, I did not run for election because I simply would not have been able to do the process justice. It wasn’t a decision I took lightly. I was delighted though that Rob, a seasoned PASS veteran, ran from the pool of Board Advisors and I supported his submission. Raoul clearly could not run as it would have breached PASS bye-laws had he been successful. It was also wonderful to see the dramatic increase in interest in the PASS board elections. As has been pointed out elsewhere it was an outstanding success and I congratulate all who were involved in that process.

When Bill approached me he said that he wanted to recommend the appointment of a Director to manage the Global Growth portfolio. I thought he was making the right strategic choice. Here’s why and note this is not about me but it is all about the role.

PASS is investing in Global Growth. It’s a strategic bet. The interest in the SQL Server Community internationally has never been higher and PASS needs to make the most of this. PASS needs to change to embrace it’s wider responsibilities – it’s an evolutionary step. My role to date has been to advise the Global Growth Portfolio and its sub-committees on what that future shape might be. As time has gone on it has become clear to me that my fellow international advisors and I are doing a lot more than advising. We are shaping the international agenda for PASS. We are spending money on it. There will be budget exceptions and there will be change – significant change. Someone needs to be accountable for that. As a Board Advisor I am not accountable – I am a Teflon coated consultant. Something needed to change and I am glad that Bill spotted this.

I therefore wholeheartedly support Bill’s desire to have a board director owning the international agenda. There is a job to do. 

Now it is true to say that Bill could have appointed Rob, my fellow Board Advisor and now Director-at-large, to the portfolio of Global Growth. He was an elected official and had Global Growth experience. However, in my view, he chose instead to make another strategic choice. 24HOP is an international event – one that Rob has been committed to for a long time. It’s a sensible choice as it also aligns to Rob’s work to date with the International Events sub-committee within Global Growth. I am absolutely certain that Rob will be a huge success in this position and to me makes a very positive statement from the President about his commitment to the international community.

I’d like to close by commenting on why I decided to say yes and accept Bill’s nomination.

I believe that re-structuring PASS needs to start in 2012. I personally don’t believe it can wait for another election.  The scale of the task before us is really quite significant. I have already invested over three months of time and energy into the international role. I know a lot more about this process now than I did back in August / September when this journey started. By accepting this appointment there was an opportunity to cement the global growth portfolio at Board level and allow us to move forward with accountability this year.  Did I realise that there would be this need back when the election nominations first were announced? No – not in this timescale. You only need to look at the number of planned international SQL Saturday events to see that we cannot wait. The time to change is now. My personal view was that this is more of an extension of what I was already delivering for PASS at Board level. Adding someone else in would have in my view arrested our progress and also added cost – and waste - to the PASS organisation. Every Board member added, be it advisor or director, increases cost to the PASS organisation. In this instance we would have basically been doubling up. Remember the vacant slot I have been asked to fill is the Director for Global Growth. It is not a generic Director-at-large position. It was also at the Board’s discretion to fill the position or not. The Board did not have to fill them – they chose to. However, had someone else had been chosen to fill this role then this is what they would have been charged with doing.

That said, I do understand the concern amongst the community for appointing someone who did not go through the election process. Let me say that I think the concern is valid and with hindsight this process might have been easier had I stood for election in the first place. I don’t think anyone is doubting that. However, I have been vetted by your board for the last three months whilst doing the job of international Board Advisor. I can’t think of a more thorough interview. Therefore I do not believe that leaves either me or PASS either ethically or morally bankrupt and I certainly don’t believe that I have usurped anyone else’s right to be on the Board. Look at what has materially changed for me and for PASS. I now have a vote on the board and I am now directly accountable for the successful delivery of the Global Growth Portfolio. Costs to PASS are the same. My investment in PASS has increased. Accountability in place. Velocity protected. I therefore considered this to be a sound decision for all involved and I do not regret the decision to accept.

This year is an exciting year. In 2012 we have a new version of SQL Server containing some of the most exciting changes we’ve seen since 2005. We will also be making some strategic changes within PASS to help us scale this community organisation internationally.  I look forward to engaging with you throughout this process and my only ask would be that you support the effort PASS is making to scale it’s reach so we can help support the international SQL Server community.  You can help. If you want to have your say then do please feel free to contact me at JRJ@sqlpass.org. I look forward to hearing from you and working with you in the year ahead.

Cheers, JRJ

Recently the PASS Board of Directors confirmed the appointments of James Rowland-Jones and Kendal Van Dyke to serve the remainder of one year terms that had been left vacated. This action has caused some members of the PASS community to question the methods in which members to the Board are appointed.

The current process is as follows: The President puts forth a recommendation, the Board discusses, and, the entire Board votes. Typically the pool of candidates for an appointed seat comes from the candidates that were not elected and this year we also had the opportunity to consider a current advisor (Rowland-Jones) to the Board as a candidate, an option not available previously. 

It is not the case – as some community members have stated in the last couple of days – that the next highest vote getter in the PASS election is automatically asked to serve for an appointed Board seat. I know this because in 2007 I fell 13 votes short of winning a seat in the general election and was not asked to serve a vacant seat for 2008. That honor went to Pat Wright. I was disappointed, to say the least, but I knew it was the right thing for PASS. Appointments are chosen in order to give the Board the best combination of skills to be successful in the coming year. That was true in 2007, and it is true today.

For these most recent appointments, the Board had thoughtful discussions and gave careful consideration to several potential candidates and the vote was 11:1 to appoint James and Kendal. This was not an easy choice for the Board to make. As is often the case, the hardest thing to do is also the right thing to do. And this was the right decision for the upcoming year.

The process for selecting the appointments used to be done solely at the discretion of the President. It was only recently that the bylaws were altered–based on community feedback–to have it go before the Board as a voting matter. In acknowledgement of some of the questions and concerns we’ve been hearing, I will ensure that some time be set aside during the next Board meeting (in two weeks, in Seattle) to discuss a method or process to properly address community concerns over Board decisions – maybe we can look at some type of PASS Ombudsman role to fill that need. Happy to hear about any other suggestions you may have. Leave comments below or email me your thoughts at Thomas.LaRock@sqlpass.org.