Hi Folks

With the advent of the new and improved PASS website, those of us who work in the Community department here at PASS HQ have noticed a huge increase in the amount of people who want to volunteer. This is just fantastic! I would like to let the entire PASS community know about the Call for Nominations for the PASS Board of Directors that closes on the 24th of October. If you want to get involved with the SQL Server community, network professionally, and have a lot of fun, think about taking a leadership role in PASS.

The Board of Directors is responsible for setting the day-to-day activities of the organization, as well as setting the course for the organization on short- and long-term decisions. There is a large time commitment, but you will be rewarded with travel and networking opportunities.

We have posted all the information you will need at http://www.sqlpass.org/CallforNominations.aspx or you can email me at blythe.morrow@sqlpass.org with any specific questions.

Happy volunteering!

Blythe Morrow
PASS Community Programs Coordinator

Hello everyone

We here at PASS want to make sure that everyone in the SQL Server community has the opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get involved. The DBA SIG is looking for volunteers to do a variety of tasks. This is a great introduction to volunteering with PASS. The opportunities are as follows:

Short-term commitments

   1. Write an article on a DBA-related topic for our web site

   2. Give a live meeting presentation

Long-term commitments

   1. Recruit presenters and content generators

   2. Manage content review and posting to the web site

   3. General web-site maintenance (Dot-Net-Nuke)

   4. Facilitate live meeting event logistics

Please contact Sharon Dooley at DBAvolunteer@sqlpass.org if you’re interested in any of these volunteer opportunities.

Thanks and happy volunteering!

Blythe Morrow

Community Coordinator - PASS HQ

Of late, I have been witnessing an absolutely un-precedented flurry of activities at PASS HQ, signaling the arrival of the Summit. All the months of planning, preparation, conference calls, pouring over budgets and late nights all lead to what will be the largest and best SQL Server Event in PASS history! I cannot share the numbers just yet - you will probably need to wait to witness it first hand at the summit or read my blog posting during the summit :) I am getting in on Saturday and my calendar has already been filling up. I have heard from so many of you who are attending the summit - I can hardly wait to meet you!

There are just so many exciting things planned for the summit. All the way from all the new announcements that PASS will make at the summit (hint: some are related to technology!), to things we intend to do during the summit to enhance summit goers experience. You are sure to witness a new PASS! Oh - don't forget to wake up early on Thursday morning and get to the keynote in time - least you miss my debut on the big stage! I am still debating on whether I will keep my beard or shave it for the keynote! http://picasaweb.google.com/v.renuka/SQLSATURDAYEventPictures#5256669173615220882 - what do you think?

I also just completed my slides for a case study that I am presenting during Erik Veerman's keynote on Designing, Planning, and Tuning a Scalable BI Solution. I will be talking about a scale-out SSIS solution that I built at Microsoft recently.The session I am most looking forward to, is the volunteer session on Tuesday morning. This is an opportunity to get valuable input from all the wonderful and dedicated PASS volunteers to help drive the direction of PASS. I also heard through the grapevines that the SIG Bowl preparations are going very well. You will have to be at the welcome reception to be part of the action. I have thoroughly enjoyed the SIG bowl in the past. I am sure that you have heard of the Thursday evening Heroes party - I was reviewing some of the plans for that event and I must say - I am very excited and looking forward to it. Don't miss it.

Talking of activities, we will also have elections happening at the summit for open board positions. Look out for your ballot in your email. I assure you that this election process is much less stressful than the recent presidential elections - unless of course the candidates try to BLOCK the others - but then I am sure that our SQL experts know how to deal with it! 

Oh - another bit of news - PASS recently hired a full-time IT  person - David Yang and Monday was his first day! His first task - ... oh I can't tell you just yet. Stay tuned...

Seasons' Greetings!

With the momentum of the SQL PASS Summit finally winding down, and all the reconciliations made, the folks here at PASS HQ are still working furiously to get everything ready for 2009. Over in the Community Department we realized there were quite a few people who were just too excited about the Chapter Progam not to be involved, so PASS HQ Community, under the direction of PASS Director Greg Low, really wanted the program to be lead and supported by SQL community leaders. We chose people who have intimate knowledge of the SQL Server community, making sure we had representation from all over the world.  

I'd like to just shout out to the following people who have come on board to share their SQL Community expertise. Thank you so much for volunteering your time!

Brad Mcgehee (Hawaii)
Peter Ward (Australia)
Adrian Engelbrecht (New Zealand)
Nathan Pitcher (New Zealand)
Rob Hawthorne (New Zealand)
Jeremiah Peschka (Midwest US)
Charley Hanania (Switzerland)
Andrew Karcher (Pacific Northwest US)
Ron Talmage (Pacific Northwest US)
Felix Quevedo (Honduras)
Troy Shuh
Joe Lax (East Coast US)
John Allman (Midwest US)
Pat Wright (Pacific Northwest)

Also, In the last couple months we set up a special committee that will work on expanding PASS into Asian markets under our newest Regional Mentor, Sujata Mehta. We are so excited to have these three on board, and really look forward to the great things they are going to do for the PASS organization. They are as follows:
Sujata Mehta
Malathi Mahadevan
Jacob Sebastian

And that is the Community update from PASS HQ. Happy holidays!!!

Blythe Morrow
Community Coordinator
PASS HQ

As Chair of the Nominations Committee, I would like to congratulate our new board members for the 2010/2011 term. Brian Moran, Managing Partner for Solid Quality Mentors, and Jeremiah Peschka, PASS Group and Chapter Leader, will be joining the PASS Board of Directors, while Thomas LaRock continues his board service for a new term.

In total, 578 community members cast votes for up to three board candidates. Brian and Thomas garnered 423 and 419 votes, respectively. Jeremiah received 313 votes, and Matt Morollo received 253 votes.

Newly elected board members will have an introductory meeting with the current Board of Directors at PASS Summit 2009. They will officially begin serving their term on January 1, 2010. For more information about the elections process, see the Elections 2009 page.

Thanks to all the applicants and candidates in this year's elections, as well as the dedicated PASS community for being so invested in the process. Your involvement will ensure that PASS continues to go from strength to strength. Congratulations again to our new Directors-at-Large!