Category: Volunteers
The Call for Nominations is now closed! The NomCom will review the applications and invite select applicants for interviews. All applicants will be contacted on July 27, and interviewees will be announced to the PASS community on July 28 on the Elections Site and, of course, right here on PASS Blog.
Thanks to the following applicants for throwing their hats in the ring this year:
- Allen Kinsel
- Andy Warren
- Denny Cherry
- Douglas McDowell
- Geoff Hiten
- Jack Corbett
- Mark Ginnebaugh
- Markus Sprenger
- Steve Jones
The final slate will be determined after the interviews. That announcement will be made on August 18. Campaigns will start the same day, and you'll be able to compare the candidates' campaign platforms and application answers at that point.
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.
Cheers!
Hannes
Governance -- PASS HQ
If forums are your game - then please send me your name!
We are actively searching for volunteers for the following:
1. Two (2) main moderators who assist the administrator on the Summit forums; they will also help “seed” boards by starting topics, asking questions, and engaging posters [estimated time about 15-30 minutes daily; avg = 2.5 hrs/week]
2. Two (2) “seeders” whose main job is to start topics and engage posters on a regular basis to keep conversation flowing on the Summit forums.[estimated time about 15 minutes daily; avg = 2 hrs/week]
This is a great way to get involved and gauge the pulse of the Summit. If you are interested, please send me an email at nancy.nasso@sqlpass.org (submission deadline is July 30, 2010)
Thanks in advance!
Nancy Nasso, Community Coordinator
Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) Headquarters
Phone: 604.899.6269 I Fax: 604.899.1269 I Email: nancy.nasso@sqlpass.org I http://www.sqlpass.org
Twitter's been buzzing (#passvotes) and the community's wondering: who's going to run for the Board this year?
Thanks to all of you who've submitted applications already. If you've been thinking about it but you're still not sure whether it's worth your while, it may help to read some of these blog posts from former and current Directors debating the pros and cons of serving on the Board. The likes of Andy Warren, Jeremiah Peschka, Pat Wright, and Thomas LaRock tell you why it is worth your while to run this year. And if you're a little lazy (like me) and you prefer snappy tidbits, some Board members have also been nice enough to share a few thoughts with us.
For more details on being a Director or the time line involved, please visit the PASS Elections website.
Don't forget, though -- deadline's in 24 hours!
Cheers!
Hannes Bezuidenhout
Governance -- PASS HQ
I’ve never had the opportunity to be on the abstract selection committee, so it was interesting to see the process in action. To be clear, I was not on one of the selection committees, but I am on the Program Committee so I was still involved in the process.
The abstract selection committees are chosen out of the group of people that apply to volunteer for the Program Committee. We work to ensure that each team includes at least one person that has been on an abstract selection team in the past. Our hope is that they can provide some additional guidance. We also provide at least one training session to go over the tools and answer any initial questions.
Prior to the call to speakers, the number of allocated sessions are set. They are allocated in total to fit the number of rooms that we have available. That total number is then split between the tracks (Application and Database Development, BI Architecture, Development and Administration, BI Client Reporting and Delivery Topics, Enterprise Database Administration and Deployment and Professional Development) to help make certain that we provide a balanced Summit selection.
Once the call to speakers closed, we knew that the abstract review committees were going to be in for a lot of work. Here are the numbers that we were looking at:
Total # of regular session abstracts submitted: 513
# of regular session community slots allocated: 72
Doing the math, that means that only 14% of the abstracts submitted were going to be selected. Within the tracks, that percentage ranged from 11% to 18%.
During the review process, the individuals on each team go through the abstracts in their track and rate them on 4 different areas – Abstract, Topic, Speaker and Subjective. Each of these areas are rated using a 1-10 scale and there is an area for comments. The abstract section has to do with, among other things, whether the abstract was complete (were session goals identified?), clear (was it easy to understand what the session would be about?) and interesting. The topic referred to the interest in and relevancy of the chosen topic. As far as the speaker – the abstract review teams had access to a report that provided previous Summit evaluation data for previous Summit speakers. They could also draw on personal knowledge or other information that they had access to. All of the individual scores added up to a total rating per abstract for the team.
Once the individual team members were finished with the evaluations, they came together as a team to rank the sessions. Along with looking at the total rating, they also looked at the different topics that were covered to ensure that the sessions covered a broad range of topics. Once the abstracts were ranked, the teams updated the session status to Approved, Alternate or Considered (Not accepted). If the status was Considered, the teams provided a reason as to why the abstract was not selected.
At that point the list of sessions came back to the Program Committee managers. We made certain the correct number of sessions per track were chosen and that no speakers had more than two sessions. There were a couple of cases where speakers had more than two sessions – for these cases, we went back to the teams for additional selections.
That’s it. Well, I guess I mean, those are all of the steps – it’s a ton of work and I’m grateful to everyone involved for all of their hard work. We recognize that there are probably ways to improve the process and we’re in the process of setting up meetings with all of the teams to get their input. I hope this provides clarification to some of the questions that people might have about the abstract selection process.
In the spirit of the World Cup, please accept a big South African "howzit" to the PASS Community!
It's only June and already the elections are upon us. Wayne Snyder, PASS's Immediate Past President, formed the 2010 Nominations Committee last week. The NomCom members are:
Wayne Snyder (Chair)
Thomas LaRock
Rick Heiges
Rick Bolesta
Judy Christianson
Denise McInerney
Stu Ainsworth
The Committee has been busy reviewing and discussing the elections documents that the PASS community helped audit over the past month. Both the NomCom and the Board gave their okay to the documents currently available on the elections website. With all the steps in place, PASS is now ready to start looking for its newest Directors.
So, without further ado, it is time to announce the Call for Nominations for the 2011/2012 Board term.
If you're considering running for the Board, we strongly urge you to apply. The more applications we receive, the better the elections process will run. More importantly, though, PASS would like to see its most talented members in leadership positions. If you think you or someone you know is an ideal candidate, please review what it takes to be a Director, download the application and apply before the July 21 deadline. Click here for other important dates.
As a PASS Director, you would be responsible for the day-to-day activities of the organization, as well as setting the course for the organization on short- and long-term decisions. The primary directive of the Board is to focus on the key strategic issues of the SQL Server community by providing members with opportunities to advance their technical and professional skills, network at the local and international levels, and interact with the industry’s most accomplished users and experts.
You can read more and stay up to date on the elections process at http://elections.sqlpass.org. Please feel free to keep in touch with the Elections team at HQ (consisting of myself and Nancy Nasso, PASS Community Coordinator). You can also voice your opinions via Twitter (#passvotes) or visit the elections discussion forums at http://elections.sqlpass.org (to be launched in early July).
Thanks in advance for staying involved. PASS couldn't run without your dedication and support!
Cheers,
Hannes Bezuidenhout
PASS HQ - Governance
The SQL Server community never ceases to amaze me. The number of people that are willing to take time out from their jobs and families to volunteer is especially impressive.
I’ve had the good fortune to be able to volunteer for the Program Committe this year. My job is to pull together special projects and whatever other slave work Allen thinks up for me. I’ve had a number of volunteers that have put great work into our current project. This project has multiple steps and has required a ton of coordination between the volunteers – but it is all coming together. It’s something that’s been needed for awhile and now it’s going to be a reality. I’d name names, but I know that I’d forget someone. So thank you to everyone that’s helped out.
It’s not just me, though. My husband, Tim Edwards, in the process of re-starting the Performance VC. He had mentioned the need for volunteers through our blog, Twitter and Blythe (Blog/Twitter) put out a call for volunteers on the PASS blog. He’s been overwhelmed at the number of people that have asked to help out.
For all of you that volunteer for PASS – kudos to you! For those of you that are thinking of volunteering, but haven’t yet, get ahold of Tim or me or go here for additional volunteer opportunities.
PASS is looking for a few great, excitable people to join the ranks of our volunteers. We have three Virtual Chapters starting up and would love your energy in helping us make them a success. The positions available are as follows:
Performance Virtual Chapter
• Speaker Coordinator - reach out to potential speakers, schedule Live Meetings, and be a part of the leadership team
• Web Content Guru - navigate the DNN site, update the webpage, and aggregate performance-related content
• Marketing Coordinator - post meetings on the Events tab of sqlpass.org, push the sessions out on all virtual chapter channels, and get the PASS community excited about Performance Virtual Chapter events
SQL Azure Virtual Chapter
• Virtual Chapter Leader - work directly with Microsoft leads to get this group off the ground, connect with speakers, and bring a lot of energy to the PASS community. Preferably this person will be at TechEd where the Virtual Chapter is launching, although it’s not a requirement
• Marketing Coordinator - work with PASS and the SQL Azure team at Microsoft to develop swag, push messaging out, and get the community excited about sessions
• Content Coordinator - aggregate SQL Azure specific links, post meeting information, and facilitate conversation between users
SQL Server and Oracle Virtual Chapter
• Virtual Chapter Leader - work directly with Oracle and SQL Server experts at Microsoft to get this group off the ground, connect with Microsoft and community speakers
• Marketing Coordinator - work with PASS and the Microsoft leads to develop swag, push messaging out, and get the community excited about sessions
• Content Coordinator - aggregate specific links, post meeting information, and facilitate conversation between users
If you are passionate about the PASS community and have a background in the aforementioned areas of technologies, please send through your interest to VirtualChapters@sqlpass.org with the subject line “Virtual Chapter Volunteer Opportunity” and answer the following questions in the body of the email
Virtual Chapter name and position:
Why would you like to serve as a PASS volunteer?
What makes you great for this position?
Please describe your previous involvement with PASS
Tell me one random and humorous thing about yourself
Thanks everyone!
Blythe
Allen Kinsel (Blog/Twitter), PASS Summit 2009 Program Committee Manager and a 2009 PASSion Award winner, wrote a great blog post recently recognizing and thanking many of the wonderful volunteers on the Summit 2009 Program Committee. We second (and third and fourth!) the thanks, and want to add an additional thank you to Allen as well for his tireless dedication and hard work!
- PASS HQ Read the rest of entry »
It feels like eternity, yet only 6 weeks back the PASS community came together in Seattle for yet another exciting summit. The educational content was cutting edge and the company comprised of who's who of the Microsoft SQL Server world. This year's summit certainly did not fail to excite and rejuvenate everyone who attended.
The PASS board and the terrific team at HQ worked extremely hard all year to build the community at large and support various community initiatives. The summit was a time for the entire team to reach into the community, to receive input on how they had done so far and what they should do moving forward. Although the summit itself was demanding, it was also a time to celebrate successes.
As we went through the pictures from the summit, we found this collection of amazing pictures of our board members. We hope you enjoy them as well. Read the rest of entry »
The PASS Board of Directors today approved its new Executive Committee for the 2010-2011 term. The new ExeCo is:
President -- Rushabh Mehta
Executive Vice President (Finance) -- Bill Graziano
Vice President (Marketing) -- Rick Heiges
Due to widespread interest in greater transparency and communications between PASS leadership and the community, 2009 featured a departure from previous appointment processes. Unlike years past, candidates -- all current elected members of the Board -- nominated themselves for the open position of Vice President (Marketing), traditionally the most junior role on the Executive Committee. There were three candidates for the position of Vice President (Marketing). The candidacy for the other two positions, President and Executive Vice President (Finance), followed the Board's established precedent of ascension, with Rushabh Mehta moving from Executive VP to President, and Bill Graziano moving from VP-Marketing to Executive VP.
In keeping with the Bylaws, the Officer Appointment Committee (OffCom) was formed to guide the process. This "OffCom", chaired by IPP Kevin Kline and consisting of Rushabh Mehta (EVP), Bill Graziano (VP-Marketing), and Judy Christianson (Executive Director at PASS Headquarters), interviewed each candidate at length. Following these interviews, the entire Board of Directors met with the individual candidates for a Q&A. Based on these interviews and discussions, the OffCom then recommended an Executive slate to the Board and put it to an official vote. The Board approved this slate.
Congratulations to the new ExeCo, and good luck! Read the rest of entry »
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