PASSion Awards

Lifetime Achievement PASSion Award Winner: Kevin Kline

In PASS's 10 years of existence, the organization has never known a time when Kevin Kline wasn't on the board of directors. “Kevin’s dedication to PASS, love of the SQL Server community, and wise, thoughtful guidance over the past 10 years has been an inspiration to us all,” said Board President Wayne Snyder.

Kevin—who has served as VP Marketing, Executive VP, President, and Immediate Past President during his decade on the PASS Board—received a moving tribute and the first-ever Lifetime Achievement PASSion Award to a standing ovation during PASS Summit 2009 in Seattle.

As PASS Summit 2009 was winding down, Brian Moran invited Kevin to a back corner of the PASS booth for a candid interview exploring Kevin's 10-year journey with PASS. As Kevin's fans stopped by to say "Hi" from time to time, he talked about how a decade on the PASS Board has changed him, what he's most proud of and things he would have done differently, as well as what's in his future as he leaves the board. Here's the transcript of their conversation, thanks to SQL Server Magazine.

International and North American PASSion Award Winners

In 2009, two outstanding volunteers received the PASSion Award.

Charley Hanania was the winner of the International PASSion Award. Charley is a Sr. Database Specialist at Quality Software Solutions and leads the Swiss PASS Chapter. As 2009 Organization Committee chair for the PASS European Conference, he managed the entire European PASS Conference and invested approximately 600+ hours to make it a success.The conference was a huge success, and as one of the nomination letters stated,  "In the end, we had our first profitable year in our history—in the worst economy ever."

Another nominator stated, "Charley is very easy to work with, a team player...Charley rocks!"

Allen Kinsel was awarded the North American PASSion Award. Allen is a Lead Database Analyst at American National Insurance and has been a volunteering with PASS for 5 years. He was Program Manager on the Program Committee this year, and served on the Volunteer and Nomination committees. His role as Program Manager included selecting volunteers to form the abstract selection teams, compiling results, and working to get the Abstract Submission and Review sites ready.

Various people said about Allen: "He put together one of the best programs I've seen at PASS" and "he is a wonderful ambassador for PASS." Another nominator said, "Allen is incredible – he was integral to the Nominations Committee and jumped on to this committee as we needed someone. He is punctual, always available, very communicative, and ... is our ‘point man’ for any questions. He responds to emails the same day. He gets 20/20."

2008 PASSion Award

Kathi Kellenburger received the 2008 PASSion Award. She has been a volunteer with the PASS Program Committee since 2005 and served as the PASS Program Coordinator for the last 2 years. Additionally, she has worked with the PASS Editorial Committee since 2007, and helped organize the WIT Luncheon in 2005 and 2006.

Nominated by The 2008 Program Director Lynda Rab, Kathi has been an integral part of the Program Committee’s success. Lynda had the following to say of Kathi’s accomplishments:

“This year [2008] Kathi was an integral member of the Program Committee. The team had to overcome many challenges as we had major changes to procedures and systems. Kathi was always there to jump in when there was a problem, when we had tight deadlines and when we were trying to improve things. She was a key member of the team that evaluated, tested and customized the new PASS program/abstract review/speaker resource and itinerary site. Kathi has been an invaluable resource this year and the program committee would not have run half as smoothly without her. She was extremely committed to the success of the program this year and put in many, many hours week after week to make sure everything got done.

On top of volunteering on the Program Committee and the Editorial committee this year, she is the co-chair of her local PASS chapter in St. Louis where she presents several times a year. She was also awarded the Microsoft MVP designation this year [2008]."

Past PASSion Award Winners

2007 - Denise McInerney
2006 - Pat Wright