SSC Editorial: Kitchen Culture

I continue to be a student and observer of culture at work, it’s always interesting to see a unique twist of an idea, or to see how various groups within a company have their own sub-culture. Often it’s about seeing an idea and amplifying it, something I thought about when I read an Inc Magazine […]

SSC Editorial: We Want Maturity, But Is It Fun?

I wrote We Want Maturity, But Is It Fun? for SQLServerCentral to begin sorting out my own thoughts about when and why I see work as fun. I’m a problem solver at heart, so a good day (and a good job) is one that gives me interesting problems to solve. I enjoy the process of […]

Deciding On a Presentation Topic for 2015

I’m spending some time this week and the next few weeks thinking about what I want to talk about next year. 2014 was about learning plans and I will continue using that presentation in 2015, but my focus this year is to pick a topic that will work well for chapters/user groups. That really speaks […]

More Notes From The PASSWatch Project And Thoughts on Transparency

It’s been just over two months since I wrote the first post for PASSWatch. I’m trying hard to keep PASSWatch a “pure” source so I’m posting my notes on it here (and will include the link in the weekly summary of course). I can boil the lessons learned down to this: It’s not enough to […]

SQLFamily.Org

Back in March 2013 I wrote We Need A Place For SQLFamily News after the death of the spouse of a local chapter member. In April 2014 we had a former chapter member die and last week I ran across a post from a speaker I know about recovering from a stroke. That reminded me […]

SQLSaturday Austin

I was pleased to get the email yesterday confirming that I was selected to speak at SQLSaturday #362 on January 31, 2015. I think the last time I was in Austin was 2004 or so when I was at Dell for a week for SAN and cluster training. It was a memorable trip for a […]

Thoughts On A State of the Chapter Statement (and Doing More)

This is a follow up to a thought I voiced on Twitter last week – the value of a once a year “state of the chapter” message from each chapter (or at least the Orlando ones!). Before we cover that, some background. I’ve never been terribly happy with how PASS measures Chapters. Around 2007-2009 the […]

Thoughts on Speakers and Topics for PASS Chapters

After wrapping up my part of SQLSaturday Orlando this year I’ve been thinking on what if anything we might do to increase attendance at oPASS & MagicPASS. Attendance at both is reasonable right now, this is just me looking and thinking about what we could add to what we have now. Is more better? I’ll […]

Thoughts On Raising Funds and Spending Funds for PASS Chapters

Based on limited but practical experience I believe chapters typically work hardest to find speakers and sponsors, the latter being the main (often only) way that funds are raised for the chapter. Sometimes the sponsors give cash, sometimes they just provide the food. Many chapters have close to zero cash on hand, in part due […]

Super Early Bird Registration for the Networking Dinner at the 2015 PASS Summit

Looking for a reason to show up at the 2015 PASS Summit on Monday, or just want something fun to do on Monday night? Steve Jones and I are organizing the sixth annual networking dinner on Monday night, October 26, 2015. It’s a low key event. Show up and we’ll get you seated with some […]

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