PASS Update #64 (Officer Elections)

Recently former PASS President Kevin Kline posted his thoughts on the current slate of officers. I encourage you to read it, but the crux of the post is that Kevin opposes having two members of the same company serve on the Executive Committee as a protection against undue influence. There’s some good discussion in the […]

SQLSaturday #85 Is Just Around the Corner

Coming up on September 24th we’ll be doing our fifth annual SQLSaturday here in Orlando. We’re still at Seminole State College but in a different building (not far away), we’ve got a great schedule, we’re charging less for lunch this year (only $5!), and lunch will be served by many of the speakers, who will […]

Testing Decisions

One of the things I like to do is take some time on decisions that matter to me. That’s a broad scope. Typically “yes” decisions are ones that I’m immediately comfortable with the risk, reward, whatever, and I know that I’m not going to rethink it afterward. Decisions that will be “no” I think on […]

Parking Places & Editorials

Parking places, that’s the topic of my recent editorial on SSC. A simple topic, but one that most of us get (after you read the editorial!) and one that transcends technology, maybe one that reminds us that we all metaphorically put on our pants one leg at a time. I’ve tended to measure success by […]

Strong Manager or Weak Manager?

Here’s the link to my editorial on SSC last week. I was pleasantly surprised by the discussion, and was interested to see that rather than strong the word ‘brave’ popped up. That’s interesting to consider, it’s less about technical skills and more about personality, the willingness to fight the hard fights. Of course the hard […]

Notes From The 2011 Jacksonville Code Camp

In a departure from my usual plan, this year I drove up to Jacksonville mid-morning in time to have a leisurely lunch with my family, and then had them drop me off at the University of North Florida about 1:30 pm. It’s definitely different to arrive in after lunch, all the excitement and chaos is […]

PASS Update #63 (How Do We Rate)

A short update today, following up on an email to the Board from incoming VP of Finance Douglas McDowell who suggested we go through an evaluation process similar to what is done at Charity Navigator. As far as I can tell we don’t meet their qualifications to be rated, and to be fair we’re not […]

What I’ve Been Up To Lately

I ran into a friend at a recent event and during the discussion he asked what I was doing lately because he couldn’t tell from my blog. Good comment, and reminds me how easy it is to forget to discuss what seems obvious. Last year my restlessness hit a new high. Training was starting to […]

PASS Update #62

Our most recent Board meeting was Aug 11 & 12 in Ft Lauderdale (located so we could attend SQLSaturday on Saturday). The week started with our management company deciding to change plans and attend by phone instead of in person. In person meetings are where we hope collaboration gets done, having anyone on the phone […]

Defining Your Culture

Imagine that you take over a team, department, maybe even a whole company, and as you look around at how things are done and how people are treated you decide that the culture isn’t what you want it to be. That doesn’t mean the current culture is bad, just that it doesn’t – from your […]