Managing the Money for SQLOrlando

Part of the decision of setting up a non profit is committing to a bit more than minimal effort when it comes to keeping track of the money. We’re still early days on that journey but I thought I’d share some of what we have set up so far. We have one bank account with […]

Notes From the 2018 PASS Summit (v20)

This was the 20th PASS Summit, a decent milestone! Interesting to pause and think, what will the Summit look like in another 20 years? Notes from this year: Flew out on Monday, uneventful. Arrived in Seattle around 1130 and was able to get my room right away at the Motif. Good start to the week. […]

Reasons to Serve on the PASS Board of Directors

A few weeks back I wrote Some Thoughts on How To Prepare to Serve on the PASS Board of Directors. The responses I heard, especially during the Summit last week, had two themes: Recommending that much preparation will deter many candidates from running/is the bar for serving really that high? What is the value in […]

The No-Election PASS Election

I was disheartened to read the post that shows we have three candidates for three positions this year. Started with six, two opted out (this is not uncommon as candidates sometimes realize they are not well enough prepared) and it seems one was rejected. Rejecting someone is unusual and not done lightly especially when it […]

PASS Summit 2019 or Microsoft Ignite 2019?

It turns out that the 2019 Summit and Ignite will be held the same week in 2019, see this post from Grant for details. It’s definitely a terrible situation for PASS, either compete to some degree (perhaps more for speakers and MS employees than attendees) or try to exit a contract and find a new […]

Some Thoughts on How to Prepare to Serve on the PASS Board of Directors

From time to time I’m asked for advice and insight on running for and serving on the PASS Board. I feel like the answer to that might fill a small book! I don’t have time to write that and I don’t think it would sell a lot of copies anyway, so maybe a medium length […]

Notes from SQLSaturday #801 (2018)

We wrapped up our 12th SQLSaturday here in Orlando two weeks ago. Overall things went well. Registration was just a little higher than last year at 505. Last year we estimated attendance at 300. This year Kendal really worked to get an accurate count and it came in at about 260. Perfect counts aren’t impossible, […]