PASS Call For Nominations

Earlier this week Andy Warren blogged about how the call for nominations to the PASS Board of Directors will be opened in the next couple of weeks. Andy also mentioned a handful of people he felt would be good candidates and hopes will submit an application when the time comes. Fast forward to today’s PASS Connector and you find a post by Kevin Kline that discusses the traits he feels make for a quality board member.

My term on the board ends this year. If I want to continue on the board I will need to apply for the position in the same manner as anyone else, by submitting an application when the call for nominations officially opens. I had read Kevin’s post this morning and was talking with Brent Ozar about the elections process when he asked a simple question, “are you going to run again?”

Um…well…let’s go to that post by Kevin. He outlines the three things a successful board member needs. I am always my biggest critic, so I did a quick self-evaluation to see how well I have measured up in the past seven months.

Strategic Thinking

This is certainly a very important aspect, no question. A board member needs to be aware of the “big picture”. This could mean a lot of things but to mean it primarily means that (1) you need to make decisions that benefit the community as a whole and (2) you need to be aware of industry trends. As such you will find board members have many discussions around item such as Business Intelligence, Master Data Management, Cloud Computing, and Virtualization. Each of those topics has a direct impact on the future skillset of any DBA, which means we need to be mindful of the big picture when we make decisions for the PASS community.

Have I done that? Well, I would like to think that I have been mindful of the big picture over the past seven months. I rarely keep a blind eye to the fact that there is always another side to every coin.

Vision

Kevin is right on about this aspect. Of course you could argue that this is true for everyone in any professional position. You absolutely need to see the state of things as they currently are, and where you want them to be. In my case I was handed the SIG portfolio back in January. I was already quite familiar with the SIGs and the roadblocks they were facing. As such it was an easy vision for me to have; I wanted them to operate just like any other PASS Chapter. Monthly meetings, produce some content, have discussions on specific topics, give the community a place to find people with a niche expertise with regards to SQL Server. And I would like to think we have taken some large strides to get there.

I have other visions for the PASS Community as well, mostly with regards to membership and professional development. And I hope to help PASS get there whether I serve on the board or not.

Emotional Intelligence

I think this particular aspect could easily be named “Managing Relationships”, which is also commonly included whenever someone talks about having the necessary soft skills to interact with others. I know that I have gotten better at this with the passage of time, no question. But of equal importance here is how the other board members feel about my soft skills. Am I perfect? Absolutely not. Do I listen to other points of view? I think so. Do I complain about things? Uh, yeah, just a little. Do I also try to offer solutions? Every chance I get.

In short, do I play nice with others? Well, I try to, but sometimes it also depends on the others.

So, will I be running again this Fall? Well, if you recall my professional New Year’s resolutions I put election at the top of the list. I have run each of the past two years and fallen just short of being elected outright. This past year I was appointed to fill a vacant seat. It would be nice to actually run and win for a change. So yes, I do intend to submit an application again once the call for nominations goes out.

But I would be remiss if I did not also call out a handful of individuals I would like to see also submit an application once the call for nominations is opened. The PASS community would be for the better if these individuals were to run and get elected, in my opinion. This list is meant to supplement the list Andy already produced. And yes, I included Steve Jones again but that is not meant to slight anyone else on Andy’s list.

• Steve Jones
• Grant Fritchey
• Brent Ozar
• Tim Ford
• Louis Davidson

When the time comes I hope each of these individuals will take a moment to consider serving on the PASS board. I believe they have the exact qualities that Kevin outlined and could help continue to drive PASS forward.