Once Was Not Enough

PASS has sent out the call for nominations as part of the election process for the Board of Directors. I was notified through some members of the community yesterday about the announcement. I then took some time contemplating what I wanted to do: should I run again? If so, why? I mean, the bacon at the meetings was good enough to make me want to come back, but was that enough?

So I spent some time trying to assess where I was a year ago at this time and where I am now, and tried to ascertain if being on the Board has helped me grow as a professional during that time. When I was asked to fill in for a vacant seat I was also asked to oversee the PASS Special Interest Groups. The SIGs are very near and dear to my heart, I have been associated with them for five years now. I saw the opportunity to help the SIGs get past the roadblocks we have always seemed to hit every time we tried to make traction. So, I decided to keep things as simple as possible and focus on just a few key items.

1. Find their biggest roadblocks and remove them
2. Have them focus on helping us to drive membership, and less on providing hard content
3. Rebrand them as “Virtual Chapters”

Eight months later and we have managed to accomplish each of those items. The biggest roadblock was the SIG web portals they were using. By rebranding them as Virtual Chapters we were able to get them to use different websites allowing them greater functionality than what they had previously. Then, instead of asking them to provide hard content to their websites we asked for them to provide conversations. Host a monthly webcast, record it, and post it. Publish a top ten list of sorts, and generate a discussion around an idea or concept that relates to their area of focus.

What did I learn from all this? Well, first off I learned how awesome Blythe Morrow at PASS HQ is; I would be lost without her. Second I learned that if you want people to contribute to a group you need to ask them to do things that they are already doing as opposed to doing something completely new and different. Hence, when we needed to get a Virtual Chapter dedicated to virtualization I turned to Brent Ozar. He is already doing extensive work on virtualization, so why not have that work be shared with others? Same idea for people focused on application development, or business intelligence. Keep doing exactly what you are doing now, just remember to contribute it to us when you are done.

I also learned the power of the phrase: I understand. Think about that for a minute. If you are in a discussion, and someone simply responds with “I understand”, how do you react? Without a doubt, my use of that phrase in the past year has saved me from many arguments. It is a way for me to tell people “look, I know what you are saying, but I still do not agree with you.” Or, “I know what you are saying, and I will go get that done for you.” Either way it helps keep discussions civil and polite, especially when they get heated.

I also learned that you can be quite professional when telling one of your peers that they screwed up. You do not need to yell, demean, or belittle someone that is either up or down the chain from you. On more than one occasion I have seen people have very candid discussion about some unpleasant topics, and we left the room that night without any baggage. When was the last time that happened in your office?

I thought about all these things and then submitted all of my documents to PASS to inform them that I am running again. Once was not enough for me, I want to do this again. When I think about how much it has helped me grow in the past year I imagine how much more growth I can have over the next two years as I take on more responsibilities for PASS. No question it was worth my time, and no question I should do it again.

On a related note, the elections will open and close in October, lasting only for a week. If you register for PASS by October 8th you will be eligible to vote in the upcoming election. That means you cannot roll into Seattle in November to wait to vote, it will need to be done early this year.

Look for a few more posts from me on this as the process plays out. I am hoping my application is accepted and I get asked to participate in the interview process. If I do, I will let you know. After that is inclusion on the ballot, and then finally the elction itself. I still need to make a video. Crying helps, right?