Just One of Those Days

This past Tuesday afternoon I flew to Tucson to take part in the SSWUG vConference. I was away for about 33 hours in total. And enough happened in those 33 hours to make it feel like it was 33 days.

Such is the life of a SQLRockstar, I guess. The afternoon flight got me to Tucson in time for me to get about six hours of “sleep” (I always have trouble sleeping in hotel rooms) before getting up at 4:30AM local time. I needed to get some breakfast and had to be in the studio by 5:45AM. I arrived in time to see the keynote and then we had to quickly switch over for my talks. There was a slight glitch with my slide decks bu thankfully I had a copy of them stored away (I am a DBA, after all, right?)

The talks themselves went well enough. I always think I can do them better. It was interesting to do them live but without an actual audience. I think my recent UStream broadcasts prepared me well for speaking and having to moderate comments at the same time. Fortunately Chris Shaw (blog | twitter) was there to help keep the crackpots away. I forgot to ask him if there was any other feedback on my talk, for example, if someone was asking for their money back.

Before my talks started I remembered to put my phone on mute. And a good thing I dd as I had five different calls during the talks, including one from my dentist! One of the calls was from Kevin Kline (blog | twitter). And when Kevin calls, you answer. Or, in this case, you return his call. He was calling to inform me that I had been elected and to keep my mouth shut until PASS could put out an official announcement at 3PM. OK, he didn’t use the words “mouth” and “shut”, but he did remind me that it would not be good for me to make an announcement prior to the official statement from PASS. So, there I was, staring at a camera with a live audience, and I held my tongue.

When my day with SSWUG was done I found my blackberry full of emails from friends and colleagues saying congrats. I also notced a lot of tweets and re-tweets about the announcement. I was a bit surprised by how many people seemed to be involved at that time.

I sent out a tweet to thank everyone for their support but did not have time (or connectivity) to blog. I wrote a few notes during my flights and finished this today. In short, this is what I want to say:

Thanks.

I truly want thank everyone for their support. Well, everyone except for those four people that voted for Brian but not for me. Seriously, what up? I am elated to serve as a director at large for the next two years, I am. Hopefully I can continue to improve my skills to the point that the next time around those four people feel comfortable including me on their ballots.

I am not certain about the typical turnout for voting in the past, so I do not know if 578 ballots is high or low when compared to previous elections. In 2007 I lost by a total of 13 votes. When Kevin broke the news to me with a mouth full of chicken wings at the Rock Bottom Brewery he asked me a simple question: “Tom, how much campaigning did you do?” I told him that I did little to none, and we agreed that if I was serious about becoming a board member then I would need to raise my profile in the community, and that he would help.

Kevin got me involved in doing some writing for Quest. The first thing I helped to put together was a SQL 2005 poster for system stored procedures. I also was asked to join the Quest Customer Advisory Board. Both of those items help me find some other opportunities, such as speaking at SSWUG in the Spring of 2008. I started blogging a bit more frequently after meeting Brent Ozar.

I became so involved in extra activities that I was not going to run for the Board in 2008. But then I remembered that all of the good things that happened to me in 2008 were a result of Kevin’s help, which came about because I lost an election. I felt it was my responsibility to run for the Board again, I owed it to Kevin.

And I lost. This time by 20 votes. Things were getting worse.

Well, not entirely. I had a strong showing in the election. Strong enough that I was asked to consider an appointment to the board for the 2009 year to fill a vacant seat. I jumped at the chance because I saw this as the perfect try-buy opportunity. If I didn’t like the board, I could walk away after one year of service. If I did like serving, then I cold run again in the Fall.

Well, I loved it. I don’t know how others feel about me, and I think they appreciate me being involved, but I know that my involvement energizes me, and I look to spend time on things in life that give me energy as opposed to something that drains my energy. The PASS Community energizes me. It’s that simple.

So here we are. Me and 418 other people that think enough of me to represent their concerns at the highest level of pass.

I am honored, truly. These last two years have been wonderful for me in terms of professional growth and experience. I look forward to the next two years and all the challenges they bring.

Let’s get started. But first, I need to do the bacon dance at PASS. Then we can get started.