Category Archives: NTSSUG

PASS Board Elections – Voting Deadline is TODAY!

In case you have been under a rock, or buried in work, or otherwise occupied, the PASS Board elections are going on and end TODAY! There are some amazing candidates (thanks to the selection committee for all of their work in bringing us this fine list of folks) running for a handful of seats. Big question – have you voted yet?

When you vote you are exercising your voice and opinion on who from the SQL community best represents your views on the direction and future of the PASS organization. That said, the total number of people voting during each election cycle has steadily declined, with fewer that 1000 people voting last year.

With this being one of the easiest ways to be involved with PASS, you would think that these numbers would be increasing. If you have not voted yet, go check out the candidates. If you look at all of them, and just can’t decide who to vote for, give that Chris Hyde a second look – while it might seem like personal bias, I honestly feel he is well equipped for this position and will represent PASS and the SQL community with the same enthusiasm and vigor he has brought to the Albuquerque user group and all the other locations where he has spoken for user groups or SQL Saturday events (including the North Texas SQL Server User Group).

The voting deadline is 12 noon PST today (2pm CST). If you haven’t voted yet then put that query down and get to it!

Speaking – SQL Saturday Baton Rouge!

This Saturday will mark the fourth year that I will be speaking at SQL Saturday Baton Rouge at LSU. Out of all the SQL Saturday events I have participated in since 2014, Baton Rouge is one of the few that I have been to every year since. Houston is another one…and actually, these may be the only ones only because they have had an event every year.

Not only am I speaking on Automation with PowerShell and Deadlocks and Blocking, but I am also participating in a panel discussion on Careers in IT. I’m excited to be invited along with some of the other speakers to be a part of this. Looking back on my own school days, I knew I would have a career in IT, but little did I know I would detour from a path in development to the world of SQL Server, and becoming a DBA.

How do they make this happen? Work. Lots of hard work. After helping with SQL Saturday Dallas 2015, joining the NTSSUG board in 2016, and then having an organizing role in 2016, I found out how much goes into the planning of these events. If you have attended a SQL Saturday or you are going to in the future, be sure to say “THANK YOU!” to all the organizers and sponsors. If you want to get more involved in the SQL Server community, SQL Saturday is a great way to do that – just show up at the event, find an organizer and tell them that the SQL Kitten sent you to be their humble servant volunteer for the day…or you could just say you want to volunteer and leave out the other stuff because it might make it weird.