- Allen Kinsel
- Andy Warren
- Denny Cherry
- Douglas McDowell
- Geoff Hiten
- Jack Corbett
- Mark Ginnebaugh
- Markus Sprenger
- Steve Jones
1. What’s your day job?
By title I’m the Manager of Information Systems for a software development company called Awareness Technologies. In practice I’m the database developer, database administrator, systems administrator and storage administrator. Additionally I manage our vendor relationships with our vendors that supply our hardware, software and colocation hosting.
2. What motivated you to run for the PASS Board of Directors?
The short answer for why I decided to run is that I think that PASS is a great organization, and I’d like to help make the organization grow and be even better than it is today.
3. What is PASS’s largest challenge right now?
PASS’s most visible event is probably the summit. With the economy where it is today, and where it has been for the last couple of years it has been tough to get people to attend the summit. If we can bring more people into the summit, then PASS can use that revenue to do more for the community. Be it using that money to help make SQL Saturday events larger, perhaps helping drive more users into the chapters, etc.
4. What is PASS’s greatest opportunity right now?
I see PASS’s greatest opportunity tied to the SQL Saturday brand. I see the most important thing that PASS does as helping users get training to do their day jobs better. Now that PASS has the SQL Saturday brand under its umbrella PASS can use this to help the most people possible get training, as SQL Saturdays are free events. If we can help convert some of these SQL Saturday attendees into Summit attendees, this will help the organization help the users around the world.
5. Complete this sentence: “If I only get one new thing accomplished while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to…”
If I only get one new thing accomplished while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to increase the returning attendee percentage for the two large summits (and the upcoming SQL Rally) to bring more people together at the events.
6. Complete this sentence: “If I only get to change one existing thing about PASS while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to…”
If I only get to change one existing thing about PASS while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to help bridge the divide between the local chapters and the international organization (where the local chapters want it bridged) so that the local chapters can have more access to the PASS resources, PASS speakers, etc.
7. Share something interesting about yourself!
I’m a pretty vocal guy, that doesn’t exactly hide anything from Twitter and Facebook. I’m pretty much a crazy, loud mouth motorcycle riding DBA in Southern California.
:{> Andy
Does increasing the returning attendee % for the Summit count as a new thing? Has it never increased before? I don’t really see this response as being a new thing unless there has never been an increase before. And we can’t increase it for the SQL Rally as there hasn’t been one yet.
I think one of the most important attributes for a PASS board member is to be outspoken and to be willing you back up your words and ideas with action. I don’t think Denny will have any problem in those areas!
Robert,
As I understand the numbers, the PASS Summit attendance count has held steady the last few years. While this is good given the economy, a large percentage of attendees are new attendees each year, which means that we aren’t able to retain enough of them. So the people that aren’t coming back year after year aren’t being provided with something that they want.
True that their hasn’t been a SQL Rally before, but once the SQL Rally has happened there will hopefully be a second one to start planning for, and PASS will need to ensure that they are putting on a good event, so that the event is able to grow year over year.
Denny