Introduction
The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) election cycle has started for 2011. You can read all about it here. This year there are two elections as three members of the Nominations Committee (NomCom) will be elected first. These three NomCom members will serve alongside a PASS Board member and former PASS President Wayne Snyder. I’m not sure who determines the qualifications of the applicants for the Nominations Committee election; but the applications are screened first and the PASS Board of Directors approves the slate of NomCom applicants before the membership is allowed to vote for them.
As in years past, I plan to blog about the PASS Board Elections 2011. I hope to interview applicants and candidates as the process progresses.
Sections
There are four sections to the site at the time of this writing:
Timeline
The timeline is available here, but reprinted below for your convenience:
Nom Com Elections
August 10
Applications open
August 19
Applications close
August 22
Applicants notified
August 24
Campaigning and voting begin; forums open
September 9
Voting closes
September 14
Candidates notified and sent information package on Board elections
September 16
Initial meeting of NomCom
September 24
Approval of completed Board election questions
September 29
NomCom review of Board election application form
Board of Directors Election
October 1
Announce Board election; forums open
October 5
Board applications open; NomCom given interview block options
October 19
Board applications close
October 20
NomCom meeting; final interview blocks determined
October 26
Candidate rankings due to PASS HQ
November 1
Candidate interviews scheduled
November 2
Candidate interviews begin
November 16
Candidate interviews end; NomCom finalizes slate
November 18
Candidates notified of ranking
November 22
Candidates’ opt-out deadline
November 30
Campaign materials due to PASS HQ
December 6
Campaigning and voting opens
December 20
Campaigning and voting closes
December 27
Candidates notified of election results
December 28
Election results announced
A Suggestion
Andy Warren (Blog | @sqlAndy | SQLPeople) wrote PASS Update #61 a couple days ago. In it, he mentioned the PASS Board meeting in Ft. Lauderdale this week and some items he wanted to discuss. One bullet point in particular caught my eye, Measuring Satisfaction:
I think we should be polling our members once a year to see if they believe we are moving in the right direction. We should be polling our Board to see if they are finding the role to be fulfilling, and to see if they get the appropriate levels of support from within the Board and HQ. We should poll HQ too, because we want them to be successful, and we should also poll employees that leave.
I like this idea. I think member feedback is important in any community but I’m not sure many agree.
I want to know how you feel about it. What do you think of Andy’s suggestion?
Update
In anticipation of several posts regarding this year’s PASS Board Elections, I have created a landing page with links to my posts on the topic.
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Right… so you’re asking for feedback on whether we should be asked feedback or not.
I’m guessing that if we say ‘no’, it develops a paradoxial situation that can only be resolved by someone going back in time and stopping the decision being made…?
LOL Rob!
Metafeedback…
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The Godfather of SQL (Andy W) speaks with wisdom. Yes, we really do need more feedback at all levels. I think we have all seen that PASS struggles with getting enough communication to happen.