2011 PASS Board Applicants: Denise McInerney

Introduction

I am interviewing 2011 PASS Board Nominee Applicants. As listed on the PASS Board Elections site the applicants are:

  • Rob Farley
  • Geoff Hiten
  • Adam Jorgensen
  • Denise McInerney
  • Sri Sridharan
  • Kendal Van Dyke

I’m asking everyone the same questions and blogging the responses in the order received.

Denise McInerney is next up:

Interview With Denise McInerney

1. What’s your day job?

I’m a development DBA at Intuit. Intuit provides financial software and services to small business and consumers. Some of our best known products are QuickBooks and TurboTax. I manage the databases that support one of the company’s eCommerce web properties. My primary responsibilities are database design, T-SQL coding and query tuning.

2. What motivated you to run for the PASS Board of Directors?

I’ve been a volunteer for years. I served on the Program Committee for four years, I got involved with the Women in Technology luncheon in 2004 and led the founding of the WIT chapter a couple of years later. I’ve spoken at user group meetings, SQL Saturdays and the Summit. I’ve served on the nominations committee. Through all this I’ve come to understand the organization, both its strengths and challenges.

I’m running because I have more to contribute. I think my extensive PASS experience combined with my leadership skills and ability to see the "big picture" put me in a strong position serve the membership well as a Director.

3. What is PASS’s largest challenge right now?

PASS has seen a lot of growth and expansion of events and activities in recent years. The addition of SQL Rally, a bigger Summit, the big growth of SQL Saturday and adding local chapters are all good things that advance PASS’ core mission. I think the challenge for the Board is to manage this growth so that it is sustainable. We need to make smart choices about where PASS’ time and money are allocated so we can continue to provide our members with the high-quality events they expect.

4. What is PASS’s greatest opportunity right now?

PASS has a remarkable pool of dedicated, talented and energized volunteers. Volunteers have always been they key to the success of the organization. There is an opportunity to give our volunteer leaders more space to drive execution in their given area. If we do this well we will accomplish more and grow a broader layer of leadership in PASS.

5. Complete this sentence: "If I only get one new thing accomplished while serving on the PASS Board of Directors, I want to…"

I have several ideas, but if I had to pick one right now I’d say: "increase PASS’ outreach to college students." I’m not sure what form this would take. Maybe it would be resurrecting the scholarship program, or marketing to university students in the Summit host city, or offering a special Summit registration rate for students. I think there is an opportunity for PASS to establish itself with the next generation of data professionals.

In a few days I will be attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. A significant number of attendees at that conference are university students. I’m very interested to learn more about what the event offers them.

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…"

Increase the empowerment of volunteer committees and drive the focus of the Directors toward strategy and long-term planning.

7. Share something interesting about yourself!

One of my interests outside of work and PASS is dogs. We have a rescue dog who came to us with some issues. Through working with him I’ve learned a lot about dog training, especially positive reinforcement methods. He’s improved so much that now we compete in a sport called "Rally", which is a type of obedience work. It’s fun to compete and get to know other handlers and their dogs. And it’s been very rewarding to see a dog that had been written off become a well-trained and happy dog.

Andy Leonard

andyleonard.blog

Christian, husband, dad, grandpa, Data Philosopher, Data Engineer, Azure Data Factory, SSIS guy, and farmer. I was cloud before cloud was cool. :{>

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