#passvotes When doing the right thing ain’t popular…

If you Tweet or follow Steve Jones’ blog, you’ve already gotten the news that Steve will not be on the slate for the Board of Directors this year.  It was a tough decision for the Nominations Committee to make, but I wanted to address some of the controversy before it boils over.  I do, however, have a few caveats:

    • As a member of the Nomination Committee, I can not (and will not) go into details about why we reached the decision we did; I want to be transparent, but I also want to protect the sanctity of the application process.   I think the interview process should be private between the applicant and the Committee in order to allow applicants to express themselves freely without excessive public scrutiny, and;
    • I don’t want to start, or be dragged into, a PASS-versus-Steve discussion.  I sat on the committee, and I was involved in the discussions behind the slate, and it’s painful for me to read comments like “The NomCom should be ashamed of themselves”, or we were “supposed to act professional”.   It’s very tempting for me to dive into the fray with both fists swinging, but to do so would either negate my first principle (I might say something I shouldn’t), or prove the previous commenter correct (I would be ashamed of myself for stooping to that level). 

So, how do I talk about this without talking about it?  I guess I’ll start with what my intent for this post it; I can’t discuss how or why we reached a decision about Steve (that’s not fair to him), but I do want to defend the professionalism and integrity of the Nominations Committee.

Just to restate the process for those of you playing at home:

  1. The Nominations Committee (NomCom) of PASS is charged with overseeing the applications process for building a slate of nominees for the Board of Directors.  The NomCom is supposed to recommend the best candidates from those willing to run.
  2. The NomCom evaluated applicants initially on their applications, and identified 7 out of 9 applicants that we wanted to interview.
  3. The NomCom interviewed those applicants, and had several discussions of those interviews.
  4. The NomCom proposed a slate of candidates for the Board to approve, and the sitting Board of Directors had the option to approve or modify the proposed slate.  They chose to approve it as it stood.

Steve obviously made the first cut on his application because we interviewed him.  Since he didn’t make the slate, you can probably surmise that something happened during the interview phase for a significant portion of the NomCom to not recommend him.  What’s being overlooked in the current controversy is that several other interviewees DID make the slate.

That’s important; we applied the same rigor and professionalism in interviewing all of the candidates that we did to Steve,  In fact, I can honestly say that we discussed Steve Jones MORE than any other candidate because we were all a little surprised at our own decision.  We knew it was going to be unpopular with the community, and we knew that there were going to be questions about how we could exclude such a great guy like Steve (and to be clear, I do think Steve is a great guy; he’s a great asset to the community and to PASS). 

What could we have done?  Should we have proposed a candidate simply because he’s a popular choice?  Should we have given him a do-over in the interview?  Neither of those choices seemed professional or appropriate, and so I stand behind the decision to be consistent with all candidates, and I hope that most of you would have to come to the same decision if you were in my seat.  If not, I’d hope that you understand that it was my desire to be professional and to have integrity that led me to this decision.

2010-08-18 by Election2010 SQLServerPedia Syndication 41

#passvotes Interviews, interviews, interviews…

Not much new to report on the PASS 2010 Nominations process this week (http://elections.sqlpass.org).  We’ve interviewed 5 of the 7 remaining applicants, and overall, it looks like we’re going to have a great slate for selecting candidates this year.  Unfortunately, I had to miss a couple of the interviews due to a faulty merge-and-purge process at work, but the ones I did sit in on were very impressive.

I promise that I’ll write a more in-depth post after the interviews are done, but I don’t want to skew the remaining interviews.  Hang in there.

2010-08-09 by Election2010 SQLServerPedia Syndication 0

#passvotes The process rolls on…

I’m in a bit of a sticky wicket here; as a blogger, I feel obligated to share what’s going on with the Nomination Committee for the 2010 PASS elections, but as a member of that committee, I feel obligated to not say too much too soon.  However, I have seen some of the buzz on twitter regarding applicants that have been selected to continue moving forward and those that were encouraged to try again next year.

All I can really say at this time that we have looked at all of the applications that we’ve received and have decided to move forward with interviewing 7 of the 9 applicants.  An official announcement is forthcoming about how we came to our decision to move forward with those 7, but I did want to share a piece of information that is guiding the process of selecting candidates for the board.

PASS is a volunteer organization that serves the SQL Server community, and although the goal of PASS is to be a resource for everyone who works with SQL Server, there are lots of members of the community that have a limited history of involvement with PASS.  In other words, there are several community leaders (speakers, authors, bloggers) that don’t have hands-on volunteer experience with PASS (i.e., working as a chapter leader or a committee member); while these community leaders are great assets to the community (and PASS),  I was concerned that they didn’t have enough exposure to the organization to lead it.  This was a hard choice to make, because you could look at an application and see that the applicant had a real heart for leadership and support within the SQL Server community, but compared to other applicants, they just didn’t have the same experience with PASS.

Of course, that’s easy to rectify, and there’s always another opportunity to run for election next year.  I’m excited about the applicants that are lined up to be interviewed over the next two weeks (and I’ll probably refrain from commenting until after those interviews are done).  I’m also learning a lot about how PASS committees work, and I hope to continue helping out in the future.

Be sure to check out http://elections.sqlpass.org for the official news.   Good luck to the rest of the applicants; regardless of what happens during the interviews, I am positive we will have a great slate of candidates to choose from during this year’s election.

2010-07-28 by Election2010 SQLServerPedia Syndication 0

T-SQL tip: Use a role for EXECUTE permissions

If you are in a high-security environment, this may not be the best tip for you, but if you’re in a situation like mine where you have a SQL user that is connecting to a database in order to EXECUTE stored procs, and you know that user needs to be able to EXECUTE every proc in that database, you can save a little time by creating a role for that:


CREATE ROLE usp_execute
GO

GRANT EXECUTE ON SCHEMA::dbo TO usp_execute
GO

This means that the user will be able to execute EVERY stored proc belonging to the schema dbo from this point forward; again, be cautious when using this.  Security models should not be taken lightly.

2010-07-23 by SQL SQLServerPedia Syndication 4

Kung fu and the art of SQL Server

A few nights ago, I watched The Forbidden Kingdom with my kids; I’ve seen it before, but this time there was a message in it that I needed to hear.  Obviously, I’ve been in a slump lately, and even though I’m continuing to be involved in what I do as a SQL Server professional, I haven’t been excited about it in a long time.  I’ve been at my current position for almost 8 years, and frankly, I’ve gotten bored.  Mix that with a lot of post-divorce depression, anxiety about the future, and all of a sudden my yin and my yang are not in harmony.

DISCLAIMER: I should point out that my feelings of boredom are NOT an indicator of any dissatisfaction with my current employment; rather, it’s a personal feeling that I’m not pushing myself as hard as I used to.   I’m not planning on making a move or any other sudden change of life; I just feel out-of-balance, and need something to center myself again.

I should stop this post here and point out something; I am a student of Western civilization, and I grew up in the Bible Belt.  The little understanding of Eastern philosophy that I have comes from many wasted hours of watching bad martial arts movies (including the Karate Kid I, II, and III); for the most part, Eastern meditation is still considered to be relatively taboo in the deep south.

Anyway, back to our previously scheduled post.  If you’re not familiar with the movie, The Forbidden Kingdom is a fun martial arts action movie with lots of comedic interludes; it’s loosely based on the story of the Monkey King, and the need to return his staff to him to defeat the Jade Emperor.   The staff bearer is an unlikely choice, and he encounters two martial arts teachers along the way, who train him in the art of kung fu.  This teaching is where the film becomes relevant to me at this point in my life.

The path to kung fu is different for everyone.

In the film, the staff bearer is thrust into a strange world of mystery and chaos; it’s a violent world, and he often doesn’t know whom to trust.  However, he meets two teachers who begin instructing him on his journey.  Their fighting styles are very different;  the drunken fighting style of Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) is often in conflict with grace and agility of the Silent Monk (Jet Li).  However, both are kung fu. 

In a similar fashion, those of us who work with SQL Server have all come from different backgrounds; some of us have backgrounds in analytics, some in application development, and some in system administration.  Yet, we are here today.  The important thing to remember is that this is but a space in time, a point in the journey; in order to survive in our occupations, we must continue along the path.

Kung fu requires a desire to learn.

While this seems self-evident, it is often the hardest lesson to learn.  Kung fu is not just about being willing to learn a few new tricks, it’s also about being willing to put aside preconceptions.  Too often we think we focus on what we believe is the right thing to do to maintain our current place in life, only to later find out that we wasted a valuable opportunity to learn something new.  From the film (thanks IMDB!):

Jason Tripitikas: You think you’ll teach me the No Shadow Kick? Oh, and the Buddha Palm Technique. There’s a guy in Virtual Fighter 2, who does the Buddha Palm Technique.
[Lu gives him a cup]
Jason Tripitikas: Thanks, Lu. And he does the Iron Elbow. And he does the One Finger Death Touch.
[the cup starts overflowing]
Jason Tripitikas: The cup’s full. Stop! It’s full!
Lu Yan: Exactly, how can you fill your cup if already full? How can you learn Kung Fu, you already know so much. No Shadow Kick, Buddha Palm! Empty your cup.
[Jason empties his cup]
Lu Yan: [looks at him in surprise] Hopeless. It is hopeless!

Obviously, the lesson is there; the student has preconceived notions about what he should be learning to be a master, rather than simply watching,observing, and learning from what the path presents.  In my own path to be a SQL Server developer, I’ve neglected my administration skills.  I’ve walked away from learning SSIS because my job required me to build a custom ETL process.  I’ve filled my cup with what I think are important things, and neglected to pay attention to the path.  If I were to apply for a development position today, it would be a challenge to convince a future employer of my worth.

Kung fu requires discipline.

Any one who’s ever seen a martial arts movie recognizes the essential truth of this.   To be good at what you do, you must be disciplined in your study.  However, what is important to kung fu is recognizing that discipline is required not only in the maintenance of skills, but also in the ability to sense where the path leads.  As a database professional, you must be willing to invest time in perfecting those things you know (T-SQL? database design?), but also spend extra time learning something new (pick up SSIS or SSAS; how about Reporting Services or Visual Basic?).  True kung fu knows the balance, however; it is often best to be a master of a single skill than a novice in all of them.

Jason Tripitikas: What do we do now?
Lu Yan: How good is your Gung-fu?
Jason Tripitikas: [puzzled look]
Lu Yan: He who speaks, does not Know; He who Knows, does not speak. Surely you’re masterful.

Kung fu masters are obligated to teach any student that seeks, no matter how unlikely the choice.

This is the part I have been struggling with lately; I have neglected teaching, and that is critical to learning.  If you want to learn something new, volunteer to teach about it.  I recently taught a seminar on XML in SQL Server because I wanted to learn more about it; granted, I didn’t push myself hard enough so I didn’t learn as much as I should have, but at least I took another step along the path.

But kung fu is not just about teaching to the willing student, it’s teaching to those who are different than us.

The Silent Monk: But, he’s not even Chinese.

Too often we database professionals assume that the only people that are interested in what we do are other database professionals.  We often fail to volunteer our services to developers, because we assume that they aren’t interested in database performance; instead we grumble about how poorly applications perform.  We don’t share our concerns about how I/O’s affect the database, and instead struggle on with the allotment that our system administrators hand out on the SAN.  We should be volunteering to speak at other user groups, to share our passion with even the unlikely students.  For example, my friend Aaron Nelson recently spoke at a Powershell event; Aaron himself would admit that he’s a SQL guy first, Powershell guru second.  Yet he took the opportunity to teach students with whom he shared little background on a subject with which he had some exposure.  That’s kung fu.

Final thoughts.

I think most martial art movies attempt to convey the message that kung fu is about self-discipline, rather than preparation for violence, but make no mistake: kung fu is an effective fighting skill.  A master of kung fu is a warrior, not a ballet dancer.  I’ve recently read a great book, Wild at Heart, which contains the following bit of wisdom:

Man is not born into a sitcom or a soap opera; he is born into a world at war.  This is not Home Improvement; it’s Saving Private Ryan.  There will be many, many battles to fight on many different battlefields.

We are at war with ourselves; the battle to perfect our craft is a battle against sloth, laziness, and a lack of focus.  I am choosing to continue on the path of kung fu in my quest to become a SQL Server master, and I hope you can make the same commitment.  For me, that’s a commitment to finish my SQL Server 2008 certifications before the end of year; that’s a benchmark, not a destination.  I need to learn much along the way.

2010-07-15 by Education SQLServerPedia Syndication The Social Web 1

Well, boo…. Back to the drawing wheel #sqlpass

Nose to the wagon board.  Grinding away at the dog-and-pony show.  Keeping a stiff upper lip.  Insert Other Platitudes…

Apparantly, PASS started notifying potential speakers that their submissions for Summit 2010 were accepted today for ; unfortunately, I was not one of them (at least not yet).  2 of my 3 submissions were “Considered” before being rejected, and a third is listed as an “Alternate”.   Although I’m disappointed, I do think that it suggests that the quality of submissions must be EXCELLENT this year.  I mean, if I didn’t make it, then obviously they put in the heavy hitters 🙂  Congrats to those who did make it.

I’ll keep trying, of course; I was accepted to speak at the Baton Rouge SQLSaturday, but unfortunately a personal conflict is keeping me from being able to attend.  I have high hopes about Nashville, and I’m pondering Kansas City.    I’m also planning on presenting at the Columbus Georgia SQL Server User Group in September, so I’ll keep refining my chops a bit.  I’m also still hoping to attend Summit, if I can figure out a way to pay for it.

Anyway, back to the grind.  Life ain’t all bad; I’m teleworking this week from lovely Florida, where I’ve been able to work all day, see friends at night, and enjoy some time at the beach in the evening.  It’s all a matter of perspective.

2010-07-08 by Conferences PASS SQLServerPedia Syndication The Social Web 1

English Interpreter of English #PASSvotes #sqlpass

In case you missed it, the call for nominations for the PASS Board of Directors went out yesterday; there are 3 seats that need to be filled this year, and PASS is trying to be very open about the nomination and electoral process this year.  I thought I would post a couple of links here (in case you missed them), as well as my brief perspective on parts of the process.

General Information

First, there’s the general home page for the 2010 Elections: http://elections.sqlpass.org  Not much to day, but here’s where you can find answers to a lot of your questions about the application and nomination process, and it will continue to be updated as candidates are chosen.  Of special interest to most people is the section labeled “How Does It Work?”; in one short paragraph (copied below), the nominations procedure is well-summarized:

The elections process starts with the nomination application.  Applicants are screened and ranked by the Nominations Committee.  The top applicants are invited back for an interview.  They are then again ranked by the Nominations Committee, which presents an election slate to the Board of Directors for review.  The top interviewees become the official candidates when the Board of Directors approves the election slate.

Additional links going into greater detail are also in this section, including a timeline and an in-depth walkthrough of the 2010 elections procedure.

So you think you have what it takes?

On the right side of the page are a couple of links; one for the actual application (APPLY NOW), and one for What does it take to be a Director?  The latter is probably THE most important link on this page in terms of transparency because it lays out the general guidelines for choosing a candidate from the small pile of applications we (the Nominations Committee) hope to receive.  Be sure that you spend some time on this information (if you’re interested in applying), but realize that much of it is describing the IDEAL candidate, which may or may not exist in the real world.   Think of it like you would any job interview; your skills may be a perfect fit for most of the criteria, but you’re probably going to have some weak spots as well.   However, other candidates will have the same limitations; the Nominations Committee is looking for people that are generally qualified to perform the job needed, and we will be picking the best candidates from the list of applicants.

How many applicants will make the slate?  PASS bylaws require that the slate be made up of (n+1) candidates, where n equals the number of Board seats available.  There may also be no more than (n*3) candidates, so for this election with 3 Board seats available,  we (the NomCom) hope to present between 4 and 9 candidates for election.   However, if we do not receive enough viable applicants to move forward with filling all 3 seats, the Chair of the Nominations Committee has the right to present a smaller slate and leave seats open; this is NOT an ideal situation, so please APPLY NOW if you are generally capable of being a Director.

Who is the Nominations Committee?

The NomCom for 2010 is:

Wayne Snyder (Chair)
Thomas LaRock
Rick Heiges
Rick Bolesta
Judy Christianson
Denise McInerney
Stu Ainsworth

Brief bios can be found here.

2010-06-24 by Election2010 SQLServerPedia Syndication 0

so it’s official: I’m a People Person. #PASSVote2010

I’ve been appointed to the PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server) Nominations Committee for the 2010 Elections for Board of Directors; as one of two volunteer (non-Board) members, my job is to provide some feedback to the other members on the pulse of the community. While I am deeply honored, I can’t help but feel a smidge like Tom from Office Space.

The good news is that one of the main goals of this committee is to provide transparency into the electoral process of PASS; much of the information regarding why candidates were chosen (or not) will be provided throughout the process (barring any personal information) in order to create a dialogue between the community and the board.  I think this is a good thing, even though it’s not always easy to implement.  There are three board positions open this year, and I hope we get a slew of excellent candidates from which to pick.

Anyway, stick around for more news about the election; every year gets a little more exciting, and I hope that this year proves to be no different.  PASS is a community-driven organization; it should represent the ideals of the SQL Server community.  In other words, if you are a database professional, PASS should represent your interests, and be a useful mechanism for furthering your professional development.   That only works when people get involved, mmmK?  Oh and remember, next Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.

2010-06-21 by Election2010 SQLServerPedia Syndication The Social Web 4