PASS Board Update

Time for another update.

The minutes for the June in-person meeting have been approved and are now ready for your information. We accomplished a lot in the two days and you can read what we did there. I’m pleased about two things. First, while it took until the July meeting to get the vote in, we have defined how the PASS board will deal with PASS-branded and PASS-sponsored events when it comes to payment to members of the Board. Thank you so very much for your feedback to my blog post on this topic. That feedback helped us to come to the conclusion that, for PASS-branded events (these are events that PASS doesn’t run, like a SQLSaturday, but that are operating under the PASS brand) a board member can receive payment, say for a pre-con, from the event, but that these payments must be announced (the fact of the payment, not the amount) to the board and read into the minutes. That’s it. Nice and simple. We’ll provide nice, open, clarity on when this is occurring, while making sure that becoming a board member doesn’t mean you give up the ability to run a pre-con at a SQLSaturday or similar event. It seems like a small thing, but it’s important that we do things right for the community and for the members of the board. I feel like this was a model of how to deal with issues before the board. We were open and up front about what we were discussing. We got input from you. We made a clear decision that will support the community well in the future.  Win.

Next, we voted to extend the Global Growth Committee for another year and I got my wish to lead the Committee. PASS is a global organization and while a large  majority of our current membership is from the US, we have had tremendous growth globally over the past several years and anticipate significant growth to continue from outside the US. For example, we are adding a LATAM seat to this year’s elections with the incredible growth that we’ve seen in the region over the past few years.  PASS’ plan is to expand on our success there and continue to grow in Latin America.

While we have already established ourselves in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), we know that our community continues to need our support here as well.  We are looking at ways to bring more people into the PASS community and we’re also going to start thinking about how best to expand into other regions as well. We’re working on figuring out ways to get more feedback and ideas on how we can best serve each of the unique regions, territories and countries and their unique needs. I think you can see, the key word there is unique. I completely recognize that what works for one country/region/language will not work for the next. We’re going to be flexible about how we do things and what we do so we can reach you better, regardless of where you live. Lots more to come on this one, but, please, never hesitate to give me feedback. I’m personally invested in this topic and need your help.

That’s it for the details of this update. I’ve helped finish my first $10 million budget and am now working with the auditors. Finally, I’m starting to get nervous/pumped for my part in the keynote this year. You’ll have to stay tuned for more on that as well.

That’s what I have for the moment. Let me know how we’re doing.