My new job has kept me away from blogging recently but when Andy Warren (blog|Twitter) posted the question on his blog “What should PASS be” I couldn’t resist.
If your one of my few followers reading this I’m guessing you know my long history with PASS. I’ve been in most of the volunteer roles PASS has. I’ve accomplished many things as a volunteer I’ve also failed on many things. I believe now more than ever PASS needs to focus on “Keep Moving Forward” This is one of my favorite sayings and one I tell my team often. We’ve all walked into a data center/database/software system and wanted to cry, yell or fire some really big guns. PASS needs to focus on what it’s doing well right now and keep doing it.
Continue making the summit great.
In my opinion the Summit is the best SQL DBA conference you can get. I have attended others and other trainings but nothing has the feel of the summit. Something was built there, some magic sauce was put together and the most important thing I think PASS needs to do is keep stirring the pot and keeping making magic sauce.
Focus on Regional events and 24 hours of pass
Take the magic sauce from the Summit and spread it around. SQL Rally is a great idea and we need to do more of them. Keep the momentums going refine the process and make it better, I love local events put on by local people. I put a lot of time and effort into our SQL Saturday and I want to continue to see others make great events locally. Those local events truly make local community; while it’s easy for some to use Social Media to have a global community others just want that local community. We should foster community no matter what shape it takes. 24 hours of PASS is an excellent training resource as well. I would love to see 24 hours of pass ask the speakers to do the same presentations at later dates to local SQL chapters via live meetings. I know some already do this but it would be great to get the speakers for 24hop together with chapters to start working out some schedules and ways of getting those presentations out to the user groups.
Focus on your Volunteers
I’ve given a lot of my time to PASS and I know many many more that have as well. We need to recruit others and get them involved as well. The more people that are willing to give some time to help others the better our community will be.
As always I can’t thank the Board the volunteers and everyone at HQ that makes PASS possible. I’ve said it many times that I really appreciate the hard work that everyone has put in. Anyone that gives of themselves freely is a hero in my book. So let’s “Keep Moving Forward”
Sql Insane Asylum (A Blog by Pat Wright) 
Pat, thanks for taking time to write, good thoughts! There’s so much growth possible at the local level, hoping we can make that happy.
I like your Magic Sauce pic 🙂 Thanks for your thoughts.