After the dust has settled from our national brouhaha, the PASSMN SQL Server community will hold elections for 3 of its 6 board positions. Paul Timmerman (Board Chair), Jim Dorame (Director of Program Development), and Riley Major (Director of Technology) are ending their 2-year terms. Cecil Spivey (Director of Membership / Treasurer), Eric Zierdt (Director of Corporate Development), and Jim Horn (Director of SQL Saturday) will stay on to finish the second year of their terms.

Any member can throw their hat in before November 11th by emailing an introduction and plea to support@mnssug.org. Then show up to the November 15th meeting and make your case. Roles are chosen by the board itself after the elections, so candidates aren’t running for particular positions. The election will be conducted via email from November 16th to December 2nd. It will probably be based on official membership on the PASS site, so be sure your information is current and you’ve officially joined the PASSMN chapter.

I’m seeking re-election to the board and applied for the job earlier today with this introduction:

I’ve been working with SQL Server for 16 years. I’ve served on the PASSMN board for the past two years as the Director of Technology. I worked with Rick Krueger to bring our new website online and keep it updated with our monthly meeting details. I’ve presented at our last three SQL Saturdays and two of our user group meetings. I set up a Trello account for our board to stay organized. And I helped coordinate the latest SQL Saturday and our related donation to Rebecca CoderDojo.

I believe there’s more we can do for our members. We should explore expanding our geographic reach or putting more effort into establishing groups in greater Minnesota. We should survey our membership to understand if our location, time, and content are still the best fit to the market. We should explore having meetings and even SQL Saturdays more often. We should consider improving outreach to other technology user groups, joining Meetup.com, and sponsoring other technology conferences.

I believe in the power of community. Help me continue building ours. Please support me with your vote this November.

@RileyMajor

Here is the official invitation email from the group:

It’s time for us to start thinking about the PASSMN Board for 2017.

3 of the 6 Board seats are up for election and we are currently looking for volunteers who might be interested in running.

Those elected will serve a two-year term. We do not elect people into specific positions. Positions will be discussed and filled at the transition luncheon which will occur shortly after the election period ends. Information on the various Board positions can be found here.

If you are interested in running, please take note of the following dates.

November 11th – By the end of business on Friday November 11th, please email a brief write-up, up to half a page, introducing yourself and providing a bit of insight as to why you would like to serve on the PASSMN Board. We will collect all submissions and send them out to the mailing list the following week, with information on the election process. This will be a separate email from our monthly newsletter/meeting notification. Write-ups should be emailed to support@mnssug.org.

November 15th – We are asking that all candidates plan on attending the November monthly meeting. We will be introducing the candidates to those UG members in attendance, allowing people to put a face with the name. All candidates, if they want, will be allowed to make a brief (couple of minutes) statement.

November 16th – December 2nd – The election will be held utilizing Survey Monkey. Members will be allowed to vote for up to three candidates.

If you have any questions regarding this process or want more information on the PASSMN Board, please email your inquiries to support@mnssug.org.

PASS is a global organization of over 120,000 data professionals who use the Microsoft data platform. If you use any part of SQL Server or Power BI, you should join for free and find your local chapter. If there isn’t one nearby, you can still join a virtual chapter and you should consider starting your own local chapter. PASSMN is the local Twin Cities area Minnesota chapter.