Making Progress: PASS Board Year 2, Q1
With each of these quarterly posts I want to be able to report progress in the areas I'm responsible for. I'm pleased to share some key milestones from the past three months.
New Webinar Platform
Last year it became clear that we needed a more stable, scalable webinar platform for the Virtual Chapters and 24 Hours of PASS. Both the VCs and 24HOP continue to grow and attract larger audiences, and the technology we were using was not meeting our needs.
We discussed requirements with VC leaders and HQ staffers who work on 24HOP. We got proposals from 7 or 8 vendors and had live demonstrations from those that would meet our needs. In the end we chose GoToWebinar from Citrix. Several VC leaders have been trained on the new platform and a couple have started to use it. And we will be using GoToWebinar for the next 24HOP event.
Projects like require organization and attention to detail. I want to recognize the work of HQ staffer Vicki Van Damme who has been instrumental in getting us to the finish line.
24HOP
Our first 24HOP of the year was held at the end of January. It was also our first "Business Analytics Edition" and featured a number of speakers who will be presenting at the upcoming PASS Business Analytics Conference. Focusing a 24HOP on Business Analytics reflects PASS' outreach to data professionals in this growing sector of our industry. Check out the session recordings to learn more about the work being done in this space.
Virtual events are a key part of PASS global growth. 24HOP Russian Edition was held in March. Thanks to the volunteers who worked hard to put on this event.
Virtual Chapters
We launched two new VCs this quarter. The Business Analytics VC has already hosted 4 meetings and is playing an important part in PASS' growth into the BA world. The Bookreaders VC is a virtual book club where members get together online to discuss a book. They are starting with Itzik Ben-Gan's "T-SQL Fundementals for SQL Server 2012." There is still time to read the first few chapters and join the discussion on April 17.
Virtual Chapters provide valuable technical training every month. Sign up for the VCs that interest you to get notified of upcoming events.
Other Business
The Board met in January and dicussed many items, including goals for the year, by-law changes, election process and Summit. See the meeting minutes for details. In February we adopted changes to the by-laws.
Budget planning is in full swing and I've been working on the budgets for 24HOP and VCs.
Next Up
I'll be in Chicago next week for a Board meeting and the BA conference. In May I'll be attending SQLBits wheere I'm looking forward to meeting more members of the SQL community in the U.K.
Planning for the next 24HOP will get underway soon, work on the budget will continue, and we'll finish rolling out the new webinar platform for the Virtual Chapters.