Simple Talk Editorial on PASS

If you don’t subscribe to the Simple-Talk newsletter, why not? This month’s newsletter is chock full of interesting stuff, a DBA checklist from Brad McGehee, a workbench on keys, an article on how covering indexes are faster than clustered indexes (they are too), and an article on why one DBA is learning PowerShell (I want to, but my spare time is taken up with writing a new book). All great stuff and worth reading.

I’m going to be reading all these articles, but the most fascinating piece of the current newsletter is the editorial by Tony Davis. I was actually a little shocked by it. I’m a PASS volunteer for the Special Interest Groups and the Editorial Committee. I’ve attended the last three PASS events. I’m the current president and one of the founding officers of a PASS chapter (Southern New England SQL Server Users Group, come visit us). This year, for the first time, I’m presenting at PASS. So, while I’m not on the board, I kind of feel like I’ve got some vested interest in PASS. When I first read Tony’s editorial, I was shocked and a bit defensive. I’ve really enjoyed my involvement with PASS and I know that the volunteers that help run the thing put in a lot of their own time to keep it going. But after reading it a second time, I can’t disagree with Tony. As a matter of fact, I’ve said most of his criticisms myself. The organization does need to improve in general and, I think, better define it’s mission. The Summit itself is wonderful, as Tony outlines, but PASS, the organization, really does need to improve itself.

Go to the Summit. See for yourself the terrific program. Better still, volunteer to help improve PASS or to help out with your own local users group.

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