15Oct 2014 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

Thank You: #passvotes

PASS
The results are in and it seems that I've been elected to a place on the PASS Board. Thank you. I will strive to be worthy of the position you've placed in my hands. I will do my best to make a difference on the board. Watch this space for regular updates on what I'm doing as your representative. If you don't see updates here, feel free to call for them. It's the one promise I made during the election and I think you should hold me to it. Worth noting, I'll be speaking for myself, as a member of the board, not as an official spokesman for the PASS organization. It might be a distinction without a difference, but it's worth noting. Thank you to Sri Sridharan for your…
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02Oct 2014 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

The PASS Board: #passvotes

PASS
Ever been in a fight? Ever been in one that's not completely going your way? I've done this and seen this in the martial arts and, unfortunately, on the street. As you start to lose the fight, you tend to fold in on yourself. It's a natural reaction. You're protecting the vital organs from injury. But, in a fight, it's actually the wrong thing to do. This is referred to as the defensive crouch. Watch some videos of MMA or fights on the street, or even boxing matches. You'll see it quick. I think the PASS Board is in a bit of a defensive crouch right now. I am running for the board. And I have pledged myself, both to myself, and to the PASS organization, to run a positive…
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27Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

PASS Votes… A little bit more #passvotes

PASS
I am putting up an abnormal Saturday morning blog post in support of the actions taken by the PASS Board last night. The story so far... In order to eliminate all the excess ballots (I received 5 one year although I only used one) being sent to eligible members of the PASS organization, a requirement to update your profiles in such a way as to firmly establish one each was implemented. Great idea. Unfortunately, somehow, the communication just didn't make it out to everyone. And, some people didn't quite get their profiles updated the right way. Suffice to say, when the ballots when out on the 24th, there were a lot of very disappointed and frustrated individuals, many of them long-time and dedicated members of the PASS community. The Board…
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24Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 20 Comments

Thoughts on PASS Board Nomination Process: #passvotes

PASS
Having very recently gone through the nomination process for the PASS Board, I thought I would share a few things about it. Overall, it was a great experience. I feel that I really had to stretch to meet everything required of me. It was quite difficult to put together all the campaign material. Deciding on who to ask to give you recommendations was also very difficult. All, very much, as it should be. We're talking about stepping up to run for the board of, essentially, a multi-million dollar corporation. It should be hard to do that. The interview process with the Nomination Committee was also no picnic. Most of these people had already served on the board, so they knew exactly what you, the nominee, was going to get into,…
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22Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Communication and the Board: #PASSVotes

PASS
The whole idea behind PASS is to build a community of people who can assist each other in their daily work lives. PASS succeeds at that wonderfully. Further, PASS, the organization, tries extremely hard to let you know what it's doing and how it's doing things. You can read the PASS Blog to get all sorts of good information. One of my recent favorites was this great summary of how the Summit speaker selection process was run. I think it's a positive thing that the organization is so open. I intend to take it one more step. If I get elected (huge "if"), I'm going to make a point of blogging about, well, the stuff I end up doing. No, I'm not going to be the official mouth-piece for the organization,…
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19Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

A Manager or a Community Person: #PASSVotes

PASS
I am running for the PASS Board. You can read more about what I've posted and what others have to say here on this page. Today I want to ask you a question. Should someone on the board be a manger or should they be a community person? Let's avoid the easy answer of both for a moment, not because that's the wrong answer, but because it's the right one. Clearly you need a mix of these skills to be on the board. But, where you fall on my simplistic question could determine the kind of person you want to vote for on the board. Let's discuss it a bit. According to Wikipedia (deal with it), a board of directors is "meant to oversee the activities of a company or organization."…
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17Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

I Am Running For the PASS Board of Directors: #passvotes

PASS
This year, I submitted my application to run for the PASS Board and it was accepted. This then is my announcement to all of you and the beginning of my campaign for election. My name is Grant Fritchey and I'm running for the PASS Board. It's traditional to either make all sorts of promises for the things you're going to do or to attack your opponents. I'm not going to do either. I don't have any grand promises to make. I'm not going to attack my opponents because I know and respect them. I'm voting for James Rowland-Jones myself and so should you. Let's do this instead. Let's talk about PASS, you, me, your career, mine, and how PASS can change your life. PASS changed my life for the better. Like…
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16Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit 2014 Pre-Conference Seminar

PASS, T-SQL
I'm putting on a pre-conference seminar (also known as a pre-con) at the PASS Summit this year. I'm really honored to be able to present this and I'm pretty excited about it. So, if you want to talk query tuning, let's get together at the Summit. For a few fun facts about the event, check out this Q&A over at PASS. To register for the event and my pre-con, go here now.
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20Aug 2014 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

The Red Gate Way…

DevOps, PASS, Professional Development, Redgate Software, SQL Server, T-SQL
As companies go, Red Gate is a little different. That is readily apparent in our tools and the philosophy behind them, ingeniously simple. But, we do a lot of other things too. There's the Simple-Talk web site where we publish serious articles on all aspects of development and database administration across platforms and programming languages. There's SQL Server Central, the single largest SQL Server community on the planet. There's Ask SQL Server where you can get direct answers to your direct questions about SQL Server. If all that's not enough, there are all the books, which we give away for free, on, again, all aspects of programming and database administration. But, we like to do more, so we also bring you training, the Red Gate way, at the SQL in…
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23Jul 2014 by Grant Fritchey 6 Comments

Challenge Accepted

PASS
There seemed to be some question whether my comfort level with my own masculinity would prevent me from wearing these: Oh please! Couldn't we be a little more challenging? Anyway, here's the deal, you donate to a good cause, Doctors Without Borders. We hit 10K and I'll sport those lovely rainbow whatever-they-are at the PASS Summit 2014. Sound good? I'll go one better. You double the goal, make it hit 20K, and I'll present my session while wearing the rainbow whosimawatchits. BOOM!
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