Speaking at PASS Summit On Tour: NYC

August 18, 2025

I’ll be speaking on Tuesday, 8/19, at the PASS Summit on tour in New York City. I’ll be giving a talk in the “professional development” world this time.. And I’ll be doing the same session at the PASS Summit in Seattle this fall. This time, rather than talk about SQL Server DBA tips, upgrades, migrations,

Slow Down and Communicate!

September 27, 2014

Earlier this week I ripped a headline for blog post inspiration. Looks like the week will end that way, too. Before you ask – this isn’t about the PASS organizational struggles – though I think it applies there – and looking inside I think it applies to me there. It also applies to parenting. I’m writing

PASS Board Elections

September 23, 2013

Wow. It’s that time already. We have a lot of great candidates to choose from this year. It’s tough picking. It’s even tougher recommending. That said – I think there are three candidates worth mentioning and who I plan on voting for. And it was really tough to single any out! One candidate however, I

A Book, a Mentor and a Community

February 23, 2012

It’s 2006 – I’m at the SQL PASS Summit. My first one. A former manager, colleague and friend of mine invited me to dinner with a bunch of his business partners. It would have been one of the small number of social things I did that year. Otherwise I was a wall flower, in my

PASS Plan Potentials

February 23, 2011

In my blog post yesterday, I answered Andy Warren’s call to talk about where PASS can be improved by asking what would happen if PASS closed its doors. In the comments, Andy asked a good question, “On #1, I know what you mean but how would you implement it?” He was referring to my list

If PASS Closed Its Doors…

February 22, 2011

One measure I have heard used to measure the effectiveness of a church goes along the lines of “If your church closed its doors tomorrow, would anyone notice?” I think that works for any civic organization, individual life where you want service to others to be a part of that and also membership organizations like

SQL Saturday 71 – Now with BAM!!

February 17, 2011

I am happy excited to be helping MVPs and fellow User Group Leaders Adam Machanic, Grant Fritchey and Tom LaRock plan a Saturday of free (unless you want to donate a totally optional $10 to help offset costs) learning for the Boston (and greater New England) SQL Server community. The four of us have been

What Should PASS Be and Do?

December 20, 2010

Alright. So my last post (PASS Is Not The SQL Community) generated some interesting feedback so far and it was posted later on a Friday. I am sure there will be some more generated. In the meantime I wanted to put up a quick post with a disclaimer and something more constructive. Disclaimer I think

PASS Is Not The SQL Community

December 17, 2010

Alright, so maybe the title was inflammatory. Let me explain what I mean. This is a thought that has been brewing for a bit. Reading Andy Leonard’s recent post about SQL People and then his post from August (somehow I missed it when it came out even though I regularly read his blog) brought the

Seacoast SQL Nov Meeting Gives Back

November 6, 2010

Apologies for the delay in getting meeting notice out but it is still happening, just off by a week. It is going to be a fun time. Instead of hearing a presentation, eating some free food and enjoying our freely provided location at Great Bay College, we are going to combine our skills to solve

Next