More updates from the nominating committee:

"As a PASS-slated candidate, we would like to promote you and your vision and experience to the voting population. Your picture and bio will be posted on the sqlpass site and the Summit Live site by Sunday evening. We would like to request that you provide us with an additional write-up of at least 300 words that will tell voters why you want to be on the PASS Board and your previous involvement in PASS. This write up will be listed on both the websites with your bios and pictures. Please have them to me no later than Sunday November 16^th and 12:00pm.

You also have a great opportunity to tell the entire PASS Summit why you want to be a Board member, your skills, past experience and PASS passion. We would like to film you saying a 30-45 second speech on Tuesday November 18^th from 4pm to 5pm at the PASS Booth. This will be played during Wayne Snyder’s Keynote Address on Wednesday November 19^th. You will only have about 10 minutes each to film your spot, and I will send out a schedule shortly.

The last point we would like to address is that of acceptable campaigning. The Nominating Committee wants to be completely clear when they say that all campaigning must be fair, and any disruptive or offensive campaigns will not be tolerated. You may campaign in a person to person nature (emails included), and we encourage each of you to do so. You may also blog about your candidacy as long as it is not disruptive or offensive. Printed materials are not allowed for the simple reason that we can not guarantee fairness among the candidates. For the same reason, you may not spam large mailing lists or use your professional listserves to gain votes; this includes promoting yourself openly when Speaking at the Summit sessions. "

I'm working on the 300 or so words now, not an easy challenge even after having thought about the issues for some time. Not sure of the value of the video other than to help people find candidates afterward and a picture would do as well I think, but we'll see. The rules around campaigning are interesting. Not sure I agree with all of them, but too late to worry about changing it (I think printing a flyer per candidate and putting in the event bag would do a lot towards informing the votes at the conference.

A bigger and much more interesting challenge is about eligible voters; 2008 attendees, 2007 attendees, and volunteers. This really reinforces one of my main complaints is that you have to attend the conference to be a 'real' member, doesn't do much at all to include those that show up at user group meetings. The problem with letting anyone outside attendees vote is you have to worry about voter fraud; with free memberships how do you decide who votes and who doesn't?