The Midlands PASS chapter is approaching two years old. We've had some great speakers from the outside like MVPs Brian Knight, John Welch, and Wayne Snyder. We've got another great one coming with Darren Herbold next week. One area we've really struggled is getting users to speak. I've spoken a few times, I was able to invite my friend Jeremy Brown down from Charlotte, and we've had Paul Shearer and the ACS crew speak twice. Other than that, though, we've not been able to get interest from the group in presenting.
Chris Randall's twitter post about stirring up interest is what stirred up this blog post. A user group is probably one of the safest place to break into presenting. The folks there know you and hopefully (if it's a healthy group) want to see you succeed. So it's a little less nerve racking that a venue where you know few, if any, in the audience. Andy Warren and I talked about this issue at the SQL Saturday in Jacksonville. He's worked to try and train up some speakers within his community. We've offered to do the same, but so far, no takers. If anyone has any ideas for encouraging home-grown speakers, I'm all ears.
It looks like Microsoft is working with Prometric to put out a different way of testing for certification. Basically, it's an emulation, there are tasks to complete, and the emulation grades based on how well the tasks are completed when all is said and done. This is different than from what Microsoft calls a simulation where there's only a limited number of paths. Having seen the various Cisco router/switch "sims" I guess those are better described as emulations, especially the more robust ones where you can set up several switches and routers and issue almost the entire set of IOS commands. But in any case, it sounds like a step in the right direction. More here:
Performance Based Testing Pilot
The pilot is just that: a pilot. It's not a beta exam, there's no score, it's to test out how well the new mechanism works. However, the first 3000 folks to participate will get an exam voucher out of the deal. One proviso, the pilot is based on simulating Windows Server 2008 Active Directory configuration.
Speaker: Darren Herbold
Midlands PASS Chapter - August 7, 2008 Meeting
The Midlands PASS chapter will hold our normally scheduled meeting on Thursday, August 7, 2008, to host Darren Herbold of Pragmatic Works Consulting and contributing author of the forthcoming Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services from Wrox (Darren is on the far right). Darren will be giving a presentation on SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services. The meeting will once again be held at Training Concepts off of Berryhill Road. We will begin our meet and greet time at 6:15 PM as usual and start the presentation between 6:30 and 6:45 PM.
Please feel free to forward this to anyone who you think would be interested in attending. If you plan on attending, please RSVP by sending an email to kbriankelley {at} acm {dot} org as soon as possible so we can ensure we have enough space and food. If you have time to help with setup, please email me and we’ll plug you in!
Darren’s Bio:
Darren Herbold, MCDBA, MCSE is a principal consultant at Pragmatic Works Consulting who is passionate about delivering business value to his clients. He has expertise in Business Intelligence, Database Administration, and .Net Software Development. Darren has developed a robust .Net application development framework and a code-generation tool that saves clients an average of 30-40% off of development and maintenance time. Darren has also created BI and software solutions for clients such as Microsoft, Post Properties, and University of South Florida.
As a follow-up to yesterday's post, Part III of the SQL Server panel interview has been posted on-line. A name I left off the original post who was on the panel (which I'll go back and edit):
A couple of community comments:
I was asked by Odin Jobs to participate in an email interview on SQL Server. Joining me on the panel were:
Odin Jobs has done this before with PHP. The first couple of posts are here:
Here are the questions they asked:
One I really strugged on is #6. It's easy to explain what an MVP is, but how you become one isn't something that's really well defined. Steve Jones wrote an editorial about this and Andy Warren has blogged about the subject as well. Steve wasn't exactly sure what were the exact criteria which led to his selection as an MVP. Andy pointed out that he thinks the selection bar is pretty high and his current work and life isn't conducive to meeting the requirements, especially if it's based on things like # of messages in forums and the like. I'm in the same boat as Andy. My work, home life, and ministry have always meant I can't spend as much time in the community as I'd like meaning I don't ever expect to meet the criteria to be selected as one. Having a third child, becoming a children's minister and now a junior high youth pastor, and taking on greater responsibilities at work means my free time has shrunk drastically. And I know that as much as I love being a part of the community, I wouldn't change the other aspects of my life. They are too important, especially family and ministry.
The other one I struggled on was #7. I think my answer gives that away. I sit more on the server and security side than a strictly SQL Server side nowadays but I enjoy all three aspects. But I also have enjoyed being a developer, which is what I started as 20 years ago at the ripe old age of 14. When I get time to write code, I do. But that time has become less and less nowadays. So I'm kind of like a kid in a candy store. I can go and do any aspect of it, but charting a career path involving all those areas is nigh impossible.
The Midlands PASS Chapter hosts:
SQL Server MVP John Welch
July 17, 2008 at Training Concepts
The Midlands PASS chapter will hold a special meeting on Thursday, July 17, 2008, to host SQL Server MVP John Welch. John will be giving a presentation on SQL Server Integration Services. The meeting will once again be held at Training Concepts off of Berryhill Road. We will begin our meet and greet time at 6:15 PM as usual and start the presentation between 6:30 and 6:45 PM. I will send out an agenda next week.
Please feel free to forward this to anyone who you think would be interested in attending. If you plan on attending, please RSVP as soon as possible so we can ensure we have enough space and food. If you have time to help with setup, please email me and we’ll plug you in!
Abstract:
One of the common issues encountered with SSIS is deploying configurations for multiple environments. During this session, 2 patterns for handling configurations in SSIS will be covered. a simple pattern that handles most cases, to a very flexible pattern that covers most complex scenarios. Learning and using these patterns will allow SSIS developers to more easily deploy packages between environments, and leverage a single point of configuration in each environment.
Bio:
John Welch is Chief Architect with Mariner, a consulting firm specializing in enterprise reporting & analytics, data warehousing and performance management solutions. John has been working with business intelligence and data warehousing technologies for 6 years, with a focus on Microsoft products in heterogeneous environments. He is a Microsoft Most Valued Professional (MVP), an award given due to his commitment to sharing his knowledge with the IT community. John is an experienced speaker, having given presentations at Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conferences, Software Development West (SD West), Software Management Conference (ASM/SM), and others. John has also been published in DM Review, SQL Server Professional, and XML Developer.
If you're looking to advertise your user group meetings, code camps, SQL Saturdays, etc., there a site that's trying to be a central source for all of that:
Community Megaphone
I've just submitted the next Midlands PASS Chapter meeting to see how well the process works.
I've been getting spammed like crazy through the Contact Me link. As a result, I've had to disable it. If you need to contact me, the best way is to either email me at kbriankelley {at} acm {dot} org or to use Private Message through SQL Server Central.
