Opening remarks on day 2 of the Summit come from Rushabh Mehta, vice president of finance. Rushabh is giving us some more insight into how the money works with PASS. Even though it's a non-profit, PASS needs funding to survive, a good portion of which comes from the conference.
A commitment to financial transparency, something missing in previous years, is something that PASS says they're working on. I think the 2008 Summit was a huge step forward in presenting information to members. There's a page at pass, www.sqlpass.org/governance, available to members once logged in with reports of the financial statements.
The overview for 2010, fiscal year.
- projected revenue of $3.2m
- This represents a 15% reduction in revenues
- 40% growth in community spending
- Investments in infrastructure and HQ
- 67% reduction in IT expenses
- European event was profitable
No more details on that, but I'll dig in more later.
Rushabh is promoting people to interact and engage with PASS. I think that's great, and I'd like to see more people go to local user groups and network with them. You never know when it will pay off, you might learn something, or better yet, teach somebody something else. The Denver group has a great meeting every month, thanks in large part to Marc Beacom and the rest of the leaders. But it's really the 30 or 40 people that come every month that make it a success. You don't have to come every month, but try for once a year.
Volunteers are the lifeblood of PASS. I haven't always been helping much with PASS, but I'll be looking to do a few things next year. I know not everyone can help out, but consider it. And at the very least, thank a volunteer that you see walking around at the conference.
PASSion Award
The PASSion Award is an annual recognition by PASS that is given to volunteers that really have contributed a lot to the organization. Last year, my good friend, Kathi Kellenburger received the award. This year we have a few people being recognized.
Tim Ford, @sqlagentman, is being awarded for his efforts as a volunteer, doing a lot of work and helping make the 24 hours of PASS
Grant Fritchey (@gfritchey) is also being recognized for his efforts with the SQL Server Standard. He's the driving force behind getting that publication back on it's feet.
Amy Lewis has helped with the virtual chapters on BI. She's split the groups into more focus and
Jacob Sebastian (blog, @jacobsebastian), another friend and well known member of the SQLServerCentral community, is being recognized for his works in India, helping to promote education and PASS on the other side of the world.
The 2009 award is actually 2: one for North America and one for international efforts.
Charlie Hanania is the winner for the international award. He leads the Swiss chapter and managed the European conference.
Allen Kinsel is the North American winner for 2009. He's done a lot as a volunteer for the program committee, the volunteer committee and the nomination committee. I've been following his tweets as he reviewed abstracts and completed things for PASS, and was amazed at how much work he did.
Congrats to both of these individuals for their efforts.
The To Do List
Women in Technology luncheon, MVPs signing books (buy the Deep Dives book and support War Child), meet the board of directors at a Q&A, and finally Microsoft sponsoring the night's event at Gameworks.
