Tis the Season to Be Jolly, as well as giving,
and T-SQL Tuesday’s timely topic on giving back to the SQL Community is brought
to us by Mr. Wayne Sheffield (blog|twitter), who asks us, “In “The Spirit of Giving”, I want
to know how you plan on Giving Back to the SQL Community during the coming year.” I’ve known Wayne for some time now, and I am
happy to see him as host of this month’s blog party, T-SQL Tuesday #61, with a great theme to end the year, by
asking us during this holiday season, how we intend to reciprocate and share in
the upcoming New Year 2015!
Wayne specifically talks in terms of SQL Community, and asks
us questions such as Are you going to start speaking at your local user group?
Speak at your local SQL Saturday? Perhaps step up and help run your local user
group? As far as this all relates to me,
the answer to all of the above questions, and more, are a resounding “YES”! In fact, I look forward to 2015 as a truly
exciting year. Let’s dub 2015 the year
of reciprocity (<noun>
the practice of exchanging
things with others for mutual benefit, especially privileges granted by one person
or organization to another.)
As you may already know, and happy to mention it again and
again here, SQLSaturday
#380 is coming back to the Big Apple, to the place where we actually drop
the ball to usher in the New Year, 11 Times Square, Microsoft HQ, New York Metro District Office, New York,
NY 10036. It’s a larger and exciting new
venue, and I’m look forward to see all of you there! My announcement went out recently on the PearlKnows Blog
here: SQLSaturday
Returns to New York City 2015!
As we know that PASS SQLSaturdays
are themselves a venue for giving back
to the SQL Community, and sharing one’s efforts and knowledge, so SQL Server
and other IT professionals can learn about SQL and related technologies, or
enhance their education on the latest SQL Server topics. SQLSaturdays are free 1-day training events
for SQL Server professionals that focus on local speakers, providing a variety
of high-quality technical sessions, and making it all happen through the
efforts of volunteers. Whether you're attending a SQLSaturday or thinking about
we think you'll find it's a great way to spend a Saturday. Indeed!
Well, I will be spending the next few months planning and
coordinating this extraordinary event, along with my colleagues James Phillips,
Simon Facer, Erik Darling,
Karla Landrum, Alec Lazarescu and Michael Wells. All these folks generously give their time to
give back to the SQL Community.
Usually, when SQLSaturday comes to town, my hometown, I pull
out all the stops, and in addition to help with the planning, coordination,
sponsorship acquisitions, soliciting speakers, and promoting the event, I also
intend to present, and likely have my company become a sponsor as well! Man, I’m tired just thinking about all that 🙂 I'll also be speaking at a number of other SQLSaturday and SQL related events as well.
My presentation, don’t know which one will be selected yet,
usually is one that is well-received by DBAs and non-DBAs. My #1 goal in giving a presentation is
sharing my knowledge with other professionals.
Many of them are accidental DBAs or other IT folks wanting to learn the
ropes of what a DBA is and does, along with the technology to enable them to be
successful.
From a charitable perspective, I was delighted to be
involved in a worthy cause, Operation
Smile, where the proceeds of the SQL
MVP Deep Dives II went to children who needed surgical repair of their
faces. We tried to get a Deep Dives
volume III going, but we couldn’t get enough momentum on that, but our efforts
and intentions were to do another charitable project. I am proud to be in a community of folks who
are doing wonderful and charitable things, dedicating their time to other
world-wide worthy causes. Always, giving
back, they are selfless and generous folks, and SQL Server professionals to
boot!
The first thing I’m going to do for the New Year, with
regard to giving back to SQL community, is host a T-SQL Tuesday myself! Yep, that’s a preview for the next entry in
the blog party, to join me in kicking off the New Year 2015! But, let’s keep on topic of this T-SQL
Tuesday, and in my most nasally voice with thick New York accent, “thank you
Mr. Sheffield!” 😉
(No, I’m not from Flushing, Queens)
So, if you would like to join the blog party (started all by
SQL MVP Adam Machanic), your
blog post needs to go live between 00:00 GMT Tuesday, December 9th,
2014 and 00:00 GMT Wednesday, December 10th, 2014. Secondly, your
blog post needs to contain the T-SQL Tuesday logo image on this post, and it
should link back to this Wayne’s
blog invite (trackbacks should work, but it’s a good idea to post a comment
to his post with a link to your post). You’ll also want tweet, if you can about
your post using the #TSQL2sday
hashtag.
Remember the proverb, it's better to give than to receive! Well, it's almost Christmas so, hopefully you'll get as good as you give 😉
See you next month!
