Voice of the DBA

Tag: SQL Saturday

  • Finding a SQL Saturday Board of Directors

    I wrote recently about looking for candidates and the criteria that I initially considered. I am happy to say quite a few people expressed interest, and my list of people grew quite a bit. I wanted to disclose a bit about the process that I am following and take any feedback on my direction.

    As a disclosure, no one else at Redgate is under consideration for the items below, though I am talking with a few others that can give me advice and thoughts on the process. It’s a good check for my thoughts, while respecting the privacy of people involved.

    BTW, if you are one of the people I’ve contacted, make sure you reply to my email.

    Advisors

    The first thing I started to think about as I went through the list is that this is really, really, really hard. There are amazing people already out there helping the community, with tremendous passion. They are also diverse, in many ways.

    Trying to decide on a list of 8 is very hard. I also am self-aware enough to know that I have my own internal biases and thoughts. I might not see something others will.

    As a result, I decided to put together a list of advisors that can glance at my short list and let me know if they see anything wrong. I am not asking them for votes, but really to point out where they think I might not be adhering to my own guidelines, aware enough of diversity, or making a mistake based on my own ignorance.

    As with other parts of this process, I am not disclosing names, as these individuals have a right to privacy, and I do not wish to expose them to any trolling or harsh judgment on the Internet. I know, this might not be perfect, but this is a semi-messy process at this point.

    At this point, I have 4 people that have agreed to help and a few other requests outstanding.

    I will also make final decisions, so mistakes are my fault.

    Previous Pass Leadership

    One of the things I am not doing here is replacing PASS. This is an effort to restart SQL Saturdays, learning from the last few years. There are also legal considerations with the insolvency of PASS and NDAs.

    I am not looking to include anyone on this board that served on the board of PASS in the last 3 years. Many of those people may look to be a part of this effort in the future, and I would welcome their interest, but for now this is an attempt to make a clean break with the recent past, and return to something more like the aims and goals of SQL Saturday during its origins.

    Candidates

    My initial list of 24 got cut down to about 18 at first, with several people declining because of personal reasons. My post also generated a dozen more, and I got recommendations from some people I contacted.

    I sent out 33 initial interest notes. As of now, I have 12 people that are on the super short list that expressed interest. A few dropped out, and a few are busy at the moment. A few gave me more names.

    My initial outreach was pointing them to my previous post. A follow-up in email contained this message:

    “Thanks for your interest in the SQL Saturday foundation. For lack of a better name right now, I’ll stick with SSF.

    This is my initial view of what I want candidates to think about and commit to.

    My vision is a BoD that meets a few times a year, has legal and fiduciary obligations to the non profit (though no personal, legal, or financial liability). The meetings initially are likely to be more email and debate/discussion. I hope to have close to 100% of the discussion publicly published, except where legalities might cause an issue. So you’d have to express thoughts and opinions strongly.

    I am not looking for someone to agree with me or think like me, but for diverse thoughts on how to improve/grow/advance the SQL Saturday brand and franchise. My thought is that we will aim for an initial term of 1 year, but I would prefer not everyone leave at the same time, so the board will have to decide to potentially extend some people to 18-24 months so there is some continuity from board to board.

    If you are still interested, let me know. I’m not publicly disclosing candidates right now for their own privacy. At some point, I will need to make a decision and reduce the list to 8 people and announce their names. I also don’t intend to disclose those I haven’t chosen, unless they wish to.

    Steve”

    To those that replied positively, I’m adding them to the super short list. Those that haven’t, need to do so or they will be dropped.

    I expect that I will get more responses in the coming days, and maybe this post will get a few people to think or respond.

    Decisions

    While I to need to work with people, I do not want them to defer to me or agree with me just because it is me or I’m leading this effort. In fact, I am thinking a little more heavily about those people that have disagreed with me in the past. We need debate and discourse, in a civil manner, but we need people that think differently and come to rough consensus, not unanimous agreement. I think unanimity often leads to some blind spots.

    I am thinking about diversity, about geography and gender and ethnicity, as well as how people have struck me as thoughtful, with some insight and consideration.

    I am going to give people a week to respond. I know some might be on vacation, might need to think for a day or two, and I would still like more names outside the US/UK/ANZ world. Not that I need more choices, or want them, but because I think I should get more, and this should be a hard decision.

    Timeline

    I have no set timeline right now. I am waiting on some legal things to finalize, and really cannot move too far forward for now. However, I know that having a board ready is important, so that we can get events moving up and running.

    I am hoping to start cutting down the list next week (22 Mar) and trying to get to 12-15. I have had to make personnel decisions before, and I have found it helpful to do this in stages, rather than all at once, so that is what I’m doing.

    I welcome thoughts, comments, and criticisms of this process. It will help me ensure I am not making too many mistakes.

  • Rebuilding SQL Saturday–Picking a Board of Directors

    With Redgate planning to donating the SQL Saturday brand, trademarks, and domain to a non-profit foundation, there is a need to build a group of individuals to voluntarily manage the organization. Redgate has tasked me with the initial work, and as I work through this process, I am looking to provide some transparency into how this works for now.

    NOTE: This is for the initial board, as someone has to make the first decisions. I expect the board themselves to decide how future directors are chosen, with input from the community.

    There are a lot of people, including myself, who have been unhappy with the way that the previous organization’s board of directors functioned. The combination of a contracted managing director and restrictive bylaws resulted in far too little transparency over the years. At least, that is my view.

    Moving forward, my vision for the foundation is to not recreate an organization that mandates, but rather serves the community, in an open, transparent way. There should be a minimal budget, and no compensation for directors, and no full-time staff.

    I am trying to think aloud here, as I work through this process. None of these items have been decided, and I welcome advice and thoughts from others.

    I also welcome interest and nominations. If you are interested, please leave a comment, or contact me. If you think someone else deserves nomination, please contact them first and ask them to contact me. I do not want to pressure anyone to serve that might not wish to or be able to donate time.

    Qualities for Directors

    I want to outline a few things that I think are important in finding individuals that can serve the foundation and steer it into the future.

    Transparency

    One of the things that bothered me with the previous organization is that there was not enough guidance on what directors would do on a regular basis, and certainly not enough information on what they had done. To me, this means that one of the main qualities for anyone serving this foundation is that they freely and willingly share information.

    My goal is that as close to 100% of debate and discussion, as well as financial information, be publicly available.

    Diversity

    Much of my career has been US focused, though that has really changed in the last decade. When we started SQL Saturday, we didn’t think about the world outside the US, but many events under the SQL Saturday banner have been outside the US.

    We need diverse thought on the issues that organizers and events face.

    This means a diversity of not only geography, but gender, race, orientation, and more. We need to understand that each of us only sees a small portion of the world, and only from our perspective. With that in mind, I aim initially aiming for a breakdown something like this:

    • US – 3-4 directors (knowing I am representing Redgate, 1 of these spots is filled)
    • EU – 2-3 directors
    • APAC – 2-3 directors
    • Rest of world – 1-2 directors

    I would like to have a number of women on the board, as I truly value the different perspectives they bring. I’d also like to have someone of a different race, ethnicity, or orientation than myself.

    If you know of someone that you feel fits this goal, please ask them to contact me.

    Financials

    I have read Steph Locke’s Lessons learnt on the PASS Board, which I think anyone who cares about this should read. She outlines a number of items, which are important in most boards. While I think that the need to fund the organization is important, when this is the main goal, this becomes a problem. Directors should have some business sense, having either run their own company, or served as a high level executive in some company, however large or small, so that they do treat financials with the appropriate importance.

    The goal of this foundation is to run itself on less than US$10,000/year. Any sponsorship funds will go towards events, not expenses.

    Community Drive

    This foundation will exist to further SQL Saturday events, providing resources and assistance where possible. Directors should be oriented towards doing good for others by supporting education and networking, giving back to the world, and driving events forward. While they will not do the work, they will be the voice and inspiration for many through this foundation.

    A director ought to be thinking: how do I get more organizers excited enough to create an event? How can we better support speakers? How do I attract and serve attendees to learn and grow their careers? How can we ensure events feel successful, whether physical or virtual, whether there are 50 or 500 attendees, whether there is one track or 12?

    These are the goals of the foundation.

    While I started my list thinking about people that are thoughtful, measured in their words, and giving of themselves, that was really the bar of what I was looking for. Finding other qualities outside of these are likely more important.

    Candidates

    I have asked a few people if they are interested, to start getting a short list together. Ultimately myself and a few at Redgate will have to make some decisions about who to choose. We’ll appoint an initial board and then let them run the foundation as they see fit, including deciding on how the next set of directors are chosen.

    I haven’t named any names, as I’m not sure it’s fair, and I don’t want to put any pressure on anyone.

    If you are interested in shaping the future of SQL Saturday, please let me know. I have a list, but I’m sure there are people I haven’t considered. If you think someone is a good candidate, encourage them to contact me.

    Above all, remember this is a community first effort, and we’re looking for people that feel the same way.

  • The First Data Saturday is Tomorrow

    Data Saturday #2 – Guatemala is tomorrow. This is the first event on the calendar, though the second one to move from SQL Saturday over. I’m thrilled that this is taking place and that there are presentations in both English and Spanish. I hope sometime to actually attend a live event like this, and see a session in another language. I’m curious if I can follow along with the code and slides.

    If you haven’t registered, you still can and attend virtually.

    Unfortunately I won’t be here, as I have prior commitments all day, but I’m looking forward to hearing how to goes.

  • Requesting an Update for My SQLSaturday.com Bid

    Someone asked about the bid, and I have had no response, so I sent this.

    2020-12-28 18_12_02-FW_ Bid for SQLSaturday.com - Message (HTML)