I should also clarify that I was not saying that the committee was not respected, exactly the opposite.

However, despite our respect for them, that is not a deciding factor here. All candidates were “cleared by the insiders” (paraphrasing).

The comment you quoted and attributed to me as not respecting the Board and nomination committee wasn’t made by me. It was a quote by Matt I had hoped he might elaborate on. Unfortunately, he did not. I’ll leave it it him to discuss your expressed thoughts on it.

I do respect the nomination committee and in fact have friends and colleagues on it. I do have thoughts of my own, though, as do many – some are shared by you. I agree with you that all future nominees should interact with the community.

If you would like to see my thinking on this more fully, I have blogged some observations here:

http://chuckboyce.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-transparency-stupid.html

Best,

Chuck
@chuckboycejr

…and aside from Chuck’s comment above, the PASS community respects the board and nomination committee, but (I feel safe in speaking for the group here, but feel free to dispute) the individuals who make up that community are not about to let *anyone* make up their mind for them. The nomination to the election slate is inconsequential to the discussion, the discussion is about how you convince the community itself.

Hi Matt,

I’m stuck inside with a nasty sinus infection this weekend so I have little to do this weekend and I’m following our community’s elction with interest. Would you mind elaborating on the above remarks you’ve made?

Here is the thing that I cannot understand and I have seen this question posed to you before and you haven’t answered it sufficiently in my opinion:

WHY does someone who is a Publishing VP and not a technologist with no prior history of PASS community involvement (please note that I said “community”) want to be on the Board of our technical community?

Two questions that good friend and PASS Board member Joe Webb have asked us to take into consideration when we vote are:

“Has the person served as a volunteer with PASS?”
“Has he demonstrated a love for the SQL Community?”

You have not served as a volunteer with PASS and as of two days ago you were publicly stating that PASS was a Media organization.

I just don’t get why you want to be on our board?

If you could answer that to our satisfaction it might help us to consider you as a viable candidate to lead our database professionals community.

Thanks.

Chuck
@chuckboycejr

p.s. – I did not get your email. Feel welcome to send me a twitter DM.

Thanks again for your comments, posts and pointing out that in many ways I was “under fire” (which is fine) However, I may be a PASS “outsider” (and would suggest having an experienced outside voice is a good thing – but think it puts many people outside their comfort zone – as it would me). The truth is, I am an industry insider; for example I see adds from Red Gate on here, Google ads from Intense School, App Dev; these are companies and businesses we’ve help build and grow and support We work as I’ve mentioned on the other side of the fence. My point is that this is a market that I partake in every day. So, my challenges is having IT pros recognize that I’m not really an outsider, simply someone who has a different occupation in this market, but someone that brings a unique skillset, background, track record that the PASS nominations committee (all “insiders”) have the confidence that my nomination can bring something to to the table. Please consider that – I did the work, the insiders liked it, cleared the interview process, and am now keen to volunteer my time to help PASS. If we don’t try new things, leave our comfort zone, then is that living, is that creative, is that not turning down an opportunity? Believe, I understand the sentiments and have been in a similar position myself, but change and diversity can be a good thing, and I dont mean changing PASS, but rather improving it with the direction and feedback from the community. Thanks Again! Best, -Matt

Now, having said that, would we have seen different interactions with all candidates if we were forced to do a ranked voting for the candidates? Or, get to only vote for 1? Maybe, but I’m not terribly convinced.

It was easy for me to make the decision to vote for #1 and #2. I have had hard time looking up info for the spot #3.

Sorry about the Feedjit; to be honest, it could be my provider. They’ve been noticeably slow, even before I added the widget. I’ll give it a few days and see if I notice anyd changes.

I’d agree that there were things that Matt posted (and the way he posted them) that left me uninterested in voting for him (even before the comment thread). It just seems to me that you are an anomaly; you know them all well, and you did take advantage of their offers for interaction. I think, however, that most of us in the PASS community didn’t do that (myself included). I’ve met all of the candidates (except for Matt), and just made a snap decision based on that relationship.

Would I have voted differently if I’d had deep, meaningful conversations with each of the nominees? Probably not, since I have serious doubts about the benefit of having an “outside” person on the board. That being said, I think I SHOULD have taken advantage of the opportunity, and the controversy which spawned the interaction with Matt made me wonder where the passion was for the other candidates?

Stu

That Feedjit widget is beyond annoying. I had to copy and paste stuff from your blog to a text editor just to read things.

I think when Matt characterized legitimate questions posed to him as “slander” (in fairness, Matt has apologized) that made the community a LOT more interested in who he was. I entered the conversation merely to answer a simple question and was somewhat peeved at how difficult it was to get a simple answer and I felt Matt’s tone was dismissive (not something I look for when I vote for someone to serve me).

As far as the other three candidates, I worked for Brian as a Solid Quality mentor and consider him a friend. I work for Tom now as a consultant at ING. Jeremiah was a customer of mine when I worked at Quest Software.

Despite my familiarity with all three, I read the interviews Brent gave and participated in Tom’s UStream forums.

I also talk everyday with Tom and Jeremiah on twitter (and obviously, with Tom, at ING).

Chuck
@chuckboycejr