If you have been following the recent difficulties around the PASS election of Board Members, you will no doubt have noticed a climate of negativity and sometimes bashing. This has made me really sad to see in a community that I care a lot about. Rather than provide yet another blog post that goes into the details, I instead want to say Thank You to a lot of people.

Thank You to the people that have been raising issues and offering ideas. While I may not agree with the way in which these issues were raised, or the tone present, there were some good points made. You Are PASS.

Thank You to the PASS Board of Directors that worked through/around so much negativity to keep the Community in mind while striving to implement solutions. You took a lot of heat and, as far as what I saw, you handled yourselves with professionalism and patience. It was clear to me during this entire process that you care deeply about the PASS community and work hard to make it as strong as possible. You Are PASS.

Thank You to the people who have been understanding of the difficulties and stayed positive about the willingness of PASS BOD to work through these difficulties. You Are PASS.

PASS has been a huge asset to me in my career in working with SQL Server and related technologies. I feel that I owe a lot to the existence of this organization and the people within it who work so hard to keep it strong and help it grow. That includes the PASS members throughout the world. Thank you. You Are PASS.

My great hope with these recent events around the election and the events surrounding the PASS Summit selection process is that we, as a community, will learn something. The key idea that I think has been lacking on the part of some folk within the community is that everyone involved here, from the BOD to the various committees, to the PASS members ALL want this community to thrive. I would ask that, in the future, those of us who want to raise issues, those who want to make sure their voice is heard, etc, will base how we raise those issues by keeping one, very important idea in mind as we do so: WE ARE PASS.