As most of you know, PASS (the Professional Association for SQL Server) is an independent, not-for-profit association, dedicated to supporting, educating, and promoting the Microsoft SQL Server community. Among its many activities, PASS sponsors the annual PASS Community Summit, which is the largest gathering of SQL Server DBAs and developers in the world.

PASS is governed by a Board of Directors that guide PASS’s direction, and as a member of PASS, you get to elect who is on that board. Board members actively guide PASS’s direction, and because of this, who you elect to the board significantly affects where PASS is headed. So if you want to influence where PASS is going, it is important that you vote for those individuals who you feel will move PASS in the direction you feel is best for the SQL Server community.

To find out who is running for the PASS Board of Directors, you can check out the PASS website at the end of the day on Friday, November 14, 2008, where you will be able to review short biographies of those who are running. If you are not familiar with any one of the candidates, you might want to consider doing an Internet search on them to learn more about them.

If you are attending the PASS conference in Seattle, November 18-21, 2008, there will be an Election Booth that will list all of the candidates, along with their biographies. And of course, if you are attending the PASS Community Summit, you will have the option of seeking out each candidate, and asking them any questions you like before you make your vote.

Voting will be done electronically. If you are a voting member of PASS, you will receive an e-mail at your PASS-registered e-mail account on Sunday, November 16 that includes a link to an on-line Electronic Ballot, where you will be able to cast your vote, beginning at 12:01AM, Monday, November 17, 2008. Of course, you don’t have to vote as soon voting begins. You can vote anytime between Monday, November 17 and Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 3:00PM PDT.

People who are eligible to vote include:

· Those who attended the PASS Community Summit 2007 (speakers, volunteers and full-conference attendees).

· Those who are attending the PASS Community Summit 2008 (speakers, volunteers and full-conference attendees).

· Active Volunteers.

The winners of the PASS Board of Directors will be announced on the PASS website by the end of the day on Friday, November 21, 2008.

I strongly urge you to consider each Board of Director nominee’s carefully, and cast your vote accordingly.

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