Notes:

• Kendal has been doing an exam push focused on 70-461. A couple passed so far, a couple more tried and not quite, planning to do a retake.
• Last night they were running through practice questions as a group. Interesting way to make the group feel like a group, but also a little distracting. I think doing it this way, maybe alternate with months where individuals figure it out, THEN do the discussion. Might also be fun to do teams, perhaps by table.
• Keep trying to remember to write this, SQLServerCentral is a great source of questions that go beyond exams. I’d like to see Steve bundle 10 at a time into decks that groups could use.
• We also watched about 15 minutes of video (I think from Udemy) about exam prep that I thought was worthwhile, and I think more could be added to it. Reducing stress is a big part of planning/succeeding, having a plan helps.
• I only caught part of Gareth’s presentation on extended events, but it was well received by the group and a perfect part 1 to Ola’s part 2.
• Ola Hallengren was in Florida on vacation and agreed to speak to the group. He presented an extended events solution he’s using to monitor his servers. What I found most interesting was that he has a commercial monitoring solution, but it didn’t always help him diagnose as well as just having the right data in a table. Monitoring tools still aren’t as good as they need to be!
• Dinner was tacos and stuff from Kendal’s Kitchen
• No raffle this month, but we did have an attendee that handed out coupons for Staples