I'm a candidate in the 2012 PASS Board of Directors elections and believe that an important part of what makes a good candidate is support from the community that they wish to represent. During the last 5 years I have connected with people in PASS community from chapter members to speakers and from SQLSaturday volunteers to Directors. I've been fortunate this year to receive several letters of recommendation in support of my desire to continue serving on the Board. In this post I'm sharing the letter I received from Ed Watson (Blog | Twitter).

I met Ed for the first time at SQLSaturday  #110 in Tampa earlier this year and again at the Tampa Bay SQL User Group in March. Ed is the perfect embodiment of someone who jumped straight into the deep end of the PASS community - he regularly attends chapter meetings, is active on Twitter, started blogging, presented at his first SQLSaturday a few weeks ago, and in November will be joining us for the first time at the Summit. It's been fun to watch Ed's upward trajectory in the SQL community and I have no doubt that we'll be seeing more of him around PASS for a few years. Here's what Ed had to say about me:

To Whom It May Concern:

I have only had the privilege of knowing Kendal Van Dyke for a little over a year which is about the same amount of time that I have been involved with PASS. In that time frame and beyond, Kendal has been an ever present force in the Central Florida area for PASS. I live closer to the Tampa user group; however Kendal has continually invited me to the MagicPASS meetings. He has presented for our Tampa group as well as presenting at all of the local SQL Saturdays that I have attended.

Kendal has never ceased being an ambassador for PASS, in my opinion. I have never seen dialog on twitter or blogs where he has been nothing but the consummate professional always raising the flag for PASS and always looking to help users in the SQL Server community.

He has also encouraged me to do more in the PASS community and I have now presented a session to my user group as well as at a SQL Saturday. He has continued the cycle of mentoring new presenters. After several conversations, I feel that he has a great passion for the SQL Server community as well as some great ideas for the PASS community globally.

I fully recommend Kendal for the PASS Board of Directors without any hesitation.

Sincerely,

Ed Watson

For those of your who have already cast your vote - thank you for helping to decide who you want to lead PASS forward. And for everyone else yet to fill out their ballot, please take the time to visit the elections website, read about each candidate, and exercise your right to vote. (And of course I hope that you'll consider voting for me!)