We have four good candidates this year, of which two are incumbents. I was asked by Argenis and Tim to provide references for their applications and I was glad to do so – both meet the requirements in my view to be candidates based on their contributions to PASS.

I’m finding it hard to decide who to vote on this year. Jen Stirrup has done a great job supporting and promoting BAC. While I’m still not sold on the concept, she did what a Director should do – try to make it work. She’s also been the best by far on transparency and interaction via blog posts and Twitter. Tim Ford has kept SQLSaturday moving and took point on the public discussion when the big site upgrade didn’t go as planned, though I would wish for more communication on things in the portfolio.

Then I look at the new candidates. I can’t think of a candidate that has done more to prepare than Ryan Adams. Preparation doesn’t guarantee success, but it sure makes it a lot more likely. Argeniz Fernandez brings passion and a real talent for communicating and inspiring to the table, and I know that he’ll be ok when the Board gets into the hard conversations that always happen.

I’ve looked at the NomCom scores and I think that they match up with with my own evaluation of the candidates. That’s good and will factor into my decision on who will get my vote.

I looked at the applications and especially the goals. There are some good ideas there and they give you a sense of what a candidate cares about. Still, I was underwhelmed by the goals. None had the kind of deep strategic reach that I always hope to see.

I haven’t yet seen all the video interviews. I planned to watch all four live and ended up only being available during the one for Tim Ford. I liked the format – I hope PASS uses it again in the future. I hope to see all of the videos before voting.

I’m definitely voting for Ryan Adams. He’s done all I could ask to prepare for the role and if elected I believe he’ll work his way through the learning curve and represent the membership well. Picking the other two is much harder. The two incumbents both have supported BAC and that’s an initiative that I am still uncertain is good for PASS in its current form. More than that, they haven’t – in my view – done a good job explaining why PASS has needed to devote such extraordinary resources to it and by extension why they support it. I’m reluctant to use that as the sole basis for deciding, but I’m also aware that if re-elected they will most likely continue their support for BAC so I’d be effectively voting for that. I want to see the video interviews and look at the one applications one more time, but right now I think I’ll vote for Argenis and pick one of the two incumbents as my third vote.

It’s tough to decide. Not fun to not pick someone – these are all good people. I’m pleased that it’s a real race this year, it’s good for PASS when we have a strong field of candidates. You can review all the candidates at http://www.sqlpass.org/Elections.aspx.