There are some very good names up for this year's PASS Board of Directors. However, I wanted to write a post about one guy in particular: Allen Kinsel. Why Allen?

Allen is "Good People:"

That's a saying we have in the South when we describe someone we respect and admire. Every opportunity when I've been able to work with Allen (and every opportunity has been tied to PASS), I've been impressed with:

• His professionalism towards the task at hand and the people involved.
• His passion to see PASS succeed.
• His willingness and desire to work with others.
• His sound judgment on difficult decisions that someone must make.

Allen Gets the Pain Points:

The first key goal Allen lists is this one:

Prioritizing and investing more dollars in PASS IT to improve our member-used systems.

As a chapter leader, a PASS volunteer, and a SQL Saturday organizer, I can attest first hand that the PASS IT infrastructure is in great need of some attention and tender loving care. The folks working IT do a lot. They work hard. They've made some wise choices, like choosing to go to Office365 rather than maintaining their own Exchange environment. Think about the hours they freed up not supporting Exchange any more. However, I bet they could do even more for us if we could get some more attention to the IT side of things. Allen wants to do just that. That benefits all of us.

Allen Has Experience with PASS Like Few Others:

Visit Allen's candidate page. Then click the link under his picture for his application. Allen has been serving PASS for almost 10 years. He does an outstanding job, which is why he received the PASSion Award in 2009. He has been on the BoD before. Allen knows how to do the job, can do the job, has the experience for the job, and the passion for the job. I can't say that about any other candidate, as good as they are. That's a key reason Allen stands out to me.

Allen Has a Vision to Grow the Community:

Look at Allen's other two top goals:

• Making an additional IT investment to bring PASS’s membership roster up-to-date. 
• Convincing the Board to implement committees that mirror the current portfolios.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of folks ask the question, "What's in it for me?" They join organizations that they perceive as valuable to their goals, their current situation, and their future. Allen wants to increase the value of PASS to its members. I understand that there are no specifics behind that phrase "increase value" because getting specifics has been a hard thing for some time now. I'm sure one of the reasons is because PASS can't say, "We are certain we have X members," to which another organization could say, "Great, you qualify for this discount, or we'll offer this to your members for free." So getting a hold of accurate membership numbers is key.

Another thing I see is that Allen wants to develop more leaders in the community. That's the last of the big three. He wants to get committees going under each focus area. As someone who tried to break in and do something that was:

• Not a transitory task like program selection committee.
• Above the local chapter level.
• Wasn't a regional mentor slot.
• Didn't require being a member of the Board of Directors.

I found that there wasn't anything along these lines earlier this year when I asked. So that means that being able to do long term, above chapter level commitments, volunteer work for PASS was a gap. Allen is looking to fill that gap. That gives us more opportunities to serve and grow. It increases the "warm bodies" that can help move PASS forward. As I have said already, Allen gets it.

Allen Gets My Vote:

As I said, there are other good candidates for the BoD. However, I can't articulate why I am going to vote for the other candidates on my list like I can Allen. That says something great about Allen. When Allen said he was running, it was a no brainer for me. I'm definitely voting for Allen. If you don't know much about Allen, I'm not surprised because he doesn't a lot of things for PASS out of the limelight. However, I'd urge you to go check out Allen's credentials, correspond with him, and make your own call about whether he's worthy of your vote. I think he'll stand up to the test.