Sunday, September 26, 2010

Regional Mentor and SQL Saturday

I have been a Regional Mentor for SQLPASS for a while now, and have been over a few different areas. With the last reorg of the areas of User Groups, aligning them more with the Microsoft regions, I am now over my area in the west again. In the southwest, to be more precise.
I have friends and acquaintances in a few of these User Groups, and hope to have more in the coming months.
For my own record keeping, and as full disclosure to any of you that may read this, these are the groups I am going to be assisting. http://www.sqlpass.org/PASSChapters/USSouthwest.aspx

Arizona - PhoenixArizona SQL Server Users Group
Arizona - Tucson
California - Los AngelesL.A. SQL Server Professionals Group
California - Mountain ViewSilicon Valley SQL Server User Group
California - Orange CountyOrange County SQL User Group
California - San DiegoSan Diego SQL User Group
California - San FranciscoSan Francisco SQL Server User Group
California - San Francisco & Mountain View AreaBay Area Microsoft BI User Group
Colorado - BoulderBoulder SQL Server User Group
Colorado - Colorado SpringsColorado Springs SQL Server Users Group
Colorado - DenverDenver SQL Server User Group
Hawaii - HonoluluHawaii.Net Users Group
Nevada - Las VegasSQL Server Society of Las Vegas
Utah - Salt Lake City SLC SQL Users Group
Utah - Utah County Utah County SQL Server User Group

It will be easy for me to deal with the two Utah UGs, as I am intimate with them already.
Luckily I have made some great friends in the Colorado area as well, due to presence on Twitter and Facebook, and simply getting to know these folks thru SQLPASS.
I'de love to make it back to my home state of California more, and get to know those folks. There is even a UG in Mountain View, which is one of the other offices of my current employer. I would think a trip to CA wouldnt be too hard for me to muster up, and drag along my family whom is enamoured with CA.
Arizona is an area I am familiar with, since I worked out of Phoenix offices of one of my past employers quite often a few years back, and I have traveled to Tucson a few times to participate in SQL Server World Wide User Group (SSWUG).
Nevada (Las Vegas) is closer than one would think, and in my early days of being a newlywed, before being a parent, we used to visit there quite often. Before getting married, i would travel thru Vegas often between my boyhood home in California and school in Utah. I would love to visit Vegas more often for UG needs. And an excuse to get away. Its only 6 hours away. It almost begs for a weekend trip.
The last area that I am assisting is the one I have little contact with. I suggested that all RMs get monies from PASS to visit all the UGs they can, and obviously Hawaii would be first on my list of visits. I do know a great guy that lives there.

All in all, this is kinda my attempt at divulging my stewardship and some of the desires of my heart to assist with these UGs.

Now, speaking of SQL Saturday. I had a great opportunity to visit Denver SQL Saturday this actual weekend, but declined. My excuse is that it is my daughter's birthday today, and I didnt want to drag her to a 'old computer nerd convention' (her words). I do think that she would have enjoyed parts of it as a weekend away with dad, but for sure parts wouldnt have been enjoyed. In any event, i skipped Denver SQL Saturday.
Coming up is the Utah SQL Saturday that I am helping out with currently. This one will be easy to help with and attend.
I intend on making plans to visit other SQL Saturdays, as many as I can muster, that are in my area of stewardship. There is one in Phoenix in February. I need to start making some plans to figure out how to get there, and attend and participate.
As other SQL Saturdays pop up, I want to attend.

For those of you that are interested, here are all the SQL Saturdays that are on the docket currently. http://www.sqlsaturday.com/


No comments: