A couple weeks ago I wrote about trying to decide whether to run for the PASS board. I talked about it at length with my friend Steve, trying to weigh all the factors, important among them the potential negative impact on our business if I took on something that would require more time and travel. I also spent a good bit of time just looking out the window with a cup of coffee in hand, weighing the odds; would I make it through the nomination process, if I did would I be able to make a real change, etc. More on this in a minute.

I was excited when decided to run for the board, as he's a very good thinker and is probably better at seeing both sides of a discussion than I am. There's no doubt that any decision by committee is essentially politics, and while I wouldn't call him a politician (yet), I think he could navigate those waters well. While potentially we could end up running for the same seat, that's one race I'd be happy to lose! But the fates intervened, and he didn't get his application submitted in time due to traveling to Orlando for SQLSaturday #8.

Along with all that I had a chance to discuss it some with Brian Kelley, and some friends that aren't involved in the profession at all, getting a good variety of opinions. Grant Fritchey weighed in on his blog in favor of it, and that also became another data point.

One of the things I don't have that I miss on occasions like this is a good mentor, someone that had been down the road already and could see if this something that was right for me. Lacking the mentor, still at the window thinking, it was damned hard to separate fear from caution, idealism from realism. That's often the nature of decisions. Finally I decided that I'd take the first step, and see what developed. I've submitted the application, now to see what the next step brings.

Coming up in Part 3 I'll post some about the application process.