As you can see from the title of this post, I’ve decided on one of the three votes I’ll be casting in the PASS Election this year – I’ll be voting for Allen Kinsel. I wrote a letter of recommendation for him to be included in his application. Here is that recommendation:

Subject: Letter of Recommendation for Allen Kinsel for PASS Board of Directors

I am writing today to give you my enthusiastic recommendation that Allen Kinsel be accepted as a candidate in the elections for the PASS Board of Directors this year.

I worked with Allen for a year on the PASS Board in 2011. As the year progressed I watched him grow and adapt to the unique nature of serving on a Board, all while building relationships with both fellow Board members and with PASS HQ. Even then Allen dreamed of a better PASS. Not in the sense that PASS was somehow bad, but rather that it could be much more.  We worked together on a number of projects and while we didn’t always agree, I always found him willing to listen and thoughtful about why he saw things a different way.

Allen and I have stayed in contact since then, and while we rarely talked about issues directly related to his work on the Board, it was clear to me that he was continuing to grow and had found what he saw as a tipping point – driving major changes in the tools available to chapters.  That’s the kind of thing I admire in a Board member, finding a place where they think they are uniquely suited to try to make a difference and digging in, while still fulfilling their other obligations. Since leaving the Board at the end of 2012 he has had time to reflect and internalize the lessons learned, lessons that I believe were a major factor in his promotion to manager at his full time job and lessons that I believe will make him even more effective if elected to the Board again this fall.

Allen is honest, trustworthy, loyal, hardworking, and more. I know that he will serve the members well and I know that he will be a voice for setting bigger goals and building the strategy to achieve them. As I close, I’ll reiterate my unconditional support for Allen as a candidate.

Regards,

Andy Warren

I’m excited about the prospect of Allen re-joining the Board. That’s the Allen that knows how the Board works, how PASS HQ works, why things are the way they are and why changing some things are more important than others. That’s the Allen that ran for re-election and suffered a painful defeat, a defeat he attributes to not campaigning effectively. The Allen that worked through losing, spent months stepping back and thinking about what he accomplished and what he didn’t accomplish, and then decided to run for the Board again. It’s the Allen that did a practice run to make sure he would do well on the NomCom interview, taking nothing for granted.

Check out his campaign page to see more about his experience, his vision, and a lot of endorsements from people I respect.

I’m voting for him. I’m hoping you will too.