Tag Archives: Jen’s Diary

Are you a data Thought Leader? Call for speakers for Thought Leadership podcast series

Posted on by
thought-leadership_fish_131437046

Credit: MPI Group

As part of the Business Analytics Portfolio, I am spearheading a series of Thought Leadership podcasts and I am looking for people to be interviewed in a ‘fireside chat’ format.

 

I am bringing together experts from our community to share insights, ideas, and tips on helping data executives lead the way to becoming more data-driven.

The podcasts are intended to speak to senior executive people in the organisation, and they aren’t technically oriented. PASS already had a wealth of opportunities to speak at the Virtual Chapters to share deep technical expertise.

The first episode with Ken Puls is on the PASS website, and please do listen to his session. I am looking for more episodes, and I’d love to interview people in the PASS community.  I will be your friendly interviewer, and the topic is YOU, how you got to this stage in your career, what’s your data story, and what wisdom would you share to a  younger you? What do you think is happening in the industry now, and where is it going? What books do you recommend for people who want a more data-driven organisation?

I am looking for Thought Leaders and Budding Thought Leaders. This is your chance to showcase your expertise. It’s an informal podcast, so there are no slides. It’s just you, me and twenty minutes of your time.

Do you have a data story to share? If so, please email me at jen.stirrup@datarelish.com and let’s try to make it happen!

 

 

Jen’s PASS Diary: Two Pillars for Leadership

Posted on by

As always, I don’t represent PASS. Here are my two pillars:

Say Thank You.

The number one item is to say ‘Thank You’ to people for their efforts, even if you don’t like what they did. They are on a path; and so are you. Saying Thank You is the glue to healthy communities, particularly on social media.  The duties of gratitude are perhaps the most sacred of those which the beneficent virtues prescribe to us. (18th Century Scottish economist and philosopher, Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759)

Empirical science agrees: gratitude, even a simple “thank you”, is a basis of leadership; without it, you can’t lead effectively. People will remember that they didn’t get a Thank You. I hear this often from volunteers, unfortunately, and it’s fairly universal across geographies and events, both within and outside of SQLFamily. Say it, and mean it. I don’t hold to Machiavelli’s maxim, written in the 16th Century: It is better to be feared than loved.

Expect criticism, both justified and unjustified.

I’ve taken a lot from John Donne’s 17th Century poem, the Prohibition. Here is an excerpt:

Take heed of hating me,
Or too much triumph in the victory ;
Not that I shall be mine own officer,
And hate with hate again retaliate ;
But thou wilt lose the style of conqueror,
If I, thy conquest, perish by thy hate.
Then, lest my being nothing lessen thee,
If thou hate me, take heed of hating me.

Donne was a metaphysical poet and you can take from this poem what you will.

One aspect for me is being isolated; outside a circle of friends, family, community, whatever you want to call it. When people criticise, occasionally, what they can actually mean is: I said that you were x, and that means that I must be, by definition, y. Example: you’re not a team player (because I said this, this must mean that I am a team player), you are not good at a particular thing (because I said this, that must mean that I am good at it). This means that they have the ‘style of conqueror’ because I give them something to point at, and therefore, I serve a purpose. When you recast criticism into these terms, suddenly, it becomes much less meaningful and what you realise is that you need to stay true to yourself, and not ‘hate with hate retaliate’. Really, it’s not worth it. The real trick is to work out whether it’s valid criticism or not, and look at the motivation.

So, what have I been working on?

I pulled two nighters, to try and pull together a draft strategy for PASS Business Analytics. At 43 years old, I thought that my days of working right through the night were over; well, they are not. I don’t believe that anyone else does this, particularly not for a volunteer role, and I thought I’d point it out here to show the level of commitment I have to the community.

Now that we are not doing a full PASS Business Analytics Conference in 2017, people must be wondering what we are doing next, and what the strategy is? Well, I am trying my best to define it and we will release when we have agreed and signed it off. This is going to take some time, unfortunately. Business Analytics touches all parts of PASS: finance, marketing, and the other Portfolios will also have input. We will also need to have an eye on things globally.  I’m also working on a few other things. I am doing Thought Leadership podcasts and if you want to give me a podcast, then please get in touch!

I am assisting some of the sponsors at the moment; I won’t say whom, at this point. Basically, I want them to have a good experience of dealing with PASS, and me personally of course, so I am trying to juggle to make sure that everything works out well for them. I am not a great fan of the word ‘sponsor’ – personally, I prefer ‘Partner’. It feels more equitable.

Given that I have a good pillar and a bad pillar of Leadership, and this is a ton of hard work, why am I doing it? Well, it really is lonely at the top, even if you don’t see that you are at the top of anything at all, others do, and that’s when it starts.

Truth is, I have learned a lot of lessons, certainly more than just two! and I’m left with very few real friends. Now, the thing is, when you realise that you have really nobody left, then it actually gives you a certain freedom and a latitude. That realisation is a gift. Along with that gift, I’ve come to withstand criticism a lot better, but it’s also made me determined that I will not ‘hate with hate again retaliate’. People’s actions speak for themselves, and I don’t need to say a single word about it. I will just continue to try to do good things, and hopefully you will join me on the way.

I think that you put into it, what you get out of it. It’s not all bad. I have met some wonderful people who continue to shine a light out. To them, I say Thank You. Some people have got Thank Yous coming their way, and I will let them know that they are heartfelt.

With leadership, you have to stick true to yourself because, actually, it’s the only way to be. I think that these two pillars feed into that, for me. What do you think?

I keep this diary so that you come on a journey with me, and I wonder if you’d reach the same conclusions? I’d be interested in your thoughts.

Love,

Jen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jen’s PASS Diary: A week in the life of a PASS Non Executive Director

Posted on by

As always, I don’t officially represent PASS here. As you will know, this week the application opens to be on the Board of Directors for PASS. I’ve held my post for two and a half years, and I am not up for election this time. If anyone has any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I also help run the London Power BI User Group, where I am responsible for the sponsors and I help recruit and manage speakers.

If you are considering the role of PASS Director, I thought you might be interested in what a typical week looks like, for a PASS Director.

First things first; please don’t think that the role involves kudos.With PASS, you aren’t building your own empire, but you are building an empire for the community as a whole. This can mean putting PASS first, and putting the team before yourself. If you are doing it because you think it will help build a business, then you need to rethink that. As an independent consultant based in Europe, I have had no business at all from being a PASS Board Director. PASS are still fairly nascent in Europe, and organisations over here don’t seem very interested in that part of my life; they are mainly concerned if I can deliver for them whilst having this commitment.

I certainly do not feel that I have kudos from it, at all. If you have an ’email signature’ career strategy whereby your objective which is led by having more and more titles on your email signature, I can see that the role might be attractive. However, I personally don’t see any kudos from the role itself and I think that I get kudos and thanks for the things that people can see; events, speaking sessions, books, webinars and podcasts. If your career strategy is led by titles, then I think you overstate the importance of hierarchical roles and job titles; people are more interested in what they can hold in their hands, and see, as a consequence of what you do.

So what about the stuff I do, that you can’t see?

I have had three evenings this week, used up with PASS Meetings: Monday, one with the BA team, Thursday, with the Exec, and Friday (Today) I will have another meeting with one of the PASS Summit Sponsors over one of their activities at PASS Summit 2016.  I am going to try and squeeze in a fourth meeting with another PASS HQ member tonight as well, but that has to be confirmed.

I say ‘tonight’ because PASS are based out in the PST timezone, and I am based in London so they are eight hours behind me. So basically, the PASS ‘day’ starts at 5pm for me. I try to hold my meetings from 8pm onwards (12pm PST) because I usually have to travel home, and this can mean problems in participating effectively over Skype. I also try to get ‘family time’ in the early evening and I try to carve out this time so that my family don’t lose out.

Note that this doesn’t include the work I do outside of these meetings:

  • setting up Thought Leadership podcasts for PASS BA
  • creating a BA strategy
  • setting up a PASS BA Advisory board and interacting with the potential members for that
  • preparing for the sponsor Skype meeting on Friday.

It’s a lot of work and it’s stuff that people can’t see, which is why I mention it here.

What am I working on?

200px-strategy_concept-svgA Business Analytics strategy document that outlines where I think PASS should go. This is particularly important now that we are not having a PASS Business Analytics conference in 2017. What does this involve, in terms of skill set?

Defining a strategy is based on knowing:

  • where your organisation is today
  • where you want it to be
  • how you want to get there

The risk of not changing and improving can be as significant as the risks which may affect your plans to develop and grow an organisation. I take after one of Steve Jobs’ Crazy Ones; this is a risk in itself. Although I will never achieve as much as the Crazy Ones in the video, these are the crazy attitudes that I bring with me; the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

There is a lot of ‘noise’ in the data world, and I am particularly concerned with trying to ensure that PASS continues to change and move ahead in terms of efficiency, reputation and meeting the PASS Goals of disseminating high quality community education in data. It is an important exercise since it forms the blueprint of the strategy. To do this, I need to  learn lessons and appreciate what factors may influence the likely success in delivering your goals and success for PASS. This is what forms the basis of my thinking for BA.

Defining a strategy is a process, and this is one key area where a PASS Director adds value to the organisation. The objective of the process is to pull together the activities of the various areas of PASS that touchpoint BA, so that it is in a good spot to achieve its organisational objectives. Once the strategy is in place, it will help to specify how PASS organises to incorporate BA, set objectives and point community and team members towards those objectives through a commonly held vision.

traditional-vennYou’ll notice that this isn’t a technical skill; this is all people and process. As a Business Intelligence professional, I think about the people and the process, too. I’ve said before that Business Intelligence is often change management in disguise, and part of defining a strategy is that change management necessarily follows. I lean towards a more agile delivery, and I am working with PASS right now to point the ship towards a more agile delivery where the BA Strategy definition and process is concerned. It’s not enough just to be agile; you have to pay attention to people and process, too, and it can be more difficult when the people are volunteers who don’t need to do anything that you ask of them. It’s a sensitive balancing act.

To achieve this well, the execution process needs to be separated from the creative process of generating the strategy. As a ‘doer’, it can be hard to excise yourself from the execution and it is tempting to do that, because you see short term results. However, I am focused on long-term results, and strategy definition is a longer-term process that looks further into the distance, and has the objective of pointing the organisation towards that vision.

To summarise,  hope that gives some insight into what I have been doing this week. Any questions, let me know!

 

 

 

Jen’s PASS Diary: The Happy Prince and the Swallow

Posted on by

tumblr_n1tk0vugdz1tnqouoo1_500

Picture Credit: checanty

Oscar Wilde was well known for his writing for adults, but he’s probably less well known for his excellent children’s writing, too. He tackles strong themes, and they are well worth the read for adults as well as children. In one short story, The Happy Prince, Wilde writes a rather sad tale about a statue of a Happy Prince, who is somewhat misnamed because he’s never really known true happiness. In the tale, there is a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt. Saddened by what he saw around him, The Happy Prince tasked the swallow with giving everyone the jewels of himself, until, eventually, there was only the basic iron left. The swallow flies around, giving out the precious stones in the statue, but eventually dies, breaking the Happy Prince’s heart. There’s more to it than that, and it’s a sad tale, and for various reasons it has always been special to me.

I think that being on the PASS Board is a bit like being both the Happy Prince and the Swallow. Like everyone, I have talents, experience and wisdom in some areas, and not others. I happen to try to use my talents, small as they are, for the benefit of SQLFamily. I have won both of my PASS elections outright as the winner with the most votes. This means that SQLFamily gave me a position, but also a mandate to try and help the community via PASS. I am a volunteer and I try my best, and I give my ‘jewels’ away for free where I think they are best needing to be spent, and I am also the messenger that takes them there.

It’s a lot of work, however, inside the tent. I’d like to explain a little about how much effort I put in normally. Since I’m in Europe, attending PASS calls means that I’m on the phone late in the evenings. If I have a few calls a week, then that takes out a few of my evenings. It all adds up, and anyone in IT knows it’s not just about the meeting, there is work outside of that as well. If I was based in the US, I’d take the calls during my working day; however, it’s a different story when you have your evenings taken out. I’m just putting that here so people understand that being on the Board, from this part of the world, is actually a huge commitment and this is my third year of doing it. Fortunately I am single so it’s not impacting time with a spouse, although it does impact my newly-found Netflix addiction.

What am I working on? A few things:

There’s a difference between PASS BA the event, and PASS BA the strategy. Both require a lot of work. Vision is ‘why’, strategy is ‘what’, and execution is ‘how’. The strategy is a follow on from a vision, a mission statement of where PASS would like to go. This diagram might help, and I sit along all three of these elements:

vse-leadership-management-474x234

 

Credit: Goulston Group‘s image.

The PASS Mission Statement has to translate into a strategy, which then translates into execution plans. Execution is crucial, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for a strategy. A strategy is all about making a decision about where to play, and the way to play. A strategy tackles more fundamental questions:

  1. What organisation should PASS be?
  2. How does this add value to PASS?
  3. Who are the target audience for the PASS BA proposition?
  4. What are your value propositions for the BA audience?
  5. What capabilities are essential to adding value to the PASS BA organisation, and differentiating their value proposition?

In future blog posts, I will try to speak to each of these questions from my input as the PASS Business Analytics portfolio holder. A strategy provides a foundation for decision-making. It’s a garden for growth and where to cut costs, and determining priorities. The strategy gives a signpost and a guide to prevent drift, or scope creep. Personally, I have never seen scope ‘creep’ – it usually gallops! So there is a lot to think about, as I try to help PASS continue to be successful, and move forward to further success.

A strategy is particularly critical in volatile environments, and there is none more volatile than the world of data at the moment. You just need to see the Apache top level projects at the moment. Apache Spark is à la mode, but now there is also Apache Flink and Apache Arrow to consider, which also play in some of Spark’s space. Also, you could consider Apache Apex which is designed to improve the performance and speed of big data components that work together as part of a larger system. How would an architect decide, and put these bits together?

I am continuing to make sure that my voice is heard and I’ve already made the following points:

  • Strategy – I have been working a lot on the PASS BA strategy. More details on this will be ongoing, but here are some details which I’ve previously posted. I’m supporting the team as we move forward to tell our story, and that’s involved a lot of research and teamwork. Thank you Teresa C for your help 🙂
  • PASS are working on the BA Marathon, as promised in the last blog post. I’ve been having input on that.
  • I’ve raised the question of greater engagement and activity outside of the US. I’ve sent through my thoughts and ideas, and hopefully that will lead into more growth in that area, through strategy and execution. This is crucial; growing PASS will mean greater support and engagement outside of the US. My EMEA seat is supposed to give the ‘voice’ outside of the US to the rest of the Board, and I’ve already made these points on a number of occasion. In my own capacity, I spoke at SQLSaturday Vienna, SQLBits and I’m speaking at SQLSaturday Paris and SQLSaturday Dublin in June. I’m also speaking at Digital Pragmatism: Delivering Real World Improvements in Mental Health. I also spoke at Microsoft TechDays, a UK event.
  • Also, I’m supporting SQL Server Geeks in my own capacity and I’m delivering a precon for the team out there in India to help support their wonderful event and community. How much do I believe in the SQL Server Geeks event? I have 100% faith in the team out there – and SQL Server Geeks is going to be the highlight of my year.I’m delighted to see the growth in the community there. Amit Bansal, Manohar Punna and the team are doing a wonderful job. Pinal Dave runs a wonderful blog out of India. These are only a few people in that part of the world who are doing wonderful things, and they all contribute to make the Data Platform world better, both in person and online.

So, that’s a roundup. As always, please feel free to get in touch at jen.stirrup@sqlpass.org

 

 

 

 

 

The world of Analytics: are you crossing the Rubicon or sitting on the Acheron?

Posted on by

d1e285a119ddeb540bfd58333b40512049 years BC, the commander of the 13th Legion stood at the River Rubicon, and paused. The dilemma was over whether or not to enter Italy. for a man who had built a career on surmounting crisis point over crisis point, this move would change the Roman world forever. Taking the army into Italy, and onto Rome, was an act of treason against the Roman Republic. At the time, generals were forced to disband their armies before entering Italy, since they were not allowed to hold imperium, or right to command, which belonged to Roman Governors. By crossing the Rubicon, Julius Caesar was taking imperium illegally, and would cause civil war. With the words alea iacta est, (the die is cast),  Caesar crossed the Rubicon, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In the world of data, we have crossed the Rubicon which now includes analytics; both streaming, real time analytics as well as longer-term business analytics. There is a world of hype out there – big data? Fast Data? Bueller? Bueller? The industry is moving so fast, it’s hard to know what technology to throw your career behind. However, some things will stay the same, in spite of technology. Intellectual curiosity. Business Acumen. Critical thinking. Communication. Data skills. Data cleansing. The ability to question what you are told. Other skills: R. Statistics. Numeracy. SQL.

However, just because things are moving fast, it does not mean that we can ignore it. It’s easy to take the safe option and say that it’s better to wait until the industry slows down so we can see the embers of what’s left, and then take a decision. This is akin to sitting on the banks of the Acheron. According to Greek mythology and Homer’s poems, the Acheron is one of the five rivers of the Underworld. In Dante’s Inferno, here’s a quote from Canto 3:

On the other side of Acheron lies Limbo and the court of King Minos. Charon ferries the shades of the damned across the Acheron. A dreary fog hangs over the water, and lightning strikes light up the sky above it. On its shores lie those who lived with neither infamy or praise, denied entry into the Inferno or Paradise.

For those who do wait and nothing, they are seated on the banks of the Acheron, which is viewed as a marginal place.

In this world of data-driven analytics, organisations can’t afford to sit on the Acheron; the Rubicon has already been crossed, and organisations need to get their feet wet.

This is why the PASS strategy on Business Analytics is so crucial – we are doing something to be part of this world. PASS are not sitting on the Acheron but instead, PASS are crossing the Rubicon to be part of this new world. It’s important to separate the strategy of Business Analytics from the execution of one Business Analytics event; the strategy is a forward thinking vision, and you can read more set out it here.

More than ever, PASS has to keep up with the data world, and move fast and nimbly in order to support the community’s growing needs.Yes, sure, there is hype; but the people still need to learn to navigate the hype to make the principles and strucures of analytical thinking and the data world actionable and relevant to their organisations. Connect, learn, share… right?

PASS are getting their feet wet by serving this new community, as well as supporting the existing community. Is it a brave thing? Yes. My contact details are here, and I look forward to hearing from you. I don’t speak for PASS officially since I’m not on the Exec, but I hope you’ve found this background to be useful in understanding the strategy context.

 

Jen’s PASS Diary: So what happened to SQLSaturday Edinburgh?

Posted on by

As always, I don’t officially represent PASS on this post (or any other).

I have been working on a lot of things, including attending a PASS Board Meeting, and doing a lot on the Business Analytics Portfolio. However, the focus of attention here is my failed SQLSaturday Edinburgh event. So what happened? The outcome is as follows:

  • SQLSaturday Edinburgh is cancelled
  • Edinburgh Power BI is cancelled
  • Three precons out of four have been cancelled.
  • I lost a few thousand pounds
  • My own precon is still going on; see previous point. I am trying to stem some of the losses

This has meant:

  • Cancelling the University of Edinburgh venue
  • Cancelling precon venue rooms
  • Many disappointed attendees – 51 people in all
  • Many disappointed potential speakers, who submitted 98 submissions from every continent in the world.

Why did Edinburgh fail?

Note that I’ve successfully gained sponsorships for the three past SQLSaturday Edinburgh events, SQLRelay, I’ve sent companies to SQLBits who eventually sponsored, and I’ve helped with sponsorships for PASS BA Analytics. Despite this wealth of experience, the stars were not aligned for Edinburgh.

I didn’t get sponsorship, apart from the fantastic CozyRoc. The CozyRoc team have been wonderfully supportive in my hour of need, and they have said that this won’t stop them supporting future events in Edinburgh, or me individually. I am hugely grateful for their support and I’d like to publicly thank them here.

Why didn’t I get sponsorship? Let’s look at the landscape of events:

There are also a bunch of other European SQLSaturdays which are in the lead up to my event. In one rejection email, one would-be sponsor pointed out to me that there are four SQLSaturdays in my area before my event, and explained that they couldn’t support Edinburgh because of the concentration of events around that time.

  • Kiev – event being held in 20th May
  • Plovdiv – event being held at 28th May
  • Krasnodar –  4th June
  • Rheinland – 11th June

If you look at the list, you can see that there are 7 SQL events between 2nd May and 11th June. This doesn’t include my failed Edinburgh event, which would take the total to 8 events in 47 days. That’s a lot, by anyone’s standards.

Further, this does not include the other events which take place after 11th June – Dublin, on 18th June, and Paris, on June 25th. This means that the total goes up to ten SQL events in the space of 9 weeks, three of which are major events – SQLBits, SQLNexus and SQLDay Poland.

I have been criticised for a number of things, and I will lay them out here:

– not responding to sponsor feedback . This simply isn’t true. I negotiated and offered to cut prices whilst giving more benefits. I bent and shifted and adapted to get cashflow in – hell, any cash flow. However, even offering sponsorship at rock bottom prices wasn’t enough. The answer was no, no and no again, and the same reasons given were the ones that I couldn’t do anything about – too many SQL events concentrated geographically and temporally. This wasn’t in my control.

– I am on the PASS Board, and apparently it’s a mark of my failure as an individual that I couldn’t organise a SQLSaturday. This isn’t true. I’ve organized a ton of events, and I do a lot for the community. Note the following points:

It does show integrity that I didn’t ‘pull strings’ to make being a Board member an advantage in some way, and I am clearly lost out in many ways, including financially.

I have seen, felt, and paid for, the ‘hard edge’ of being part of the SQL Server / Data Platform community. I have war wounds. This makes me a better Board member, I think, because I can speak for the ‘little guy’ and I am struggling and suffering due to this issue, and I think it can help me to empathise. I think I won votes because I ran successful events, partly. however, I think that the fact I have been there when an event fails, means that I can work to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

– I’ve been told that I shouldn’t have organised my event temporally and geographically near the behemoth SQLBits event. Liverpool is about 200 miles away from Edinburgh, give or take. The events were six weeks apart.  I did not know the dates of SQLBits until the last moment, and I acted without being given the data. I had been given reassurances that the SQLBits dates wouldn’t impact PASS BA; however, it then turned out that they are in the same week. Be very clear; If I had known the SQLBits dates, I would have postponed Edinburgh. Full stop. I wasn’t told, so I didn’t know. The reasons for the communication failure are still a mystery to me, but I do wish that someone had said something. They would have helped me a lot in many ways by speaking/emailing me to forewarn me. I would have postponed Edinburgh so that it took place later year. Happy everyone.

To summarise, the main reason for the failure of Edinburgh was the lack of sponsorship; one repeated message given to me that there are simply too many SQL / Data events and the growth of events is outpacing sponsors’ ability to keep up and they are having to make difficult choices.

I would hate it if another volunteer went through this again in the future, and I’d like to think strategically to prevent it from happening to anyone else. So what’s the call to action?

  • If you consider yourself a European Data Platform technical leader, please get in touch. I am working with Microsoft to set up a Yammer group that I will invite you to. We can swap ideas, event dates, and basically facilitate communication.My email is jen dot stirrup at datarelish dot com. I am findable! Find me.
  • I’d like to set up a European Twitter chat on the first Monday of every month. This will take place at 5pm UK time, 6pm CET. The hashtag will be #EUSQL. Let’s talk about anything and everything European and SQL. I will be ‘chair’ but I will need volunteer ‘chairs’ too. If this is you, get in touch.
  • I will set up a European Linked In Group for European SQL leaders and participants. I will release details in due course. I’d like help with this; if this is you, please email me.

I want to thank the following people for offering to help, in no order:

Brent Ozar

Andrew Brust

Mike Hillwig

Neil Hambly

Stephanie Locke

Jonathan and Annette Allen

Satya Janyanty

Niko Neugebauer

PASS team – Sonya, Vicki, Angie, Teresa

PASS Board – everyone 🙂  Adam, Tom, Denise, Wendy, Tim, Craig, Argenis, Ryan, Allen

my family – Andrew S (my brother)

Microsoft – particularly Jen M and Jonathan W

Let’s work together so that nobody else is in this same situation. Please help me – to help YOU – avoid this situation.

[ Update: original comment was removed. I believed that someone was having a go at me. I will just leave that here.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jen’s PASS Diary: once more unto the breach

Posted on by

“Never allow carping critics to deter you from success. Instead, silence them with it.”

― Christian Baloga

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

– Winston Churchill

Well, what have I been up to, since my last post? Note: I don’t represent PASS here. This is a brain dump of my own thoughts.

Briefly, I’ve suffered a series of malicious problems over the Internet. Like many other tech women, I just put up with it. I’ve reported it to the police and I’ve been talking to them over the past ten days or so, and the matter is now proceeding through that process. Since it’s now a Police matter, I won’t go into details. I will simply say that I’ve changed most of my contact details now and I’ll set up a dedicated blog email address so that people can still contact me. Details to follow.

I’ve been distracted, to say the least. It’s been suggested to me that I should step down from various community activities, including the MVP Program. However, I am not going to do that. I think it sends out the wrong signal, which is that these people/person (I still don’t know who it is) will win in the end. So, whilst I’m clinging on with my fingernails, I am still clinging on and I am not going away any time soon.

I’ve served on the Board of PASS for the last two years, and I’ve been an MVP for five years now in my own right. I’m one of only four female MVPs in Europe, although we are all Data Platform now. I’ve written my own book all by myself – not just a chapter or so! And I run my own one woman band small business.

I’m happy just to be part of the crowd for as long as it lasts. It won’t last forever and one day, it will end. I’ve met some great people along the way, learned languages In foreign countries, lost friends who weren’t friends, travelled to more places than I ever dreamed of seeing and I’ve achieved more than a wee lassie from Kilmarnock could ever have hoped for. These problems have made me down but not out. Life has thrown so much at me already and there is a truth in the saying, that which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

Regarding PASS, I’m not going to let down the 1.2k plus people who voted for me, and I won both elections outright – twice, once in 2013 and once in 2015. That was a huge mark of faith in me and it’s a lot to live up to, and I don’t want to let people down. I know full well there are areas I could do better and I am trying. I am also very aware that there are people who don’t like me or what I’m doing. But that isn’t everyone and there are still people standing behind me and beside me who believe in the community things I am trying to do. However distractions like this do not help, but, despite this, I have still managed to keep my phone commitments to PASS this week leading up to Christmas plus keep on top of things BA. I’m excited to be part of the team and I feel I’m working with people who are friends as well as team colleagues and I don’t want to lose that.

I will continue to send all problems on to the right police process. I have the “courage to continue” and I want to thank everyone who has been in touch over the past week or so, with their support. I’ve commented previously about the kindness of strangers and how nice people can be sometimes, even if they don’t really know me at all. also, to the kind hearts from SQLFamily – too many to mention! – but I think I’ve been in touch to thank everyone personally by now. Usually, I’d name people who had helped me, but I’ve turned a bit paranoid about mentioning names in case they get some problems, too. A rather bad halo effect 😦

hopefully the next post will be more cheerful!

jen

x