At PASS Summit 2010, Lori Edwards (Blog | @loriedwards) was recognized as the PASS 2010 Outstanding Volunteer. Congratulations, Lori!
Lori is a DBA at an international travel company, wife, and mom of five kids. I asked Lori to chat about what she’s been working on, what her plans for the future are, and how she manages to do it all. She was more than happy to spend some time talking to me.
How long have you been volunteering for PASS, and what roles have you fulfilled?
Surprisingly, this has been my first year really volunteering with PASS. I worked with TJay Belt on the Auditing and Compliance VC in 2009, but that sort of faded away. This year I served as the Project Manager for Special Projects on the Program Committee. I am also serving on the Election Review Committee (ERC), hoping to streamline the election process.
What accomplishment are you most proud of in 2010?
Working in this capacity on the Program Committee and watching the Summit come to fruition was great. I was also proud that we were able to develop and provide the Abstract Review Teams SSRS reports to look at speaker evaluation results. Prior to that, they had to go through several spreadsheets of information.
Looking ahead, what do you have planned for 2011?
Gosh – while I know that it’s November already, I haven’t even started thinking about next year. There are several projects that we’ve started within the Program Committee that should be completed this year. I also know that we’re looking to make some procedural changes to hopefully make creating the Summit easier. The ERC will be in full swing at that point as well.
This year, what I was doing was new. Getting a new group together, breaking up the tasks, and making sure it was getting done was a challenge. I worked with a great bunch of people, though – the volunteers were the best. Getting it done in 2011 will be easier, because I know what’s going on, and I have plans to get more people involved.
You have a full-time job, a husband and five kids. How do you do it all?
Sometimes I do it well and sometimes not so well. My goal is to try and focus 100% on work while I’m at work and 100% on family when I’m at home. Unfortunately, I’m the sole DBA in my company and am on call 24/7/365, so sometimes the family has to lose me for awhile. I’ve made a concerted effort to not check my work email obsessively while I’m at home to make up for that. Volunteering fits in there somewhere, but it’s tough. Fortunately I have a great family and an extremely supportive husband. It’s also fortunate that I thoroughly enjoy the volunteer work that I’m able to contribute.
As for how much time I spend volunteering – I started on the Program Committee in March, and spent an average of 5-10 hours per week. Some weeks were less, and some were more. When abstracts came in, I was really busy. The last month and half leading up to Summit was very crazy. However, it was excellent and I learned a lot. I got to know a lot of people.
What prompted you to get involved with the SQL community?
Initially, my husband, Tim, got involved with the Virtualization VC (virtual chapter) and found out that TJay Belt needed help with his Auditing and Compliance VC. I offered to help with that chapter, but, as I mentioned above, it was transitioning to possibly becoming a Security VC and TJay was becoming more involved in being a regional mentor. Around that time, I attended my first PASS Summit and had the opportunity to meet Allen Kinsel who headed up the Program Committee. Sometime after that, Allen put out a call for help on a project and I responded. The rest, as they say, is history.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to get more involved in the community?
There are many, many ways to get involved with the community. My first piece of advice is to determine what it is that you’re interested in and what kind of time do you actually have available to volunteer. Be honest with yourself about the time commitment – over committing often leads to burnout. There are needs for volunteers that have all the time in the world as well as needs for people that can only give a few hours a month. In the Special Projects group (within the Program Committee) that I headed up last year, we had several projects, many of which only required a few hours. Jeremiah Peschka wrote a great blog article about volunteering here: http://www.sqlpass.org/Community/Volunteers/VolunteerOpportunities.aspx . Volunteering with PASS is not only a great way to help out the SQL Server community, but it’s an amazing way to get to meet fellow data professionals.
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Lori is a great volunteer and a great inspiration. If you see her or talk to her, please congratulate her on her well-deserved award!
