Well now that I've got some free time, I'll be out doing more community engagements. What, when and where? Here's my current schedule:
As a reminder, next GoSQLServer meeting is schedule for March 17th at 6:30 PM at Vatterott College. Details at: http://www.gosqlserver.com/cs/forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=37
On March 21st, I'll be in Chicago for some Microsoft MVP functions.
On March 24th, I'll be in Omaha for the Omaha.NET user group meeting at Creighton West. No demonstration of my C# skills this month, though.
On March 30th, I'll be presenting to the Chippewa Valley .NET users group on SQL Server 2005. This is going to be a hoot since I'll be able to stop in Black River and visit the Sand Creek Brewery along the way.
On March 31th, I'll be at the SQL Server Summit in Minnepolis.
On April 6th, I'll be at InfoTec giving a presentation entitled "Pushing the Envelope: XML and CLR in SQL Server 2005."
The week of April 11th, I'll be in Atlanta to help teach a private SQL Server 2005 class.
The week of April 19th, I'll be visting the East Coast -- specifically New York and Boston for some SQL Server 2005 related activities. It's a bummer, because on April 21st, Ryan Means will be talking to the Omaha.NET user's group about the new version of Dundas charts.
The week of April 25th, I'll be visting the West Coast -- specifically San Francisco and Los Angeles for some more SQL Server 2005 related activities.
May 4th I'll be making a the quick trip over to Des Moines to give a presentation on SQL Server 2005 to The Iowa DNUG folks. I'm very much looking forward to that since Mike Benokvich has had such good things to say about them.
On May 11th and 12th, I'll be back in Chicago for some more SQL Server 2005 related activities.
The week of May 16th, I'll be in Texas -- Dallas and Houston specifically -- for some more SQL Server 2005 related activities.
On May 26th, I'll looking forward to being at the joint meeting of Omaha.NET and the Omaha Macromedia user's group as Joe Olsen and Matt Moore will be talking about Flash Remoting.
Microsoft's next "Big Day" in Omaha is schedule for June 16th and you SQL Server 2005 fans better block out the whole day. In the morning, the TechNet folks are doing a briefing on SQL Server 2005 and in the afternoon, the MSDN folks will be talking about SQL Server 2005 data access and Web Services.
Friday was a very hard day, I did something I'd hoped I'd never have to do: resign from HDR. My last day there will be March 28.
Why? Its hard to say exactly. I still have a lot of positive feelings about the people of HDR and about the company as a whole. They've got a great future ahead of them and they'll continue to do great things. There's lots of reasons to see HDR as an employer of choice!
Part of the reason is purely personal on my part: I've over-invested myself into the company -- sometimes to the point where it was affecting my health and attitude in very negative ways. Over the last few months, the little things starting getting to me more and more to the point where I finally had to ask "am I doing the right thing for anybody by staying here?" While its true that we've done some good things at HDR, I couldn't say that felt like I was going to be able to continue to contribute at the level I needed to and stay happy.
Another part of the reason that I decide to leave rather than to try to find a different role within HDR is that some things do need to change. I'm a big believer in "lead, follow or get out of the way." HDR gave me great opportunities become a leader and I think I learned a lot from them. When it became time to become a follower, I was glad to do it. But balancing being a follower and being a leader became a source of frustration for me. Not because of change in roles, but because it felt like many times we were being lead in directions that felt like they limited our opportunities to learn new ways of doing things. At the strategic level, I just couldn't see how to reconcile where we were with where we wanted to be. The worst came when I could no longer find the energy to be a good follower down that path. Don't get me wrong: I don't want to be a martyr nor am I sacrificing myself as message to anybody. But when you can't lead and you can't follow, getting out of the way is right thing to do.
But there is a message in me leaving HDR that hope folks do get: Change is needed. The need to change is a feedback function of the amount of resistance, limitation and apathy from previous attempts to change. While not all change is for the better, that's not an excuse to remain static.
So, where do I go from here?
Mahatma Gandhi said "we must become the change we want to see." Since the change I want to see is myself becoming a happier person with better leadership and followership skills, I've been looking at some opportunities to work on those things. So what are the things that make me happy? Well, helping people learn about use technology is right at the top of that list, so it's likely that I'll continue doing writing about technology, giving Web Casts, speaking and hopefully teaching a few classes here and there. I'm also looking forward to improving my knowledge of designing and applying technologies at the Enterprise level by working on some folks I've recently met who have a really impressive Java framework they are interested in porting to .NET and maybe Mono. I've got tons of following I can do there, and maybe a little leading too.
It feels good to be looking forward to new experiences.