Express Yourself

No, it’s not super-Tuesday, but yes, it is election season … for the PCI-SIG. 

Judging by how few companies bother to vote in the PCI-SIG Board elections, you’re forgiven if you don’t realize there even *IS* an election!  (Ok, so there are many years in which the incumbent board runs unopposed, so it’s even less obvious then.)  I talk a lot about which “hat” I’m wearing at various times, and this is the time of year I have to dust off my least-favorite hat of all:

Frankly I *HATE* the political side of standards work – and “campaigning” for votes is probably the worst part of that!  Here in the US, presidential elections run between 50 and 60% turnout of eligible voters and I would dance in the streets* if we got that many for the PCI-SIG board election!

Now here’s your quick-reference guide to PCI-SIG voting:

• All member companies are eligible to vote
• One representative from each company casts a single vote for up to 9 candidates from a slate of up to 12 people
• Board members serve as *INDIVIDUALS* but must be employed by a member company
• Board members’ companies are expected to be significant contributors to the work of PCI-SIG

You don’t have to figure out where your local polling place is, or drive across town to city hall, and you certainly don’t have to stand in line.  All you have to do is click over to the PCI-SIG Election page: https://www.pcisig.com/members/bod_vote_15.  There you will see links to the candidate presentations, and if you are the designated voting rep for your company, a link to the actual ballot.  Otherwise you will be directed to your company’s voting representative – *please* contact that person and ask them to vote for me, or at least to vote!  NOTE: The election closes at noon Pacific time on May 19th, so don’t dawdle.

Those of you who participate in the various PCI-SIG workgroups hear me often in the Protocol and Compliance Workgroups, along with John Stonick and other Synopsys folks in the Electrical and other Workgroups.  Please consider which of the candidates’ companies are actually active members!  I’m not sure why someone from a company that doesn’t participate in or even observe ANY workgroup would claim to be supporting the PCI-SIG, but I guess that’s politics 🙁

You can download my election presentation here, but the highlights won’t surprise anyone who reads this blog:

• I have over 10 years experience on the Board of Directors and am currently the Vice-President of the PCI-SIG
• I’m deeply involved in PCI Express development, participating actively in several workgroups and I’m a frequent presenter at PCI-SIG training events
• I’ve been involved in PCI development for over 20 years (going back to pre-1.0 versions of the original parallel PCI)
• I hold 26 US Patents, many of which relate to PCI technologies
• Synopsys supports all PCI Express specifications
• Synopsys has over 40 engineers committed to multiple workgroups
• Synopsys sponsors PCI-SIG events around the world

Please do take a few minutes to click through to the election page, read the candidate presentations and make your own determination.  If you’re not the voting member for your company, please convince that person (listed when you click through) to spend a few minutes on this – BEFORE May 19th.  Especially if turnout remains low, one company’s vote can easily make a direct impact on the election outcome!

Thanks for reading this far, I’ll return you to our normally scheduled blogging.

Richard

*Ok, how’s this – if PCI-SIG gets over 50% voter turnout this election I will dance on the stage at the US Devcon – which will be a Youtube-era fate worse than death!