Monday, June 16, 2014

I am stepping away from community

This all happened rather suddenly, the realization that I didn't want to lead nor be as involved in community and user groups. It has been such a part of what I have done over the years that it surprised me how much I was in auto pilot around doing things for user groups and how much personal time and energy (and money) I was spending on community activities.

Several things have happened since I made this decision. First, I have formally retired out of the Microsoft MVP program (withdrew my renewal for 2014 - my renewal quarter is July). I have been awarded 10 years in a row (first in 2004) and I felt because I was stepping away from community activity it wasn't proper to be accepting something that is at it's core a community contribution award. I have fond memories of attending many MVP Summits - I will miss seeing many of those colleagues in person.

Second, I also retired out of the Springboard Technical Experts Panel (STEP) as that is focused on engaged local community members who are driving events and content. Clearly I will not be doing any of that anymore either. The Springboard group had been idle for almost the last year so I felt with its renewed kickoff recently my stepping off the group would allow them to add some more energized and active folks.

Third, I am retiring from Pacific IT Professionals, the IT Pro user group I have helped run for over 15 years. This user group was one of the reasons I became a Microsoft MVP and has lead to many wonderful relationships over the years. I wish all those involved with the group the best of luck and I hope it develops some of the next Microsoft MVP's and continues to have impact.

So, what will I be doing? I will still be involved in IPv6, I still find it very interesting and technically relevant to what is happening to the Internet today. So, for now, I will be staying on with the California IPv6 Task Force. In addition, I will tracking cloud technologies and what is happening in that market. Everything else is undetermined. I hope to have more free time to explore new things that are personally interesting to me.

For those that know me and are wondering why, I can only say I have been burnt out for several years and I reached the breaking (the "I'm too tired") point this month. I made the decision over a weekend and I sent out the emails retiring myself out of everything right after that. The last things to do are clean up the blog to remove some logos etc. after July as I will no longer be an MVP or on STEP. It was time, I acted on that, now on to the next adventure!
- Ed