Topic: Changing of the Guard

[Kindred]

Hello SMF Community!

A year ago, the team voted to make me the project manager for the Simple Machines Forum project.
It has been both a good and a tough year for the project and the organization.

We established the organization, Simple Machines as an NPO, registered in Nevada, and we have plans to accept other projects under the Simple Machines umbrella. At some point, hopefully soon now, Simple Machines Forum will be just one of the Simple Machines software projects. We have also separated the duties and responsibilities of the organizational level jobs from the project level jobs, formalizing our corporate and project structure and defining the roles in each.

On the project front, we have been moving forward, with the planned (and achieved) release of 2.0 RC4 and the recent 2.0 RC5 security release, but we haven't quite completed 2.0 Final. Of course, this failure is not altogether the fault of the project. At this time, the only delay in releasing 2.0 Final has to do with legal issues surrounding the transfer of assets and intellectual property rights from the LLC to the NPO. We hope to have that resolved within this month!

I have enjoyed being the Project Manager for the last year, despite a distinct increase in hair loss. The Project Manager position is a tough one, especially with a team like ours, scattered across the globe; so, in our wisdom, we designed the position to be re-elected by the team each year, thus allowing us to spread the joy/pain and let someone else shoulder the burden for the next year.

My year is up and it is with a sense of relief, tempered with a little sadness, that I pass the reins to Oldiesmann. For the next year, he will be guiding the Simple Machines Forum project. In my time as project manager, working with the team leads, I have  established procedures and momentum which will, hopefully, carry the project forward and make the next Project Manager's tenure slightly easier.  It looks to be a good year!

I do plan to remain on the team, taking a different role, and, organizationally, I remain on the NPO Board of Directors along with K@, Oldiesmann, B, groundup, Norv and Antechinus.

--Kindred

[JBlaze]

[Owdy]

[AngelinaBelle]

It has certainly been an eventful year, with lots of changes. Thanks for putting so much into the project, in your dual roles.

[Marcus Forsberg]

Thanks for your hard work, Kindred, and good luck to Oldiesmann.

[rjckE]

Thanks for the hard work and good luck, Kindred!

[Doctor Deejay]

Thanks for your work. And congratulations to Oldiesmann

[Antes]

Thank you - congratulations Oldiesmann

[(F.L.A.M.E.R)]

Kindred, you have been a great help to the SM project with your amazing management skills. Thank you very much for all the effort and time dedicated for this project and I hope to see you continue the same ahead as a Marketing Team member.

Oldiesmann, I have learn't quite a bit from you while you were a previous Support Team member and into the Marketing team. I hope that you prove to be a good role model for the fellow team mates and take this project to new heights as a Project Manager.

[CoreISP]

Thanks for everything Kindred

Welcome, Oldiesmann!

[Labradoodle-360]

Kindred - You should be very pleased with everything accomplished, and I thank you for donating your time and efforts to SimpleMachines.

Oldies - Congratulations on your new position, I'm sure you'll do a great job.

[c23_Mike]

Hi there!

I like that!!

[DoctorMalboro]

Thank you for all the work you've done, and congrats to Oldiesmann and welcome to the jungle

I hope everything still get a better track.

BTW, what other SM Projects are in mind?

[K@]

Kindred... You must've been totally mental to take the role on, in the first place.

Oldies... You must be totally mental to take the role on.

Best of luck to you both.

[Jakob von Feldern]

Good luck with marketing Kindred, and good luck Oldiesmann.

EDIT - What is going to happen to the BoD president? Is Kindred still president, or will it just be whoever the current PM is?

[Kindred]

We have also separated the duties and responsibilities of the organizational level jobs from the project level jobs, formalizing our corporate and project structure and defining the roles in each.
...
I do plan to remain on the team, taking a different role, and, organizationally, I remain on the NPO Board of Directors along with K@, Oldiesmann, B, groundup, Norv and Antechinus.

[Bigguy]

Kindred, thank you for all you have done. Many may not know exactly how much that is but you did an excellent job. I am glad to hear you are staying around. This last year has gone fast for me, it has been an eventful one and one I will not soon forget. Anyway, thanks again.

Oldiesmann, Great to see you taking over the reins. I hope you don't lose as much hair as Kindred says he did, lol. Great job to all keeping everything going.

[busterone]

Best wishes Kindred and to Oldiesmann in your new tasks. 

[GravuTrad]

Sad to see your leave for this role, kindred. Oldiesmann will have a lot of job to keep the level you gave to it. You was everywhere  and was managing excellently the differents when there were problems.

I hope that oldiesmann will can manage as well as you've done. Good luck to him, and i hope kindred, as president of the NPO, you'll be still around the important decisions for smf.

Regards

GravuTrad

[JimM]

Kindred, I echo what the others have said.   Honestly, I don't really think there was anyone else that could have done the job you did in the last year. 

Congrats Oldiesmann.  You're too young for the hair to be turning loose but watch out that it don't go gray on you.