[Foundation-l] Goodbye

[Sue Gardner]

Michael Bimmler!

Officially, seriously: I want to thank you for everything you have done for Wikimedia during the past five years.  You've made many, many useful and intelligent contributions to the movement -- as an editor, in your work with the Swiss chapter, and with the Wikimedia Foundation itself.  In my own first weeks of involvement 18 months ago, you stood out to me as really constructive and committed and helpful.  And you -with Robin and Rupert- took great care of me personally, when I was passing through Zurich earlier this year :-)

I am sorry to see you move on. But I know that it's natural -- this chapter in your life will come to an end, and you'll go on to do more fabulous work in other spheres. (And selfishly, I hope that David Gerard is right -- you will miss Wikimedia too much, and you'll find a way to stay a little involved ;-)  Regardless, I know Wikimedia will count on you to be our friend and ally as we all continue our work.

Many, many thanks for everything you've done. I will miss you, and I'll look forward to hearing about your future accomplishments.

And as always, sorry to top-post :-)
Sue
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Bimmler <mbimmler at gmail.com>

Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 10:50:36 
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List<foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Foundation-l] Goodbye


Dear all,

I would like to use this opportunity to say "Goodbye" to all of you,
because my involvement with Wikimedia is now coming to an end. I could
make this a long email, taking about my time here and giving my
opinion and advice about the state and future of the Wikimedia
movement, but I'd like to keep this fairly short and simple -- many of
you have already received epic emails from me, you don't need another
one ;-)

Suffice to say, that the slightly more than 5 years that I have now
been involved as non-anonymous participant in Wikipedia and Wikimedia
have been very interesting to say the least - certainly a personal
benefit for me, albeit one with ups and downs. In this comparably
short time span, I saw the foundation mature from a rather abstract
concept to a working and professionally staffed NGO with a broad
networks of chapters all around the globe and I have learnt a lot in
this process. I have thought long about whether I should remain
involved with Wikimedia (I originally only resigned from Wikimedia CH
because I am no longer in Switzerland since April and do not foresee
being there other than for vacation in the next couple of years), but
I decided in the end that I prefer a clear cut from everything, rather
than just somewhat reducing my activity, and this year being for me
personally the start of a new era anyways (new university, new country
of residence etc.), it seems quite fitting to move on and start new
pastimes, spend my time on new things.

The little formalities: My tenure with Wikimedia CH ends on Wednesday,
May 27th - my ChapCom and list admin positions end at the end of May
and in general, I am fine with having all my access privileges
(accounts on non-public wikis, list subscriptions etc.) removed or
closed per the end of May.

I wish you all the best -- from now on, I will again rely on what I
read about Wikimedia's fate in the media, albeit taking it with a
pinch of salt...

Goodbye!

Yours truly,

Michael
-- 
Michael Bimmler
mbimmler at gmail.com

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