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

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

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

Thanks for the hard work and good luck, Kindred!

Thanks for your work. And congratulations to Oldiesmann

Thank you - congratulations Oldiesmann

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.

Thanks for everything Kindred

Welcome, Oldiesmann!

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.

Hi there!

I like that!!

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?

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.

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, 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.

Best wishes Kindred and to Oldiesmann in your new tasks. 

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

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.

Quote from: Kindred on March 01, 2011, 11:04:14 PM

Quote from: Kindred link=topic=424413.0
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.

I asked if you were keeping the same role on the BoD, not if you were going to STAY on the BoD...

the first bit of the quote answered your question:   Is the SMF PM the same as the NPO President (no, the roles of NPO and project have been separated) The fact that I was PM of the Project and President of the NPO was coincidental, not a factor of either position.

the second bit answers your other question: will Kindred continue to be the President of the NPO (yes, I am remaining on the BoD and have not made any resignation of the President position)

Also, if you note: The team page still lists me as President.

Yeah, well the team page seems to not be updated very often, as I've seen some team members change departments, but their profile remains in the original departments' section on the team page.

Quote from: Jaekob Caed on March 02, 2011, 07:17:58 PM
Yeah, well the team page seems to not be updated very often, as I've seen some team members change departments, but their profile remains in the original departments' section on the team page.

It's cached so it takes a little while.

Congratulations, Oldiesmann!

SMF wouldn't be the same without you, Kindred.

Kindred deserves a medal or three, we have not always seen eye to eye on things. Congrats on all your hard work. Most people will never really know what you have achieved and for that - you really do deserve a medal.

Quote from: RedOne on March 09, 2011, 11:04:37 PM
Kindred deserves a medal or three, we have not always seen eye to eye on things. Congrats on all your hard work. Most people will never really know what you have achieved and for that - you really do deserve a medal.

He deserves a whole trophy.

Hi there!

QuoteWe hope to have that resolved within this month!

Is still in time? So maybe the next two or three weeks all would be very happy??

maybe

Hi there!

It is good to know that this release date is really possible ... that seems that everything is in time until now!

I dont know details about Kindred's actions in his formal position, but from what i can see in the community forums, i must say Respect and Thank you very much Kindred!