At the first Annual General Meeting I was elected to a two-year term as president through January, 2008. Frankly when I wrote the by-laws I suspected that I would stay on through the maximum allowed four years, through 2010.
For several reasons - some of them I will share and some are my own - I have decided that at the upcoming AGM on January 16th, 2007 I will step aside as leader of the group, and allow my Executive Vice-President, Daniel Nerenberg to take over. At that meeting I will support the election of Majida Rhazi as Executive Vice-President and hope that we will have a full room of members to stand with me in supporting that slate.
The last two years have been incredible, and the decision to step aside was a difficult one to come to. I learned a long time ago that you should take as long as you need to make a decision but once you make it stand by it. That is why last week, on December 6th at the VIP Cocktail Party at Hurley's I announced my decision. I want to thank you all for your support and words of kindness over the past years, and wish Daniel success in his new role as leader.
The following is the text of the speech I wrote to deliver at the VIP Cocktail Party. At a certain point I was unable to see the page so I winged it, but I hope that I stayed true to the message.
Original Text of my Resignation Speech - December 6th, 2006
A little over two years we embarked upon a journey that has brought us to where we are. The establishment of the IT Professionals Community of Montreal has brought so many of us together over this time to learn, advance as professionals, and in many cases meet new friends. I am very proud of the accomplishments we have achieved since the beginning. I have had a lot of help from a lot of people who share the credit for everything we have accomplished – dozens of successful events, and a study group that to date is directly responsible for eighteen new Microsoft Certified Professionals. People at Microsoft consistently refer to MITPro as the most organized user group in the country. I prefer to think of us as a community and that is reflected in the name we chose that is now known not only in Montreal but worldwide within the IT world.My leadership of MITPro has opened doors to me that I could never have imagined possible two years ago. I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with several teams within Microsoft, the most prominent being the Evangelism team at Microsoft Canada but also with Microsoft Learning and the Small Business Server team. I have had the opportunity to collaborate on exams and have influenced the direction of the Small Business Specialist Program worldwide.Partly because of my friendship with my VP Daniel Nerenberg I have achieved several certifications that I would not have pursued were it not for a little friendly competition between us. That has allowed me to grow professionally and I credit Daniel with that, as well as for where the group is today.We have achieved so much over the years and many – too many – give me too much of the credit for those accomplishments. It is time for someone else to start getting the kudos. I have come farther than I ever thought I could and though there is much left to be done I am going to leave that to others. At our Annual General Meeting on January 16, 2007 – almost two years to the day after my leadership was affirmed at our inaugural board meeting – I will step down as leader of the Montreal IT Professionals Community and will confirm a new leadership under Daniel Nerenberg. Over the past year a couple of others have stood out and demonstrated their passion and willingness to contribute to the leadership and direction of the group. Among them are Richard Fagen, our Secretary/Treasurer and Majida Rhazi, our Executive Member without portfolio. Both have done outstanding jobs at supporting Daniel and I and I hope that they will stay on - I will support the election of Majida to the position of Executive Vice-President because I feel that her track record of leading successful community organizations has been a real asset to me, and will be the best tool that our new president can have to lead this vibrant and organic organization of professionals into the future.Our community should never have been about me; community is about its members. There have been times over the past two years that I have forgotten that and I hope that you will all forgive me that. From my conversations with Daniel and Majida I am confident that they - with their Executive and Board - will form a leadership team that can do more for you the members more than I could ever have done. I will always be available to offer advice and words of wisdom.
Thank you for the last two years. These years leading this group has truly changed my life and I leave with a heavy heart, but like a parent letting go of a grown child I know I am doing the right thing by letting go - and will not hesitate to move back in if they step out of line!
As a parting note I want to thank Daniel, Richard, Majida, and my boards of directors from the past two years. I would also like to thank several people from Microsoft Canada - Rick Claus and the entire IT Pro Evangelism team; John Oxley, Harp Girn, Jeff Ewin and Dottie Horne for their support from the beginning; without you - without ALL of you - MITPro would not be the success it is today. I know you will all continue to work together and will make me proud.