Fellow FlyerTalkers,

Thank you for the opportunity to have served on TalkBoard. At the time of my running and election, I was at the zenith of my FlyerTalk activity, even though I did not realize it at the time. I visualized becoming even more involved in FT as time went on, being partially employed at the time. Life circumstances conspired to make me very busy on multiple fronts in non-FT matters. The biggest of these was my launching an ecommerce startup that required most of my time.

I tried to keep up with TalkBoard responsibilities, but I missed two votes during a two week trip overseas that neatly corresponded with the vote periods. My TalkBoard colleagues were gracious toward me in that, but were clear that I needed to remain engaged on a regular basis. I added both private and public TalkBoard forums to my startup tabs in my browser and remained fairly engaged for the next number of months, despite having very little activity on FlyerTalk otherwise. I wanted to finish what I had started and to genuinely serve the community that had given me so much. I put in long hours to work on several proposals that were important to me and the community, notably the forum renaming project. I love analytical work and was very much enjoying my time on TalkBoard. I urged action on that motion before elections, because we had already spent so much time hammering out the details and compromises with the wishes of the current TalkBoard.

I entered another busy period, but continued monitoring the TB forums' threads page every few days. I was disappointed that my motion hadn't seen any action. Unfortunately, in my skimming of the unread threads, I somehow, blockheadedly didn't see the stickied posts notifying me of the vote. This was completely my fault and I still don't understand how I didn't see them. However, I take full responsibility. I've let my colleagues on TalkBoard down and I've let you my constituents down as well; and I've done so twice. Given my current life situation, both TB and FT will be better served by someone who can give their full energy and attention to TalkBoard. Effective at the beginning of the new TalkBoard term, I am resigning from TalkBoard.

I look forward to continuing to contribute as a regular FT member to TB topics on an ad-hoc basis. I still enjoy analysis and still want to see some of the good ideas that we've been kicking around go through.

It's been a delight to serve with this TalkBoard, who are, without exception, intelligent and gracious people.

Thanks for your support and your patience.

All the best!
-Hans

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ETA: One thing I didn't mention above is that about the same time I started my ecommerce company (in partnership with another FT'er), I also took a full time job as IT Manager at a small private college. Since then, responsibilities at the startup have also become full time, pushing me to quit my IT job; I'm in my last week right now, trying to finish everything up and organize things for my successor. (I say this only to set the stage for understanding my dunderheadedness.)

The President of Talkboard, nsx, PM'ed me requesting that I resign for missing a third vote. I knew right away I was going to resign, but foolishly (a) did not comprehend the entire PM and (b) didn't instantly reply letting nsx know my intentions. Instead I spent the next day composing a resignation letter. The PM contained an urgent deadline, which I missed, resulting in the TalkBoard motion to remove me. Tight time constraints in the final days of the TalkBoard year put the motion and the vote into fast forward. When I found out about the motion, before its passage, I informed TB of my intention to resign. This motion would not have passed had I been prompt about notifying the TalkBoard of my intent to resign.