In my stepping down post I promised that I would write a second update on who would be replacing me. We’re finally in a position to do so, and I’d like to spend a little time expanding on the plan for the community team.
Firstly, I think I need to explain how things have actually worked for the past 18 months. Those of you who were here then will recall that I took about 6 months off from work for personal reasons, and during that time, Tomer and Ori held the fort for me, and covered what needed to be done. What was less obvious to the community was that the three of us remained a team when I returned to work, and have acted in concert ever since. Much of the more detailed, thought out posts that you’ve seen from me over the last year or so are often drafted & discussed in advance. It really helps when writing tricky messages :)
That structure now comes into play in a second way. We spent quite some time looking at who had the right combination of skills to step in and replace me. That’s a pretty tall order - ideally, you’d like seniority (in terms of having been here a while and contributed well), time (obviously), and most importantly passion, passion to drive the community forward. Satisfying all three of those turns out to be pretty hard, and in particular the senior community members all suffer from a definite shortage of time. Instead, we decided that the seniority part could be fulfilled by the people already in the team (Ori & Tomer), and that left us needing to find someone with time and passion, and I think we’ve done that.
So, I’m happy to announce that (a) Ori will become the Community Lead, and (b) Rahul Bajaj will be the new member of the community team, taking Ori’s prior Community Deputy title (and Tomer, of course, remains the Release Manager). Rahul has been a member of the Satellite dev team in Pune for the last couple of years, but is already making a name for himself over there organising community events. I’m impressed by the energy he’s bringing to this, and I think he’ll make a great addition to the team. He should have a blog post out alongside this one to introduce himself to you all, so I’ll let him tell you more about his thoughts and plans.
Rahul will take over my work in terms of networking, discussions, broadcasting, being at events, and generally listening to the community and being the conduit between you and Red Hat. Should anything serious arise that requires the weight of a senior community member, then Ori and/or Tomer can be involved. In terms of your own interactions, please do reach out to Rahul (@rabajaj in IRC, @rahul_bajaj in the forum) the first instance, he’s a great guy and he’ll do his very best to help you out.
Welcome to the team Rahul! I’m excited to see where you (as well Ori and Tomer) take the community next!