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| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +layout: post |
| 3 | +title: "Message from the Executive Director October 2023" |
| 4 | +category: leadership |
| 5 | +tags: [leadership, executive director] |
| 6 | +posted-by: Sandra Gesing - Executive Director |
| 7 | +--- |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +Dear US-RSE members and allies, |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +I’m honored and thrilled to be appointed the inaugural Executive Director of US-RSE. My whole work life has been |
| 12 | +immersed around software with me starting already at high-school with programming. I enjoyed working in industry as |
| 13 | +an administrator, system developer and head of a systems programming group for over a decade and then I switched |
| 14 | +from industry to research completing my PhD in a bioinformatics group. I have been an RSE, research faculty and |
| 15 | +senior research scientist with a major focus on research software in the last 17 years. This moment is very special to me |
| 16 | +because it is about a community I’m incredibly passionate about, and this community feels like home. Being a part |
| 17 | +of it means having a space for discussions, a space for learning and support of a non-traditional career path. |
| 18 | +With my resume, I often felt like a unicorn – not within US-RSE though. |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +The last five years have shown how much we all can achieve together as a community, and we went from around 20 members |
| 21 | +in 2018 to nearly 2000 in 2023. US-RSE is a vibrant community evident in the activities on Slack, working groups, |
| 22 | +organized workshops, participation in community calls – to name just a few. Next week will be our first in-person |
| 23 | +conference ever and I am so impressed by the energy of contributors, organization committee members, volunteers and |
| 24 | +the sponsors. The conference is sold out and as a General Chair I am relieved and grateful for everyone’s patience as |
| 25 | +we navigated these unchartered waters. |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +We have more unchartered waters in front of us - with a lot of support that will kick-off our exciting journey. |
| 28 | +Thanks to the Alfred Sloan Foundation, we have for the first time substantial funding for community activities, grants |
| 29 | +and awards. Additionally, we can hire staff, which is a full-time soon-to-be-announced Community Manager and me as a |
| 30 | +half-time Executive Director. I am convinced that our spectacular growth of membership and volunteer work needs this |
| 31 | +support to keep the grass-root character of US-RSE without burning out volunteers and get measures in place that can |
| 32 | +facilitate innovative ideas and activities – especially also assuring the sustainability of the organization. |
| 33 | + |
| 34 | +Much of my work will be focused on the sustainability of the organization and my vision is that we achieve financial |
| 35 | +sustainability with different tiers of funding and contributions. Volunteer work will stay a cornerstone of US-RSE. |
| 36 | +Together with the community manager I will contribute to this thriving community to address pain points and support |
| 37 | +activities that the community would like to accomplish. We are not alone in this journey. The world-wide movement is |
| 38 | +impressive with RSE associations in Africa, Australia/New Zealand, Belgium, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, Nordic |
| 39 | +countries and the UK. Though at times, we may feel like unicorns, we are part of an ever-expanding, diverse and extraordinary |
| 40 | +community. |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +I’m looking forward to this journey with you and I’m grateful for any ideas and input! Please don’t hesitate to contact me. |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +Sincerely, |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +Sandra Gesing |
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