Welcome New Council Members!
Louis Suárez-Potts <Louis.Suarez-Potts <at> oracle.com>
2010-05-05 18:25:25 GMT
All,
I'd like to send a belated but no less warm welcome to the new Council members, Olivier Hallot and Eike
Rathke. Welcome to the Council!
Both new members are longtime contributors to and representatives of active communities. Olivier has
been one of the leads of the Brazilian OpenOffice.org team (BrOffice) for some years, now, and was elected
to represent the Native Language Confederation, whose mansion includes all the linguistic (and
increasingly, regional) houses. He replaces—well, that's an inadequate term, as no one can—Pavel
Janík, who served in the Council for years representing the NLC, among other groups.
I, along with the others on the Council who recall the early period, shall miss Pavel, but look forward to
working with him on other lists and OOo efforts. And I, like the others on the Council, look forward to
working with Olivier and learning from him about the success of BrOffice, and his ideas for
OpenOffice.org as it moves forward.
Eike represents the Code Contributor constituency, and there are few who work with OOo's code and its
contributors who have the breadth and experience he brings now to the Council. He sits, so to speak, in
Martin Hollmichel's seat; Martin was one of the first Council members and long represented similar
interests. It's hard to conceive of a Council meeting without Martin, and I, along with the others, thank
Martin for his dedication. He's a friend, a colleague, a mentor. And by no means likely to disappear into
any sunset. Thanks, Martin.
But this change gives the Council new life and the chance for new (or at least fresh) ideas to be presented.
Eike, I've known, of course, for years; we all have: that's one reason he was elected. But the Council is a
new forum for him, and will be new to us all now for his and Olivier's presence. We welcome this change.
Already the Council has changed in ways that were not by any means expected. The continuing, tireless work
of Christoph Noack, Charles Schulz, and Juergen Schmidt (all elected late last year) has significantly
changed the spirit and work of the Council, and I believe for the better. It's more open to the Community,
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