Hey everyone – Happy New years!
First of all I want to thank everyone for an amazing 2010 at GovLoop. We’ve spent the last few weeks highlighting the best of GovLoop content from blogs, discussions, to groups.
But outside of great content, I’d love to thank everyone for what we’ve accomplished together this year as a community
Together we’ve:
-Helped solve tons of government programs from naming an intranet to being a leading resource on Open Gov plans to tactical day-to-day problems (helping someone recover a FB page or recommend a key software)
-Become a leading force in telling the story of public service – whether it was Benjamin Strong, Sandy Ressler blogging or hundreds of GovLoopers at the “Government Doesn’t Suck Rally”
-Made more friends – Together we’ve made more friends this year as we’ve grown GovLoop to almost 40,000 friends passionate about improving public service. These friends come from all 50 states and over 20 countries across the globe.
-Raised thousands of dollars for charities from disadvantage kids during Christmas to families with cancer (all at awesomegov.com). And we teamed up with CFC and FEEA to further government giving
-Launched new tech – Together we’ve walked the talk and launched a bunch of new tech on GL whether a new iphone app, Facebook connect, blog importer, per diem calculator, and more. Lots of these ideas and work came from members.
-Met in person – We got to meet in person whether it was GovUps, Next Gen Govt, or countless other events that we supported (like CityCamp). Many GLers help put on these events, attend these events, or created new awesome events.
Making a difference:
Our good work is being noticed and this year alone GovLoop members, ideas, and events have been on the front page of the Washington Post, highlighted in both NPR and Fox News. Countless senior government leaders have participated on GovLoop and asked their questions/projects be featured (and countless more have told me behind the scenes that they love what GL members are discussing).
I’m particularly grateful to the amazing bloggers on GovLoop (I would list you all but then I’d forget one), passionate active members, and all the great community volunteers (who do everything from welcoming new members to writing project of week – always looking for more). We’ve also built an amazing team that works full-time on GovLoop that work tirelessly every day and put up with my love for bad rap music.
Every day I’m grateful to have so many friends in public service working hard every day tackling tough problems. The best part of my job is I get to interact with all of you every day.
There’s a lot more we can accomplish together and I look forward to 2011. Next post will be goals in 2011.