An update from Drew Wills -- sorry for the delay

[drew wills]

Folks,

I'm sorry it has taken me this long to send this note.  It's the sort of communication I prefer to craft in a moment of peace & concentration... and those things have been in short supply over the last few weeks.

As most of you are aware (I'm sure), I have taken a new, full-time position outside of Unicon.  I am now a Principal Software Engineer at Mixam UK.  The work I do day-to-day is very similar, except it's almost all programming, and the software we write supports the enterprise directly rather than clients.  Mixam operates an online portal through which "regular mortals" can order sophisticated print jobs.  Mixam compares costs & delivery times across a variety of providers, offers a powerful & approachable UI for configuring your print job, and provides top-notch customer support throughout the experience.  It's not unlike Expedia for printing.  They provide an excellent service -- I highly recommend them if you need something printed.

The reason that peace & concentration are hard to come by at the moment is that I have moved myself & my family to the UK for this role.   Let me tell you -- this process isn't easy.  Among the things we've had to organise (or need to organise yet) are selling our home, travel, bulk freight, bank accounts, mobile phone service, vehicle(s), a permanent place to live, multiple temporary places to live (while we wait for the permanent place), and schools for our daughters.

We live in a beautiful area just north of London called Hertfordshire.  It's quite a bit different from Arizona.  This change of scenery, in fact, was probably the largest motivation for the change.  My family & I were really ready for something new.

It will take me at least into August to get reasonably settled.  I have made some arrangements in my new circumstances so that I can continue to be connected to and contribute to Apereo projects as availability and opportunity permits.  I won't be able to provide day-to-day leadership, but I hope to be a part of uPortal's continued success in the next era of its story.

I have richly enjoyed all the time I have spent with uPortal and in the Apereo community.  I would say that community is probably the best part of uPortal, and I was sorry to miss everyone at Open Apereo this year.

If you plan to travel to the UK -- or if perhaps you're there already -- please look me up!  If you could benefit from having my new, UK phone number, please write me privately and let me know. 

Thanks for all the amazing opportunities;  let's find a way to work together going forward as well.

All the best,

drew wills

[Jim Helwig]

I wish you the best of transitions, Drew! Thanks for all the leadership and contributions you have given throughout the years.  It was great being able to count on your partnership. Since you are holding out the possibility of continued involvement with the community, I look forward to keeping in touch.

I am heartbroken that I never did make it over to your place to enjoy your outdoor pizza oven.

😭

All the best,

JimH

— 

Jim Helwig

Web Platforms & Services, UW-Madison

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "uPortal Community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to uportal-user...@apereo.org.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/apereo.org/d/msgid/uportal-user/72a6750f-3c9d-4ebb-b462-f5a955a793ed%40apereo.org.