Dear Council colleagues and friends before I am rightly expelled from this list, I wish to say a big thank you for these two years, where I sat on Council in an usually quiet version of myself. The life of an ICANN volunteer can get more complicated than planned; some people manage better than others to stay afloat and I am not been one of them this time round. Nonetheless, although quiet, I kept learning (something we academics are very good at), and I will treasure this experience hoping in better times to give something back. As I take a leave from the ICANNverse to recharge and refresh, I wish to wholeheartedly thank you all for you amazing work and for sharing so much of your views and values. As we learn to work together as a diverse community, this exchange is the precious foundation of the multistakeholder model. As some of you know, I am an enthusiastic boxer... so allow me to compliment you resorting to one of my favorite metaphors from the ring: you have been excellent ‘sparring partners’… challenging yet kind enough not to squash this messy councillor-in-training :-) I wish all the best to the new/old Councillors and to the new leadership team… and to Rafik in particular as the “new" kid in the block and especially as a truly committed voice of the so-called civil society. See you around & safe trip back, Stefania --------------------- Stefania Milan, PhD Associate Professor, University of Amsterdam || mediastudies.nl || Principal Investigator, DATACTIVE || data-activism.net mobile: [31] 62 7875 425 (NL) || [1] 647 - 973 - 6533 (CA) || [+39] 333 - 2309945 (I) stefaniamilan.net || @annliffey fingerprint: 7606 4526 3D24 20B2 C850 EA42 A497 CB70 04B5 A3B