dear all, just a quick note to let you know that i am retiring from ICANN. right now. how about that? it’s spring here at the farm and i’ve realized that it’s time for me to redirect my attention to things closer to home and heart. as you can see by the number of mailing lists this note is addressed to, i’ve spread myself too thin. somewhere along the line i burned myself out. i never was very good at seeing this “burnout" thing coming. oops... as to the “immediately” timeframe — well, i’m burned out. which means that the prospect of ICANN-related work just leaves me cold. so rather than drag myself (and you) through some half-baked transition period where i do an even worse job than i’ve been doing lately, i’m just making a clean break of it. it will turn out fine. you’ll see. as of this note i’m setting down all the trappings. GNSO Councillor, ISPCP support, the working groups, all the leadership-development and newcomer-orientation projects. i’m not throwing them down, just placing them gently there for somebody else to pick up and run with. this is the place where i’m supposed to write about how i’ll miss you all. but i’m not going to do that. through the miracle of this Internet thing, i plan to stay connected to you and maintain all those friendships that have developed over the years. i’m just stopping the work, not the relationships. maybe some day i’ll even dip my toe back into a working group or two. but not right away. right now that goes on the Too Hard pile. here’s a link to a pictorial tour of the farm. http://www.aprairiehaven.com/?page_id=23369 see that bench? that’s where i’ll be sitting, thinking of you. come visit. Marcie and i will show you around. onward, mikey PHONE: 651-647-6109, FAX: 866-280-2356, WEB: www.haven2.com, HANDLE: OConnorStP (ID for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)