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<p>Hello Thunderbird community,</p>
<p>thank you for your trust and having elected me as member of the
Thunderbird Council.</p>
<p>You are probably not aware of it, because it happens on a closed
mailing list, but the TB Council has been actively discussing in
the last year. I have almost 3000 messages just for Council
matters in less than one year, that's 10 messages per day.</p>
<p>Oftentimes, I have spent more time for Thunderbird Council
discussions than I have spent on my day job. As you can probably
understand, this has been a huge drain on me and is not a
situation that is sustainable for me. This has greatly contributed
to my decision to resign.</p>
<p>The other reason is that we have not actually made progress in
the areas that were most important to me and why I joined the
Council in the first place. To tell everybody which direction I
think we need to take, I posted a small excerpt of some motions
that I presented before the Council. I do not include the results
or responses, because I speak for myself only.</p>
Here's what I consider the most important and immediate needs for
the Thunderbird project and Council:<br>
<ul>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>Start <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/NextGeneration">Thunderbird:
Next Generation</a> project - to have a base for the next 20
years<br>
</li>
<li>Create a legal entity for Thunderbird - to operate more
swiftly </li>
<li>Ensure that the Council work is open, transparent, and
following wishes of end users</li>
</ol>
<ul>
</ul>
I do hope, however, that <b>somebody else</b> can pick up and help
Thunderbird go into the future. Part of why I post this now is to
allow others to contemplate this before the Council election, which
will happen soon. There should be some open spots in the next
council, so if you want to shape the long-term future of
Thunderbird, and have a vision for it and the action to back it up,
now's the time to engage. The issues are even more pressing now than
a year ago. We need people who have ideas, take initiative and
propose practical solutions, which they are ready to also make a
reality themselves.<br>
<p>My resignation will be effective at the latest after the new
council has been elected, but likely much earlier, possibly
already at the end of this week, Feb 4. I haven't entirely decided
yet.</p>
<p>I am really sorry about this, and I feel I let the project down,
but I think it's the best course of action at this moment.<br>
</p>
<p> Ben</p>
<br>
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