January 2020 Kaiserly news

Hey there, friends of wikiloops!

I do hope your start into 2020 has been a good one so far - let me start by thanking all of you who took the time to respond to my little new years greeting message - as you will learn in this post, there is a good reason I have not been able to respond to all of your messages just yet.
So, as I type here this morning, I have roughly 230 unread emails waiting, so I'll better be brief covering the news of today.

The noteworthy:

Annual transparency report for 2019 published

I have once again published the annual wikiloops transparency report last night, which you may look into here.
The three page paper once again lists some statistical insight in wikiloops evolution in the past year.
If you'd like to get to know a little bit more about how wikiloops is operated and how we are utilizing the available funds, you really should have a look at that once a year, the fifteen minute read will change your idea of what wikiloops is if you haven't checked out the operations area before.

Member meeting 2020

Three things to announce about this years get together in Steinfeld:
First: To those who already reserved a bed via the meeting registration page - your reservations are safe, but it will take a few more weeks time untill I get around to supplying you with the next round of pre-meeting information.
Second: I am not sure how many of you actually noticed that, but I have offered to give away one wikiloops meeting 2020 participation ticket to someone who supported wikiloops before 2019 ended (I offered that in Novembers Thanksgiving blog post, just in case you missed it).
I am keeping that promise even tho the years budget result (-> see transparency reportfor details) was not as grand as I had hoped when offering the ticket-lottery,
and it is my great pleasure to announce that our user
[b]KMstar has been picked to receive the free wikiloops meeting attendance ticket for 2020[/b] - congratulations, Ken, I'll get in touch with you over the details soon :)
Third: I don't really like to say it, but the wikiloops meeting 2020 is by now booked out as far as sleeping facilities are concerned. I'm positive that we will be able to arrange things for people who have not yet registerred, but that option will require you to conact me directly so we can work out something.

On a personal note

I sometimes emphasize that wikiloops is a family-operated business.
Those of you who have made it to a wikiloops meeting in the past have had the chance to meet my parents,
and to witness their strong support for their sons rock'n'roll activities.
Some will have noticed the mentioning of my sister in law in the 2019 transparency report. She has taken on part of the accounting tasks that need to be taken care of operating wikiloops in 2019.
Last but not not least some of you have at some point wodered how my wife Diana may be coping with the situaion that I'm on 24/7/365 duty and spending my sundays tending to wikiloops.
Whilst her appearance on wikiloops has been limited to taking photos at the wikiloops meetings, Diana is probably the one carrying the heaviest dayly burden by listening to the the never ending stories I have to face.
So, that's the Kaiser family for you, and since there would be no wikiloops without them,
I'm hoping for your positive feelings towards the Kaiser tribe, and I am taking the freedom to share some very private news with you today, to share our happiness and to give you a chance to send some well-wishes our way:
On January 4th 2020, Diana gave birth to our firstborn child Elias Kaiser, whois snuggling at my chest right as I type these words.
Those of you whoshare the experience of parenthood will not need a lot of explanation why I didn't get around to answering emails in the past two weeks - we are experiencing the happiest days here as our lives have changed comlpetely over night.
I have wondered wether it would be appropriate to include these news on the wikiloops blog.
We are quite conservative as far as social media use is concerned, and I have no intention in using our child as a means of public relation for wikiloops. I just know enough of you reading this do relate, so now you know.

OK, so, that has been personal, family wise. I'll top that.
Let me say something personal, Richard wise.
Tomorrow is monday, and after being on leavefor two weeks, I'll have to return to my job at the office tomorrow.
If you are a dad and remember the moment you had to leave the little one and wife behind to go back to the mine, then maybe you know what that feels like...
it's scary, and you know you'll miss a lot of the small miracle growing and learning every day, while you work for the man. That's tomorrow for me.
I'll have to adjust to dividing up my time between my job, operating wikiloops and my family in a new way that does justice to all three aspects, and doesn't eventually end in a burn-out situation.
If it was up to me to choose, I'd happily cut on the office jobs end, but then again wikiloops would need to support my family on a different level then presented in the 2019 report, where we put in 100€s a month to operate wikiloops.
I know many of you have praised my work for wikiloops, have remarked on the unusual integrity with which we are sticking to our non-competitive mindset and steering clear of the omnipresent negativity that's common online these days. I hope that after nine years of delivering, there is some trust that what I say is not made up by some online marketing expert team, but a genuine human communication.
I know it's very bold to write that, but with my son on my chest I'll do it:
If you really value what wikiloops is that much, please ask yourself if you can contribute to make sure the guy who built all this can be a relaxed dad and operate wikiloops at the same time.
I just have to ask today, please excuse me if you feel that is totally inappropriate in the developers blog on wikiloops.


I'll end here for today,
wishing you lots of happiness on and off wikiloops &
looking forward to your comments.

Richard



stats of the day:
141,802 tracks online
54,348 members
273 supporting members
1 Elias