THANK YOU, Melissa Lee!

As we approach the end of 2015 and welcome our new CEO, Gene Kunde, to Diabetes Hands Foundation, I can’t help but reflect on this past year here on TuDiabetes. There’s no denying it’s been a doozy!

Several particularly significant things happened here in 2015:

  • the organization’s founder (and hero to many) Manny Hernandez, aka @askmanny, left DHF

  • long-time member, advocate, supporter and Board member @Melissa_Lee took over as Interim Executive Director

  • we moved our two biggest programs, TuDiabetes.org and EsTuDiabetes.org to an entirely new online platform, after 7 years in one place

So much change, all at once!! The platform migration was far more challenging than expected, and all of us on staff were called upon to roll up our sleeves and learn a lot of new skills, really quickly. On Melissa’s first official day on the job I had a complete melt-down, brought on by migration overwhelm! Mel called me right away, talked me down from the ceiling, helped me come up with a game plan to manage my stress, and reassured me that we’d all get through the changes together (which we have!!). This was not the last time she would do that for me…

Over the second half of the year our small staff worked as an agile and committed team under Melissa’s leadership, and with her tireless encouragement and willingness to do what was needed (including a lot of work that’s not typically done by an ED), to get the site migration smoothed out and return our wonderful community to the business at hand: talking about diabetes!

This was undoubtedly the most challenging period in this organization’s history, and I am filled with gratitude toward Melissa. She stepped up at a tough time, saw us through it, and is now sailing on to her own new adventures and challenges.

THANK YOU, @Melissa_Lee!!! You are a superstar, and I hope you won’t be a stranger :smile:

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Thank-you @Melissa_Lee and @Emily! I appreciate all your hard work and contributions that provided people like me with a online place to talk diabetes. :+1::+1::+1:

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Thanks to all of you; much appreciated!

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What is doozy? :smile: (seriously)

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LOL! @askmanny, “doozy” is oddly difficult to define. It’s like, um, a hum-dinger. Oy.

@Terry4, how would you define “doozy”?

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A hum-dinger… that’s another new word!

MIND… EXPLODES!!! :smiley:

@Melissa_Lee_0: GRACIAS TOTALES!!!

I would define a “doozy” as a challenge with a few unexpected twists as it unfolds.

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Thank you Melissa, you did a terrific job.

rick

Many:

Humdinger? it is what i tell my sons when i used to express every confidence that Santa was watching. It is a not entirely true story.

rick

Yes, thank you @Mellisa_Lee. Thank you for all the things that Emily said. And thank you for shepherding us through a crazy, chaotic year full of too much change at once. I gotta believe we end 2015 better positioned for the future.

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Wow, I’m still almost speechless by all this. I hope that the community support will still be available here!

@askmanny - @Corinna has just defined “doozy” with her description.

@Melissa_Lee - thank you for all you have done to move TuD to its next phase in life. Much was behind the scenes, I know, but I definitely agree that this community is poised to grow in the future thanks to your leadership.

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Mel was the Lead Administrator when I became an admin. She was very thorough in the training required and I remember very well how impressed I was with her leadership, strength, and intellect. She also has a huge loving heart, one of the many outstanding qualities she shares with @askmanny. Almost a year ago I had a lunch with them, and I’m smiling now remembering how much fun that was. I’ll be curious to see what her next chapters will be. I know her two little kids will be glad to see more of mom. BigHugs Mel!

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In typical usage, a doozy is (a) a complete and utter surprise, and (b) drastically more challenging than you would have thought. (Groundhog Day: Bill Murray steps off the curb into a deep icy puddle. The person next to him says, “Watch that first step–it’s a doozy!”)

As for Mel . . . wow. Words fail. To take over for Manny was to shoulder a gigantic job, and she picked it up and ran with it as though she’d been doing it forever. Well done (pardon the understatement)!

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@Melissa_Lee you are AMAZE SAUCE. Thank you for all you did and will continue to do in the DOC. Although my time with you was short, you taught me so much. It is a honor to call you my co-worker and friend.

Sarah :four_leaf_clover:

I agree Emily it’s been a doozy. And the press release is a bit inaccurate (we realized this after it went on the wire) – Melissa has been in the Interim ED role since January. She was instrumental in making that transition from Manny possible. What a year of change it was! Thanks to Melissa at the helm we made it through. Her commitment to DHF is amazing. As a member of this community, a member of the Board, and a friend, I am forever grateful to Mel for keeping DHF going full steam ahead over this past year and for her many prior years and continued years of dedication to DHF. THANK YOU!

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@Melissa_Lee Big hug and it was a great experience working with you. Un abrazo amiga!

I’d like to thank @Melissa_Lee for all her work, not only as Interim Executive Director of DHF, but also as a really important person who helped make TuDiabetes what it is today. I joined TuD in September 2009, but Melissa had already been a member for more than a year. And within months of joining Melissa had jumped right in contributing to the community. When communities like TuD start they are often “free range.” But over time as more members join there is often a need to manage the community. To establish core values and standards of behavior. To keep people respectful. And it was Melissa who volunteered within months and took on that early role to helped shape the community. I know we went through a difficult transition to a new platform, but in the end TuD has always been about the community. I certainly thank Melissa for her work in the last year through all the challenges, but I think it is important to also recognize her role in shaping the direction of the community and passing on that knowledge and guidance to the continued roles of volunteers and DHF staff who continue to work with the community.

Thanks Melissa!

ps. And I would just like to point out that the platform transition project was really, really hard. It was probably an order of magnitude more difficult than the effort required to initially create TuD. And trying to provide continuity to the community of 30,000 members made it even more difficult. This was not an easy job.

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Not much more to add here, other than a ginormous and heartfelt THANK YOU! :bouquet:

Nice! After all, you used “ginormous” and some night say that’s a doozy :grinning:

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