Happy New Year my friends!
Thank you all for spending another great year here in our community in 2008. I hope you are as excited about 2009 as I am. The one 2008 accomplishment I'm happiest about is getting our great management team in place. Our success here depends on teamwork and we have a great team in place to carry us forward in 2009 and beyond.
My sincere thanks to Lou, Al, Lance, Andrew, Mannie, William, and Scott for stepping up to take on important roles on the management team. Thanks also to Ed for the constant reality checks and pearls of wisdom. And we all owe a big round of applause to Curtis for his nearly constant attention to everything that goes on here. Thank you my friends - you make my job easy.
A couple stats on 2008... we added over 1000 members, 161,000 new posts, and on average we had 800 unique members a day checking in. Your kind and generous donations kept the lights on, and your participation has made us far and away the most popular pen making community on the Internet.
Finally, let me make this very personal; Five years ago today, with the incredible moral support and encouragement of my friend Scott Greaves, the IAP and penturners.org became a reality. I remember "throwing the switch" and coming back to the computer a couple hours later to find 13 new members! I was terrified! NOW what do we do??!!
Many of you old-timers know what we've been through here. Sometimes it hasn't been easy, but there has never been even one second when I felt it hasn't been worth it. I have made friends all over the world, I've learned countless, priceless lessons about human nature and dealing with people, and I believe with all my heart that we've built something here which changed lives. We could take this thread to 100 pages each talking about the friendships we've made and the things we've learned. Lives have been changed here - we've made a difference.
Lastly, here are my own resolutions!
1 - do less (I have too many irons in too many fires. quality suffers.)
2 - do better (I want to choose what I do carefully, and do it well.)
3 - enjoy more (I will strive for more personal satisfaction in what I do.)
Thank you all, and may 2009 bring you all the best life has to offer.