[IGFmaglist] Thank you, good bye, welcome and happy 2022!

Fri Jan 14 12:42:33 EST 2022

Best regards Rasha

From: "Dr. Rasha Abdulla via Igfmaglist" <igfmaglist at intgovforum.org>
Reply-To: "Dr. Rasha Abdulla" <rasha at aucegypt.edu>
Date: Friday, January 14, 2022 at 11:27 AM
To: Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org>
Cc: MAG-public <igfmaglist at intgovforum.org>
Subject: Re: [IGFmaglist] Thank you, good bye, welcome and happy 2022!

Dear Anriette, Paul, and esteemed current and former MAG colleagues,

As a former MAG member, I want to thank you Anriette, not only for the wonderful work you've done as MAG Chair under very difficult and unprecedented circumstances, but also for your vision and leadership that pushes the community at large to think and work harder to create a better Internet for all of us. The last couple of years in particular have been especially challenging to all of us, but you've managed to lead the MAG to accomplish and excel at their tasks and present us with wonderful IGF meetings. I also want to thank you for your personal and compassionate touch while doing such important work. It's always heartwarming to read your emails where you sincerely inquire about how we're all doing and encourage us to share our concerns with each other in this big MAG family. I hope you make a smooth transition to your next great endeavor. 

And Paul, a warm welcome to you as the new Chair of the MAG. I'm sure I speak for all former members when I say we're all here to help if needed. We look forward to the great work that will come out of the MAG in the next phase.

I take this opportunity to wish all colleagues on this list a warm and happy new year.

All the best.

Rasha

Rasha A. Abdulla, Ph.D.
Professor
Journalism and Mass Communication 
The American University in Cairo
Twitter: @RashaAbdulla
<http://twitter.com/rashaabdulla>

On Wed, Jan 5, 2022 at 12:05 PM Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org> wrote:

Dear all

Welcome to a new year - the 17th for the IGF. I wish you all good year personally and professionally. A special welcome to the new MAG members and the new MAG chair, Paul Mitchell. Enjoy the ride ahead which can be challenging, but it is also a privilege and is a rewarding experience.

To the 2021 MAG, thank you for your hard work during a challenging year. Organising a hybrid IGF without the benefit of an initial face to face meeting early in the year to get to know one another was difficult. The MAG also had to respond to the ongoing evolution of the IGF ecosystem and calls for the IGF to adapt and strengthen and be more focused and issue driven. I believe that you managed to actually do this, and do it well. I want to thank the MAG collectively and also thank those individual MAG members who stepped forward, showing leadership and taking initiative. It made all the difference and enabled others to contribute more effectively.

To MAG 2021 working groups and their co-chairs (WG-workshop process, WG-hybrid, WG-strategy and WG-outreach and communications) your work was excellent and also served to draw in members of the broader IGF community.

To the 2021 hosts, thank you for your consistent support and your generous and professional hosting of a successful hybrid event. To all past host countries who continue to participate actively, your presence and support is invaluable. I know not all past hosts send representatives to the MAG. It takes time and capacity and this can be in short supply. But I encourage all past host countries to try and maintain a strong connection with the MAG and with the incoming Leadership Panel. 

To past MAG members, thank you so much for your contribution. The work of the MAG is not easy. It involves "learning from doing". That is why the support of past-MAG members is so helpful. Past MAG members also contribute to IGF intersessional work such as the coordination and support of Dynamic Coalition. All of this helps with cohesion and continuity.

To current and new MAG members, it is because I believe that one learns from doing, that I want to urge those MAG members who were not very active last year, and incoming MAG members, to step forward this year and be more active. Ask questions, ask for help; ask for clarity; be impatient if you don't get it and ask again. A key take away that I hope the Secretariat and the incoming chair will keep in mind is that MAG members have asked for more guidelines on what is involved in being a MAG members. More information will help and I am ready to contribute to continue some of the material we started working on while during my term as chair. However, guidelines that need to be read and understood can never really substitute for plunging in and doing the work, and building confidence and insight in the process.

To colleagues in the UN, it has been a pleasure to work with you. The support of Under Secretary-General Liu Zhenmin, and other colleagues in UN DESA (in particular Juwang Zhu, Wai Min Kwok and Deniz Susar, is vital to the IGF and represents the link between the bottom-up community driven aspects of the IGF and the UN member-state driven processes from which the IGF emerged.  Huge thank you to Ms Maria Francesca Spatolisano of the Office of the SG's Envoy on Technology and team members Jason Munyan and Yu Ping Chan for active engagement in IGF2021 and in MAG working groups.

To Intergovernmental Organisations who participate in the MAG and MAG working groups, thank you for doing so and please continue. Your involvement connects the IGF in a continuous way to precisely those decision-making processes and institutions that the IGF aims to enrich. 

To other observers and active participants from civil society, youth IGFs, NRIs, the technical community, governments, business, the academic community - thank you for following the work of the MAG and for participating actively in calls and meetings. Your inputs adds value to the work of the MAG.

To past MAG chairs thank you for your support, and your ongoing participation and voluntary contributions. 

To those who provide financial support to the IGF, past, present and future - thank you and please continue. The IGF is even more relevant now than it was in 2006. 

To the Secretariat (including the consultants) thank you for the hard work and the patience and support you gave me as chair, and your adeptness at navigating the complex IGF environment. 

Warm regards to all

Anriette Esterhuysen - outgoing MAG chair

3 January 2022
-- 
Anriette Esterhuysen - anriette at apc.org//anriette at gmail.com
Senior advisor global and regional internet governance
Association for Progressive Communications
www.apc.org // afrisig.org
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