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I am running for re-election. My platform is primarily to continue the path we're on: MICE is maturing / has matured, and if re-elected, I'd like to keep working on issues related to that. My focus has been and likely would remain on handling administrative issues, some boring / some not. My main goal for my current board term was to sort out our non-profit status with the IRS. While that took longer than we might have liked due to the question of how we should be classified, I consider that project to have been a success. We have a normalized non-profit status with the IRS. The differences between 501(c)(6) and 501(c)(12) for us are minimal. While I can't take the credit for it, the next big hurdle was the port fees. With port fees in place, we are now in a much more sustainable financial position. These were the "big ticket" items, and they're now behind us, but there is still ongoing administrative work. Where applicable, I try to utilize a continuous improvement process, making small tweaks over time as issues arise. For example, I have worked on improving our Order Form. A project that is still on my plate is the insurance issue, which is actively moving forward again. There's a realistic chance that will be resolved by the October meeting / the end of my current board term. Looking forward, I would like to continue to streamline our meetings. We also need to implement some solution to the "quorum problem": the MICE membership has grown while UG attendance is relatively consistent. The next 3 years will likely involve many networks upgrading from 10G to 100G, which could present issues to be solved (e.g. needing more ports and/or adjusting port fees). The impending launch of various new streaming services will be interesting for the industry as a whole, but could result in new content participants joining MICE, more traffic being moved across MICE, and/or an increased desire for reliability/redundancy/diversity in the MICE core. I believe MICE is well positioned to meet these challenges. -- Richard