Mac Admins Foundation Update, November 2022

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As the Northern Hemisphere’s Autumn arrives, my mind turns to my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. A big table, as many people as we can fit around it, and everyone has brought something to share with their family and friends. As we prepare to set our own table this year, I want to reflect on the state of the Mac Admins Foundation, share some news about our current moment, and of our future plans.

There are five things we want to share as a board with the broader community:

  1. The Future of the Community is Bright.

    In 2022, we launched this Foundation, secured anchor sponsorships from eight major organizations, including our partnership with Apple, as well as seven supporting organizations. This prepares the way for a broad set of programs going forward.

    Over the summer, we conducted our first conversations with Slack to pay for our large community instance of Slack, and ensure that we have the ability to continue that process going forward. We are paid up with Slack through the end of July 2023, and have started to make the necessary connections and alliances with our friends at Slack to make a longer term arrangement beginning in Summer 2023.

    The values and intents of the Foundation were strongly received by all the organizations that we spoke with this Spring and Summer, and we are honored to have the trust of our large donors, as well as the thousands of members of the Foundation who have supported us through direct giving, workplace donations with matching funds, and the purchase of Foundation swag, including the very popular Voiceover shirt that we released this summer.

  2. Our Leadership is Expanding

    In the next week or two, we will be introducing new members of the Foundation Board to the community. We had more than 45 people apply to a position with just a few openings, and we had to make a lot of hard decisions early, and harder ones still await. The one thing I can say universally: we have an incredibly talented and generous community who want to work hard for all Mac Admins who are out there today, and those who are just coming into the profession, and those who will come to the community in times to come. These new board members will allow us to build our operating cadence, communicate more effectively with the community, and structure our future development.

  3. Training Scholarship Programs will launch in December

    When the Foundation launched in May, it was to provide a certification exam scholarship program for Apple’s new training exams. The ink wasn’t yet dry on our documents, and approvals were still forthcoming for a number of our programs. But sometimes you launch without all the pieces in order, and you have to assemble some things in the time to follow.

    Through our relationship with Apple and Pearson, we will have 400 exam vouchers for the new Apple certifications. We’ve identified a large number of candidates, and we will begin distributing the vouchers in the coming weeks. We will be in touch with all the applicants who have filled out both sets of communications with the Foundation, and we will start distribution of exam vouchers shortly thereafter. We’re excited to welcome all of these newly certified members of our community!

  4. Conference Scholarships Program will launch in Spring 2023

    As we return to conferences in person, the Mac Admins Foundation will launch a scholarship program to encourage conference attendance and new speakers at Mac Admins conferences all over the world. These conferences represent a chance for new voices in our community, as well as a way to democratize access to the best learning materials available in the community: the skills of other Mac Admins.

  5. We Hear You and You’ll Hear More From Us in 2023

    In talking with community members, board applicants, and our sponsors, we’ve heard a clear refrain from all involved: “We need to hear more about what the Foundation is doing!” We agree. Part of our increased capacity from the board is going to move these kinds of communications to a more frequent cadence.

    Please know that all board members’ Slack DMs and emails are open to hear from you, our membership, on what you like and don’t like, what you want and don’t want, as we build the future of our community together. No community can be built from silence.

We would like to thank all of our amazing anchor sponsors—Jamf, JumpCloud, Kandji, Kolide, Meta, Mosyle, and SimpleMDM, as well as our supporting sponsors, Alectrona, Bootstrappers.mn, HCS Technology Group, Mac Admins Podcast, PDQ, Rocketman, and Second Son Consulting. We wouldn’t be here without their community support. By providing resources, people, connections, and funds, they have helped secure the future of our community, and we will be forever grateful to them.

I save my heartiest thanks, though, for all the members of our Mac Admin community all over the world. Your generosity of spirit and action are on display in our community every day. You share knowledge and skills, effort and tools, and the community is stronger for your spirit of sharing and engagement, for your labors of love in bringing us all together.

On behalf of a grateful board of directors, Happy Thanksgiving, for I am thankful for you all.

Tom Bridge,
Co-Chair, Mac Admins Foundation