Nexthink joins Major Sponsors of the Mac Admins Foundation

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The Mac Admins Foundation is proud to announce a significant new sponsorship from Nexthink. As the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting professionals who manage Apple products in the workplace, the Mac Admins Foundation is happy to be working with a global leader in digital employee experience (DEX) management.

Nexthink joins industry leaders in supporting the community of professionals who manage Apple devices at all scales. With a strong emphasis on enhancing digital employee experience, Nexthink’s innovative solutions provide comprehensive insights and proactive management tools that significantly improve the macOS end user experience.

The Mac Admins Foundation plays a pivotal role in promoting collaboration, knowledge sharing, and professional development within the Mac Admins community. It manages the popular Mac Admins Slack workspace, which serves over 68,000 Apple-focused IT professionals (by) offering a platform to collaborate and exchange best practices. Additionally, the Foundation provides training scholarships and Community & Conference Grants, supporting everyone from new workforce entrants to seasoned professionals aiming to advance their careers.

"We are delighted that Nexthink has chosen to support the Mac Admins community," said Tom Bridge, Co-Chair of the Mac Admins Foundation. "This generous sponsorship will enable us to further our mission of fostering community development, providing grants, and supporting the training of new Mac Admins. We are committed to being responsible stewards of Nexthink's trust and contribution."

“Nexthink is thrilled to support the Mac Admins Foundation,” said Yassine Zaied, Chief Marketing and Strategy Office at Nexthink. “We believe this partnership will continue to strengthen our customers’ ability to use our software to uplevel the conversation around IT from operational to a strategic. With our advanced analytics, real-time monitoring, and automation, Nexthink empowers macOS admins to optimize performance, proactively resolve issues, and ensure a secure and efficient macOS environment.” 

For more information, visit www.nexthink.com.

Apply Now: 2024 Community and Conference Grant for MacAdmins at Penn State

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In response to the success and popularity of 2023’s Community and Conference Grant program, The Mac Admins Foundation is pleased to continue the program with our second grant of 2024, supporting attendance of the MacAdmins Conference at Penn State University.

The Community and Conference Grant intends to broaden the experience of deserving individuals with the intent to foster their development as a new generation of technical professionals. 

The 2024 MacAdmins Conference grant will provide recipients with:

  • Registration for the MacAdmins Conference at the Penn Stater Conference Center and Hotel in State College, PA, scheduled for July 9-12th, 2024

  • $2500 (USD) to cover applicable expenses

The Mac Admins Foundation desires that the grant be awarded to those individuals who have financial need, or may otherwise lack the means or opportunity to attend an event of this type. Therefore, grant program applicants should self identify with one or more of the following criteria:

  • You are early in, or starting, your career in technology

  • You have not previously been able to attend an event or conference of this type

  • You are currently unable to self-fund, or secure institutional funding for event attendance

The Community and Conference Grant does not require formal submission of work or financial credentials. As with our previous 2024 grant, the Foundation designed the program to support individuals who are passionate about advancing their technical skills and knowledge, and who would benefit from the opportunity to connect with experts and leaders in the field. 

To apply, interested candidates must submit an application that includes responses to several questions related to their experience and goals in the technical field.

Applications will be reviewed by the grant committee, who will evaluate each response based on factors such as relevance, depth, clarity, specificity, and originality.

We encourage all interested individuals to apply for this scholarship and to share this opportunity with others who may be interested. The deadline for applications is 5pm PST on Friday, May 10th 2024, and successful applicants will be notified on or about Monday, May 13th, 2024.

Please contact the Mac Admins Foundation at scholarships@macadmins.org or #macadminsfoundation with any questions.


A Special Announcement, and a Special Thanks

On the occasion of Sabrina Coy’s departure from the Mac Admins Foundation Board of Directors, the Board offers its heartfelt appreciation for her outstanding service to the Mac Admins community in the founding and guidance of both the Mac Admins Slack and the Mac Admins Foundation.

Back in the day, Mac Admins kept in touch via a variety of social media and technology tools. Some of us relied on email, some on IRC, some used Twitter – it was common to introduce ourselves in person using names and Twitter handles. Conferences allowed us to meet face-to-face, and to begin professional relationships and personal friendships that would build careers and lives out of the challenges and absurdities of Managing Macs. But conferrences ended, shortening our conversations.

Such was the state of affairs in May 2015, when Sabrina Coy and a compatriot signed onto a new service called “Slack” and changed our Mac Admins world. Sabrina and her compatriot named the instance “Mac Admins” and started posting about it on Twitter. It wasn’t long before curiosity kicked in:

Bri Coy reacts to the first users joining the Mac Admins Slack in May 2015.

Two users turned into a dozen, a dozen turned into 50, and within weeks the Mac Admins Slack numbered nearly 100 users. During the 2015 summer conference session the numbers began climbing steadily, then rocketed upward, and by the time of our first analytics report in June of 2016, the number of active accounts in the instance exceeded 5,000.

Through it all – growth of the user base, creation of a Code of Conduct and admin team, promotion of the instance to include unlimited scrollback and history, and conflicts that inevitably occur in a growing community – Sabrina stayed in the middle of the fray, guiding the Slack’s growth and molding its values to embody community and inclusivity for all.

When it became clear that maintaining the Slack instance would require funding, Sabrina joined the ad hoc group that produced the Mac Admins Foundation, driving a plan to form a non-profit that would transform the Mac Admins Slack into a community that stands on its own, beholden only to itself, and which as of today boasts in excess of 65,000 accounts.

After more than 8 years of continuous work, Sabrina spent December and January handing over the keys to the Slack instance, and working with the Board to ensure that responsibility for the community would not remain with any single individual.

In summary, not only would this community not be what it is without Sabrina’s efforts, it simply would not exist. We can not thank her enough for what she has done, but we make it our mission to live up to her example.

On behalf of a grateful community: thank you, Sabrina, for everything.