On January 24th 2025, the Dutch Magento association of Mage-OS Nederland held its annual member meeting. And during that meeting, I resigned as a president (and Sander de Graaf resigned as secretary). Here is why.
The associations history
The association Mage-OS Nederland was founded in 2022 (more or less) to facilitate the Dutch Magento community (after empty COVID years). Sander de Graaf and I started talking at first, Jeroen Boersma (currently the treasurer of Mage-OS NL) joined us soon afterwards. We then decided to refresh the community by founding an association.
Three more people joined early discussions on this association: Willem Wigman of Hyvä, Peter Jaap Blaakmeer of Elgentos, Sanne Bolkenstein. In 2023, we actually registered the new association. At that moment, Willem and Peter Jaap stepped away from board positions and their seats were occupied by Michiel Gerritsen, Core de Reeper and Roland Haselager. The first board counted 7 people (Sandeer, Jeroen, Sanne, Michiel, Core, Roland and me). And all was good.
In 2024, Core, Roland and Michiel stepped down. Karlijn Löwik and Tabitha Karta joined. And all was good.
And then I resigned
So when should a president (and a secretary) resign? When things are healthy or when things are bad? Currently, the association is in a very healthy state - members are involved, the board is active, events are being organized frequently, the energy is right. Instead of waiting for other times, Sander de Graaf (at that moment, secretary) and myself (at that moment, president) had talks about our role in the board and we decided that this was the right moment to step down and hand-over power to others instead. This way the free nature of the association could be guaranteed.
My sister once taught me a lesson on leaving early. It actually applied to nightlife and parties that kept on going until the next morning. She said, the best thing you can do is leave when the party is still fun. At some moment, energy is going to drain. And of course, those who party hardest will remain. But at that moment, or actually right before that moment, you could also decide to go home. You will have had a great time. And an additional bonus is that you still feel ok the next day.
My reasons
So, I resigned first of all because I felt that the association was healthy enough to hand over to others. I have/had the energy to keep on going for many years and my heart lies with this community, so I was somewhere still eager to maintain my position. But that's actually the argument to leave: A community should not be focused on just a few individuals, the common goal is more important. In the past, Dutchento was sometimes pointed towards as "the same individuals for many years". And if you remain in your seat, strongly positioned, then nobody else will get a chance to have a seat.
The pac-man rule applies here as well. If you don't know this, the 80s game figure is used to refer to a group of people, for instance standing around a table, leaving room for one or two more people to join casually (the mouth of the pac-man). In the same way, the Mage-OS Nederland felt closed for newcomers as long as the same board members would remain for years.
So after 3 years of good fun, Sander and I stepped up and left our seat for others. Sanne Bolkenstein took up the role of president, Tabitha Karta the role of secretary. And two others - Marloes Noortman and Daniel Hukkelhoven - joined. It works.
Rough years
An additional reason was that I had a rough year (2024). My second child (a son) was bord (hurray), my dad suddenly passed away (boo) and my wife and daughter got hit by a car (wtf). We are doing ok now and enjoy life again in full. But somewhere I have the feeling that I wanted things to be more relaxed last year. Focus more upon family, focus more upon fun things. That's what I want to do in 2025. And even though Mage-OS Nederland was lots of fun, it formed also one more thing on my todo list. By resigning, I don't have to worry about the association anymore.
This year will be rough too - correction, it will be fun with lots of rough edges: LokiCheckout, MageUnconference NL, hackathons, meetups, webinars. And I'm still involved with Mage-OS Nederland in plenty of ways, starting with an event committee and possibly other things.
The community is where my heart lies. And for the Dutch Magento community, this is Mage-OS Nederland!
About the author
Jisse Reitsma is the founder of Yireo, extension developer, developer trainer and 3x Magento Master. His passion is for technology and open source. And he loves talking as well.
