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[not-VAC] Burning out, reassessing Debian priorities



[-private notice: this message is Cc'd and Bcc'd to a bunch of public lists;
Reply-To and Mail-Followup-To are set; **Please be mindful of others, and avoid
cross-posting replies.**]

*deep breath*
*finally presses send*

Dear all,

Over the years I've ended up getting involved in more and more areas of Debian:
Mentors infra, Outreach, packaging in various teams, DebConf Video, Debian
France board, DebConf orga and infra, merchandising, logistics for booths at
events, ...

I've also taken on responsibilities in other not-completely-Debian-related
projects, either by genuine interest or by ending up being the last volunteer
on stuff that I would have ended up doing anyway.

I feel incredibly lucky that my dayjob is with an amazing team, working on free
software to advance the common good (through software preservation), with a
management team that's acutely aware of how volunteer-driven projects work, and
of how dependent the project is on the volunteer work we're all doing together.

Some of these Debian responsibilities I have passed on to other people;
However, over the past few weeks (months? it makes me sick just to start
counting), I'm realizing that I'm still doing *way* too much, and that a lot of
things are not fun any longer. This has culminated two weeks ago, where I just
felt I had no choice but to completely disconnect from everything. It's pretty
clear to everyone else that I'm burnt out, and I think it finally has become
clear to me. I need to make space in my head for things that are fun to me.

Effective immediately, I'm stepping down of most of my duties in the DebConf
orga team:
 - DebConf bursaries team
 - DebConf 19 team mentoring
 - DebConf infra / website

I'm happy to stay involved in the DebConf Video Team.

I will be stepping down as president of Debian France during the 2019 AGM,
which needs to be organised over the month of March. I'll probably stand for the
board again, as I'd be happy to keep helping (e.g. with accounting and event
logistics).

I'll keep doing the small amount of packaging work I'm still doing, I do most
of it for work during work hours anyway; I'm already on LowNMU and LowAdoption
and these things stand as they are, feel free to step up and take care of any
of these packages.

I'm not disappearing, and I'm around to perform any transition actions (e.g.
granting people access to stuff, asking for email alias updates, etc.) so that
the work can keep happening. I'm also around to answer questions. I just need
to take some time out of the critical path of things to recover.

Finally, I'm leaving some old IRC channels behind; If I've left, it's probably
expected. You can feel free to (gently) nudge me in private if you have to ask
me something (and please do ping me again after a few days if I'm really in
your way and I don't reply).

I still need to assess what I'm going to do about other orgs (Bcc'd on this
mail), but Debian is a huge part of me, and this feels like a good start.

I want to offer my most sincere apologies to the people I'm letting down, and
for any stuff that I've let go past me to the point it affected you. I hope you
all will understand, and if anything, I hope this helps you realize burn out is
happening to you before it's too late. There's a good chance the world will
keep on spinning.

Lots of <3,
-- 
Nicolas Dandrimont

BOFH excuse #323:
Your processor has processed too many instructions.  Turn it off immediately,
do not type any commands!!

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