Dear Gosh ,
I have been doing a lot of thinking over the last few weeks. My job at the university is ending soon after a spate of grant rejections, I find that I don’t have the fight in me to keep applying for funding to stay in academia. I need to do some soul searching and work out what I want to do with my life.
The most wonderful thing about GOSH is you don’t need to be an academic to be in GOSH. For me, however, my fight for open science and open science hardware went hand-in-hand with my identity as a scientist. Currently I am too burned out to even see myself as a scientist and the fight is no longer in me. I do not feel I have it in me to continue on the council, (I will also step down from the GOSH Inc. board once a suitable candidate has been selected). It seems now is an appropriate time to step down as an extra seat will be vacant at the time of the election results.
I have valued my time serving the GOSH community. I have made such great friends in the community and have always been honoured to have been elected. I am not leaving the community, but I need to stand back from the vanguard especially while I find employment and get my life back under control. I will probably not make it to Panama either, which is a great shame.
Thank you everyone for your trust. Sorry I could not see out my term.
Julian