Blog It Forward – Audrey Stevenson, 7 years later

Wow, rereading my old BIF post from 7 years ago (!) I see that many things have changed since then, so I am glad that Svea Becker called on me to post a BIF in her recent post.

To begin with, although I’m still on the community team, I no longer work on the community homepage, the BPX newsletter, or the space overview page guidelines. My, how things change! My role in the community team has definitely undergone transformation, as has the community itself.

In 2013 I began working with Laure C. (and later Caroleigh Deneen) to create and run the SAP Community reputation and gamification program. We rolled out missions and badges the first time in April of 2013, on what was then SCN. When we moved to the new platform and became SAP Community, we first launched karma credits in the Q&A system, and then in 2018 we brought missions and badges back to community. I continue to be the program manager for reputation and recognition in the SAP Community, where I strive (together with Caroleigh) to bring challenging and fun motivation to you: our members.

Things that haven’t changed: I still ride a BMW R1150RT motorcycle (the same one), and I’m still married to my fellow-motorcycle-rider husband, who is still the #besthubbyever (he recently turned one of the two taps on his new kegerator into a sparkling water tap for me–talk about dedication!).

We still have chickens (12 currently), but they now live in a fabulous new chicken coop that my hubby built, complete with a solar-powered, automated coop door that lets the hens out in the morning and locks them up at night, to protect them from predators. And we still get the most amazing, colorful, tasty eggs from them.

And in the years between the last BIF and now, my husband and I also became foster parents, twice! Both foster children have since moved out of our home; one was reunited with his family, and the other moved out to start junior college. Being a foster parent is one of the most challenging things I have ever done, but also incredibly rewarding.

Now, let’s see about those questions that Svea asked:

If you were 20 again, what would you study?

This one is so easy for me now; I wish I had known this when I was actually 20, because back then I had no idea what to do with my life. With hindsight comes clarity: I would have studied psychology and continued on to get a Master’s Degree in Social Work. The U.S. desperately needs social workers and people in that field who can help the many, many children who have to be taken into protective custody and are in our foster care system.

Share a fun fact/story about yourself that people don’t know

Well, I don’t think I can top the fun fact from my previous BIF (the one about how and where I got married). But another fun fact is that, despite being half-German, I don’t drink beer. I truly dislike the taste. My husband, who is a homebrewer, finds this to be both a shame (after all, I can’t rave about his latest pumpkin ale or Hefeweizen) and a boon (you know, more for him!). Other friends just look at me funny when I order a glass of wine when we’re out at a brewpub.

If you could be a super hero (or are in your spare time) who would you be?

I would be Rescue-Them-All Woman, because I’d want to rescue all of the children who are in unfortunate circumstances (and probably all animals too) and use my super powers to make them safe and happy.

If you were given by your work a full day every week to do whatever you feel like, what would it be?

READ. READ. READ. Both work-related books and non-work books. I never seem to manage to squeeze in enough time to read.

Do you do sports and if yes, what are you doing? Regularly?

Is motorcycling considered a sport? Hmm, probably not, since I don’t race. OK, the only thing I do that comes close to sport is walking, which I try to do daily. I very much admire people like Svea who have so much focus and dedication to exercise!

That’s all for the questions, now let’s see who’s next.

I would like to blog it forward to the following people. Hopefully they can find time in their schedules to squeeze in a little (more) writing:

• Veselina Peykova
• Caroleigh Deneen
• Bärbel Winkler
• Jerry Janda
• Gabriella Gogl-Gyorgy

The questions I would love them to answer (along with any others they choose themselves):

1. How did you wind up working at SAP or working in the SAP ecosystem?
2. What do you enjoy most in your work and why?
3. What do you like to do in your spare time? OR Share a fun fact/story about yourself that people don’t know

And there you have it: my #BIF is done.

Oh, one last thing, just for fun. A photo of me and my wonderful colleague, Katarina Nonhebel, taken at SAP TechEd Las Vegas 2019.