I can’t believe I’ve had the honor and the privilege to recognize
25 Members of the Month since I joined SAP’s Community Experience team in July of 2014. Time flies!
I've enjoyed every interview and write-up, so it's with mixed emotions that I announce that we are transitioning responsibility for the program to
jerry.janda. Jerry joined the community team a few months ago, and has been with SAP for nearly 15 years. He's a communications specialist, (not to mention screen writer and filmmaker) so he's a great fit for this program, and I'm sure he is going to do a great job. Watch the video to meet Jerry and hear more!
As Jerry will be making his first selection for September soon, we thought this would also be a great opportunity to reiterate the program goals, selection criteria, and share a fun retrospective on the program.
Member of the Month Program Goals
The program was launched to recognize outstanding community engagement on SCN. We use it to say thank members for quality contributions and let other members know they are outstanding community citizens. In addition, the program encourages quality contributions among members striving to achieve it.
Selection Criteria
Selection is a subjective process, but based on strong guiding principles. Selected members have a lot in common, including:
- Knowledge sharing spirit
- Showing care of the community by taking on support activities and weighing in on community topics
- Encouraging others to participate and being respectful
- Making steady contributions over time
- Willingness to help others
- Broad contributions across topics and content types, and engagement with a broad member base
Participating in SAP events, like SAP InsideTrack to make them more successful also helps, and as a global community, we also keep diversity in mind. We accept and vet all nominations with our moderators and space editors and we welcome nominations from anyone in the community for consideration.
I think one point of confusion has been that recognition is targeted at up-and-coming members, meaning Mentors, Topic Leaders and SAP employees aren’t eligible. (There have been rare exceptions, and we do make a standing exception for employees every December.)
A Look Back
The Member of the Month program was launched by
jeanne.carboni in 2012, with
laure.cetin managing the first two years of the program. Since the program launch, a total of 54 members have been recognized. You can find the full list of recognized members in our illustrious
SCN Member of The Month Hall of Fame.
Members from 21 counties have been recognized, with the United States, India and Australia being the most popular places our MoMs call home.
16 have gone on to become
SCN Moderators, 19 have gone on to become
SAP Mentors, and 23 have further been recognized as
SCN Topic Leaders. Members of the Month have a diverse range of expertise, with expert contributions in more than 50 spaces. ABAP, SAP for Mobile, NetWeaver Enterprise Portal, SAP Solution Manager have been their most popular topics.
We've recognized 9 women and 45 men. While this 20% ratio is close to the reported
international averages of women in the IT workforce (16-26%), I would like to see this ratio continue to grow in the future. I have noticed several promising candidates that I have happily shared with Jerry.
In closing, I would like to say thank you to all of the 25 members of the month I have had the pleasure to personally interview. I am so impressed by your modesty, generosity, and smarts, and enjoyed getting to know you all a little better during our talks. And I know I speak for the whole community when I say thank you to all of our Members of the Month for your contributions, which are so very valued and appreciated!
By the way, I'm not going far, and will continue to be involved in the community's recognition and gamification program.